The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 21, 1930, Page 1

The Young Workers Especially Suffer as a Result of Unemployment and Capitalist Ra- Join Your Adult Brothers in the Fight for “Work Demonstrate March 6! tionalization. Young Workers! or. Wages.” Entered as secon matter at the lost Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of ADorker Mareb 3, 1879. FINAL CITY EDITION Vol. VI, No. 300 Company, Inc. Published daily except Sunday by The Comprodaily Publishing —@@>,, 26-28 Union Square, New York City, N. ¥. NEW YORK, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21, 1930 SUBSCRIPTION BATES: In New York by mail, $3.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail $6.00 per year. Price 3 Cent | Only By Struggle Can Workers Win! Social Insurance in Capitalist America and Under Soviet Rule The economic crisis has had the effect of sharply clarifying the immediate perspective of the working class. Large sections of workers have been made to-understand that the most militant struggle will be necessary to fight for adequate social insurance. Millions upon mil- lions are learning from the most bitter experience that capitalism has | placed before them the alternative of accepting permanent unemploy- ment, starvation, lasting wage-cuts and still lower standards of living or of waging a merciless struggle for immediate improvements in their standard of life. This struggle is effecting and drawing in all sec- tions of the workin class, skilled and unskilled, women and youth. At the same time. that millions of workers are faced with the pros- pect.of permanent unemployment, the capitalist state has answered their. movements for relief with the most violent suppression. The Wall Sreet Government, after returning $160,000,000 in income taxes to the bosses, told the millions of unemployed workers that it would not contribute a single penny towards relief. The old age pension bills before a number of state legislatures are the rawest mockery of thou- sands upon thousands of workers thrown upon the industrial scrap heap at the age of forty or forty-five. The pension bills submitted to the New York Legislature by the N.Y. Legislative Commission on Old Age Security, created last year, tor example limits old age pensions to applicants of 70 years or over. In addition, those receiving the pensions would have to be residents of the state for the preceding ten years. At the same time, no fixed amount is provided for, with the assurance, however, that the average cost per person would not exceed $242 a year. According to the esti- mates of the N. Y. Commission, there are 350,400 persons in the state over seventy of whom 51,000 require pensions. This was hailed as the “truly American way of providing for the | poor” by State Senator Mastick, one of the sponsors of the N. Y. bills. This is the “truly capitalist” answer to the growing army of workers who are deprived of a means of livelihood—at least twenty or thirty years before the miserable “charity” of the bosses would be doled out to them! Eyen these sham concessions, which are nothing but hypocritical gestures, are being contested by the capitalists of America. be achieved in the United States without the severest class battles on the part of the entire working class. This the working class will learn from is own bitter experience. P. T. Sharman, chairman of the Old Age Annuities’ Committee of the National Civic Federation (of which Matthew Woll is an official), speaking at the annual meet- ing of the open-shop National Association of Manufacturers, spoke in the name of the entire capitalist class when he stated: “I am firmly opposed to State old-age pensions. . . . I am opposed to any kind of law that would in effect promise people the right of an income out of public funds upon condition that they reach a given old age in a specified state of poverty. ... Such a law would lead io widespread pauperism and fraud. . .. We may be driven to the European system of compulsory social insurance, covering sickness, acgidents, invalidity, old age, widows, orphans and unemployment. . .. I don’t be- lieve we want that. I-say that unless we want to go to that extreme, “qwe must’ cut out“all thought of public old-age pensions.” 3 New machinery, vast mergers, “old-age” employment limits are producing an ever growing army of jobless, penniless workers. As long as industry is in the hands of the capitalist class, the march of the machine will mean pauperization for ever increasing sections of the working class. In spite of the mounting productivity of industry, capi- talism is proving its inability’ to feed the workers who have created the vast wealth of the country. The Soviet Union, where the workers have abolished the rule of the capitalists, offers the sharpest contrast to the miserable lot of the working class under capitalism. Unemployment in the Soviet Union is practically solved by the advance of socially owned industry. Social insurance there now covers 11,000,000 workers, while over a million aged and invalid workers are receiving state pensions. The workers “ in the Soviet Union do not wait until they are seventy to receive a pauper’s pittance. All wage earners in the workers’ and farmers’ re- public who are temporarily disabled and physically unfit for work (or in case of severe illness, contagious disease at the home of the worker, or when nursing a sick member of the family), receives full wages. Special provision is made for the care of mothers at childbirth. Factory women get four months leave of absence—two months before and two months after childbirth—with full pay. All other working women receive three months of. leave with pay. In addition, a layette is furnished by the insurance fund, and a special allowance is made for the mother for nine months after the birth of her child, to provide special food and care. The funds for this social insurance in the Soviet Union is pro- vided through monthly payments by all State enterprises, factories and offices alike, and by all private business firms, the average amount being 12% per cent of the monthly payroll. Nothing is taken from wages. Thus, $510,000,000 is collected each year, while the budget for the year ending October 1, 1930, is more than $675,000,000. * In the Soviet Union also, industry is developing rapidly on the basis of the seven and six hour day in connection with the introduc- tion of the continuous working year. At the same time real wages are increased. In every capitalist country, overproduction has resulted in the steepest decline of production and the unemployment of millions of workers, while’ wages are cut. Unemployment is the scourge of capitalist society which is rotting with plenty. Working men and working women as well as the working youth suffer from the most withering and intense speed-up, while constantly being threatened with the nightmare of unemployment, in- security, sickness and hunger. The living example of the Soviet Union will not and cannot be ignored by the toiling masses in America. Workers! The capitalists will not grant you a cent of real social insurance unless’ you' fight for. it! Expose the sham legislation of the’capitalist class which forces-you to starve until you are ready for . the grave and then offers you a penny dole! Build the Communist Party, the Party that led the Russan working class to victory, your Party, into a powerful mass organ of struggle! “ Prepare to win what the Russian workers won by the overthrowal of capitalism ‘and the establishment of a Workers and Farmers Gov- ernment! Employed and unemployed! Unite your forces! Build unemployed Real so- +) cial insurance against unemployment, invalidity, old age, ete. will not | councils. Demand Work or, Wages! ing class solidarity on March 6! Demonstrate in international work- SIGGEST BOSTON DRESS SHOP OUT BOSTON, Mass. Feb, 20.—The cloak and dress strike continues to grow,’ under’ the leadership of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union. Yesterday the biggest dress shop in Boston, Sul & Markowitz, was shut down tight. Tax cloak shops are struck. : s Hundreds of strikers fought mil:- tantly,on the picket line today against the police who tried to stop their, distributing handbills announc- ing the strike, and against some cf the. company union gatigsters bee be in by Schlesinger, of ihe Y LL.G.W., who is here now. SPARTA STRIKERS REJECT FISHWICK BELLEVILLE, Ill, Feb. 20.—The 404.miners on strike at the Sparta mine have answered every attempt of the United Mine Workers offi- cials to split them and drive them back to work with the decision: “We all go back together or no one goes | back.” The company proposes to jrun its mine with only about 80 men, and to discriminate against the Negro workers in selecting those. At the meeting held Monday Ar- thur Herchy, of the National Miners Union spoke together with M. Scherer, of the Workers’ Interna- tional Relief. U.S.BOSSES HEAD ATTACKS © ON SOVIETS (Friends of Soviet Union Mobilize for Defense Fear Five-Year Plan! Pope Wants Private Property Protected BULLETIN. According to capitalist news- | paper dispatches from Moscow, | the Soviet Goyernment has brand- ed as a lie statements of the Jew- ish Telegraph Agency and the chief rabbi of Berlin that a group of Jewish rabbis in the Soviet Union were executed. However, the dispatch quotes the Soviet Government #8 announcing that a group of rabbis at Minsk has been caught’ in flagrant counter revo- lutionary activity and were ar- rested. (Wireless By Inprecorr) BERLIN, Feb. 20.—The Execu-| tive Committee of the Friends of \the Soviet Union decided to indefi- nitely postpone the International Congress which was to open this | week-end, as the furious anti-Soviet campaign that is being conducted by the imperialists through their churches and other propaganda- agencies, demands the presence of all leaders in their respective coun- | tries to organize the workers’ coun- ter-campaign for the defense of the | Soviet Union. meh Same MOSCOW, Feb. 20.—The “Red \ Star” organ of the Red Army fea- tured a cartoon showing a Polish of- ficer, and the pope loading a can- |non trained against the Soviet Union, and credited United States imperialism with leadership in the | Anti-Soviet blog. os oe | Dispatches from all parts of the | world show the growing war threats against the Soviet Union, engineered by the imperialist powers under the leadership of American imperialism. (Continued on Page Three) MURDER PITT CAB PICKET Cop Shoots Worker in Back of Head PITTSBURGH, Pa. Feb. 20.— The Parmalee cab corporation and the police assisting it killed their first man today in the strike of the 1,600 cab drivers. William Dreibold, 24-year-old cab driver, was shot in the back of the head and killed by} Motorcycle Patrolman Harrison, | |Police Commissioner Peter P.| | Walsh, notorious for his strike} breaking activity in the great steel strike, immediately exonerated the! policeman of all blame though the} evidence indicates the worker was killed in cold blood. , Dreibold was not a striker but was formerly an employee of the Yellow Cab Co. He was without work for a long time and was ac- (Continued on Page Three) | 10P.¢, WAGE CUT ROCKFORD PLANT ROCKFORD, Ill, Feb. 20.—Over 400 furniture workers heard Trade Union Unity League Organizer Joe Dallet present fhe T.U.U.L. program for: unemployment Sunday. The workers in the Rockford Re- public Furniture Co. plant veported a 10 per cent wage cut. A meeting of the furniture work- ers again took place Monday. -A committee of 16 workers, represent- ing all departments, was elected to +e | butcher workers than he did in the| |the import of agricultural products|when the needle trades workers | | favored. |of the fascist ring around the So- |to speak at the protest meeting. worldwide unemployment demonstra- Forge Fascist NEEDLE WORKERS Ring Around | Soviet Union USE MEETING VIENNA, Feb. 20.—The Rote | Fahne, central organ of the Commu- | Union Issues Call to nist Party of Austria discloses au} Mass Demonstration agreement made between Mussolini | and chancellor Schober, at the lat-| Tuesday, Feb, 25 ter’s recent visit to Rome, by which i joint steps are to be taken at the Fake Peace Intollerable| League of Nations to secure suppor’ | —- for the formation of a fascist militia © ~ of! in Austria so that Schober will be Demand 40 HourWeek; | in a position to still more effectively) Smash Out Gorillas June, 1927 rising when he was police; Webster Hall was packed to the president of Vienna. \eeiling, seats full, aisles full, lobby Schober further agreed to hinder | full, and many standing last night | to Austria from Yugoslavia, Italy's rival on the Adriatic, while Polish and Hungarian imports should be This signifies the closing turned out at the call of the Indus- trial Union, in a mobilization for driving -through the organization } campaign. | Particularly did the workers cheer for the program of a mas picket | demonstration of all workers, par- | ticularly needle workers, in the gar- | ment section Tuesday, to fight for | the 40-hour week and to put an end | to the company union — gorilla! | attacks. The workers at the meeting en- thusiastically voted to levy a tax of $10 each on all members to carry through its campaign to organize all needle trades shops. Knowing the union need of money for this work, individuals and whole shop crews at the meeting came up and laid on the platform the amount of | the tax. | viet Union, extending from the Bal- tic to the Black Sea. | JOIN IN DEFENSE OF SOVIET UNION Expose War Threats of Imperialists | Two leading atheist organizations | in the United States, the American | Association for the Advancement of Atheism, and the Freethinkers of America, announced their support to | the meeting called by the Friends} of the Soviet Union, for Sunday afternoon, March 16, to expose the| war preparations of the imperialist powers against the Workers Repub- | lie, | The meeting which will be held| at the Bronx Coliseum, 177th St. ind Bronx River, will be called to mob- ilize support for the Workers Re- public against the growing attacks. led by Américan impérialism. Charles Smith, president of the Association for the Advancement of Atheism, who “a year ago was ar- rested in Arkansas in a fight on the state evolution referendum, and Joseph Lewis, president of the Free- thinkers of America and author of “The Bible Unmasked,” both agreed Call To Action. The workers adopted and the) union is issuing the following state- | ment: “The Needle Trades Workers’ In-| dustrial Union calls on all militant workers, and especially on the nee- | dle trades. workers, to demonstrate | in the garment district on Tuesday, | February 25. “Throughout the entire country (Continued on Page Two) IN COURT TODAY Boss Makes Main Issue on Communism Marine Workers Mass 1, Schwartz & Benjamin shoe Meeting Is Strong fore, injunction hearing is turning| on the question of whether a boss | Industrial Organization | has a legal right to break his con- tract with the union and lock out his workers if some of them are Communists. Schwartz, of the firm of Schwartz & Benjamin, was the only witness | yesterday in the hearing, and will be on the stand today when th trial resumes at 10 a. m., in part 3) of the supreme court, Borough Hall, | Several hundred, mostly unem- | ployed, marine transport workers gathered at the corner of Broad} and South Sts. yesterday afternoon to hear the Marine Workers’ League speaker, B. Brown. Tomorrow, if the weather permits, another similar | meeting will be held, on this or some | ate coe |Brooklyn, before Judge Mitchell Interest of the marine workers | #97: | $| Under cross examination,| | was so great that many not con- nected with the M.W.L. came up to the speaker afterward and askec if he could not be back tomorrow. The speaker stressed the need fer | organization. The M.W.L. has called } a national convention to meet in April in New York, to organize an industrial union of marine workers. The speaker also got good response to his appeal to demonstrate in the Schwartz admitted that he had read | the letter of Commissioner Woods, of the U. S. Department of Labor, urging all shoe bosses to break their contracts with the Independ- dent Shoe Workers Union. Lockouts in 27 shops followed this request of the U. S. government, and the shops had injunctions granted them that were obviously prepared even} before the lockout started. Acted in Closed Season Schwartz’ story was contradic- tory; he first said he discharged a worker who refused to work. Later he said he called a meeting} of the crew in his shop, asked’ them | whether they were Communists, | and they refused to answer, then} held a meeting and refused to work. | The Union will have many wit- | nesses to prove that the bosses in this shop locked out their workers after getting. the U. S. Department tions March 6. Keen and Saul Jailed for Norfolk Leaflets | NORFOLK, Va., Feb. 20.—Joe Keen and |George Saul, southern representative of the International Labor Defense, were arrested here today for distributing handbills calling a meeting. They are charged with vagrancy. STRIKES AGAINST THROWING MATES Must Be Organized in two per cent during January. T! the proportions of 1922. to. Mobilize now for the world on March 6. JOBLESS FIGHT KENOSHA COPS 14 ‘Arve. Prepare for March 6 KENOSHA, Wis., Feb. 20.—It took the whole police force and the fire department to break the mass unemployment demonstration and the march of the jobless workers here today. .Five hundred workers gathered in Library Park, half an hour before Union Unity League speakers ad- dressed the meeting. | When Richard Tresvors, Joe Dal- let, Donald Burke and George Scar- borough were arrested, the unem- | ployed workers marched to the jail and demanded their release. The ‘SHOE LOCK OUT 3 ise meeting was scheduled. Trade workers who demanded the release of the speakers were pinched in front of the jail. Fourteen are now under arrest. The International Defense had the case postponed for a month. The demonstration succeeded in placing the unemployment program of the Trade Union Unity League and the Communist Party before the entire city. Half of the workers in this city are out of work. All the | jobless are talking about the March world demonstrations. The evening before, the T. U. U.. L. held a meeting here. Four hun- dred and fifty workers attend :d. Kjar, Fisher and Dallet spoke. MASS PIGKETING HITS THE MONROE Overwhelm Police; Win at Grand Concourse BULLETIN. A general fraction meeting of all members of the Communist Party who are food workers will be held at 8 p. m. today, at 16 W. 21st St. Bakers, grocery clerks, waiters and all other crafts will discuss important common prob- lems. * * * The organization drive of the Ho- ais See of Labor letter, but that they | tel, Restaurant and Cafeteria Work- TO ELECTROCUTE THREE AU-}waited until the busy season was|ers Union is developing with ever- BURN RIOTERS. over. increasing militancy and determina- SING SING PRISON, N. Y., Feb.; All workers in this shop and shop} 19.—Three Auburn prisoners who led the revolt last December, Ciaude Udwin, William Force and Jesse Thompson, are lodged in the de+th house and will be burned to death prepare for a strike. by the capitalist executioner. chairmen in all striking shops were urged by the union to appear in |court tolay at 10 a. m. and the locked-out Schwartz & Benjamin tion. Yesterday over 1,000 workers demonstrated at the Monroe Cafe- teria_on 35th St. where the union has. called a strike. Hundreds of workers eating there left in disgust workers should bring with them ‘their weekly salary books. when they saw the picket demon- (Continued on Page Two) 7 The Mexican Section of the Inter-| Union which was executed under or- national Labor Defense has issued! ders from Washington. This event the following statement on the grow-/ does not only signify a congolidation ing fascist attacks on the revolution-| of the international anti-Soviet bloc ary workers and peasants movement) but also an intensification of re- in Mexico, carried on by the Ortiz| action against the Mexican working Rubio government, which on orders | class. from Wall Street, broke relations | “The attempt of Daniel Flores, with the Soviet Union: (a fanatic-religious youth fool of the “There. has already been much} counter-revolutionary bloc) to kill publicity on the break-up of diplo-| Ortiz Rubio has only served to give ican government and the Sovict , further persecute the revolutionary working class movement. “The miltary authorities had re- ceived orders to stage a fake plot and to arrest all known Communists. News leaking out from official sources give a himt that the attempt hee Rubio’s life was prepared by ele- ments very close and ambitious’ to succeed him at the Mexican’s White House. “Several Vasconcelistas arrested |freed. The sensational headlines and FIGHT THE GROWING MEXICAN FASCIST TERROR The Wall Street-Rubio Government Backs the Imbertalists Threats on U.S.S.R, articles on the daily press were fol- lowed by a period of complete silence which was broken only by medical bulletins on the president’s health The military authorities continued their ‘investigation’ in complete si- lence, even refusing to deliver to the civil authorities charged with the trial, the documents collected during the course of investigations. Portes Gil, the cossack minister has not matie relations between the Mex-|the government a new pretext to | following the attempt, were readily | said’ a word yet, legalizing by his (Continued on Page Three.) The 7,000,000 unemployed ar Unemployed Councils The Department of Labor admitted that employment dropped his brings the jobless army up to being added demonstration for work or wages WOMEN MOBILIZE FOR UNEMPLOYED iCall, Conference for | Saturday | The conference on International Women’s Day called by the New York District of the Communist Party for tomorrow (Saturday) at 2 p. m. in thé Workers’ Center, 26 Union Square, will also make plans for mobilizing the women. workers of this city for the struggle against unemployment and the huge unem- ployment demonstration on March 6. | Tens of thousands of women work- jers in New York City are walking the streets hunting for jobs, while many thousands-of working-class |housewives shiver with their starv- jing children in wretched houses, crowd swelled to 800. Ten of the|While their husbands tramp the | The Communist | streets in vain. Party aims to rally these proletarian women in a joint struggle with the men against the mass starvation that faces them and to make the |International Women’s Day celebra- ition, March 8, a tremendous protest |against unemployment. | The celebration will take place |Saturday, March 8, at 8 p. m., in \Irving Plaza, 15th St. and Irving | Place. | ‘Death Penalty Ready | for 13 Communists in Fascist Special Court ROME, Italy, Feb. 20,—Seven members of the Slovene Communist |Party face death when they go on |trial before the “Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State” within |a week: It is one of Mussolini’s fictions that there are no death pen- alties in Italy, but this court is particularly exempted from |death. With the seven will be tried \six who have not been caught yet. They can then be shot without trial on arrest. The Communists are charged with membership in the party, with hay- ing arms and ammunition, and with |plans to resist the fascist militia. With them will be tried seven members of a Jugoslav nationalist organization. 1,500 Boston Road to |Build Their New Union Disgusted with the long hours, that | law, and almost always sentences to | ‘Painters Meet Tonight; INTO UNEMPLOYMENT, IN ILLINOIS MINES AND EUROPEAN METAL WORK* West Frankfort Miners in Class Solidarity Fight; Czech Metal Work- ers Strike at Dismissals; Jobless Begin Fight in Washington, D. C. Police Assault Buffalo Demonstration; 3,000 Answer Call of T. U. U. L at Akron; Everywhere the Unemployed Battle for ‘Work or Wages’ WEST FRANKFORT, I. Feb. 20.—Four hundred mir ers at the West Mine here hav struck against the discharge o° twenty-six miners when ney machines were _ introducec Committees are being sent t ' Pinckneyville and Sesser mine owned by the same company ito spread the strike. This strike is a splendid exampl of correct class policy of the em ployed in struggle against unem ployment, against the speed-up an discharge of workers into the un employed army. Also, the miners’ local union in volved stopped paying dues to eithe the Lewis gang or the Fishwicl clique. At Coello, Illinois, the Zeigle: | Mine No. 2, and the Old Ben No |18 are closed down, with 2,000 morc miners thrown into the ranks 0! the unemployed, but the strike pol: icy of the miners against dismissals jis the correct fighting line advo- |cated by the National Miners’ Union jand the Trade Union Unity League. ee (Wireless By Inprecorr) PRAGUE, Czecho-Slovakia, Feb. 20.—Seven hundred workers of the Mannesmann Engineering Works at | Komotau, are striking against the dismissal of part of the workers. At Bruenn, the police prohibited all demonstrations of the workers, and attacked an unemployed demon- stration yesterday, but managed to break it up only after a fight in which several were injured. Be le Under Hoover's Nose. WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 20. —A street meeting demonstration |here arranged by the Council of |Unemployed yesterday, was at- jtacked by police and eight workers jarrested after distinct resistance was shown by the crowd. Among jthe arrested were Comrades Har- | Per, southern organizer of the In- |ternational Labor Defense, Carter, |the Chairman |of the Unemployed | Council, and Lawrence, section or- |ganizer of the Communist Party. | Immediate meetings of protest are arranged and the Unemployed | (Continued on Page Three) TUUL CALLS ALL TO DEMONSTRATE Workers and Jobless to | Unite for Struggle The Trade Union Unity League, | the American section of the Red In- ternational of Labor Unions, and | the new, militant trade union center lin U. S. organized at Cleveland last | year, has called on all its member unions and all workers, organized ‘and unorganized, to demonstrate | against unemployment on March 6. The call states: | “Over 6,000,000 workers are walk- ing the streets looking for jobs as a result of the economic crisis in | the United States. “The ‘Economic Council’ formed by Hoover, is in reality a War Coun- ceil‘ directed against the working masses. Hoover's ‘plan’ to overcome this crisis is a plan to further en- vieh the capitalists and degrade the |low wages, unemployment, unsani-| working masses. This ‘plan’ is tary conditions, and the treachery | cloaked with phrases of ‘class peace,’ jof the A.F.L. officials, the painters | of relief for unemployed, for con- ‘are meeting tonight to push the tinued “prosperity,” and is intend- | building of a new and militant union | ed to create new illusions among the that will fight for their interests, The meeting is at 1400 Boston Rd., Bronx, at 8 p. m. All painters are invited, to meet and help in the fight for the seven-hour five-day week, better working conditions and |real unemployment insurance, as well as a fight against the speed up system. The new union will affili- ate with the Trade Union Unity League. & The painters will meet hereafter every Friday at the above address. 4 RAILROAD FIRES 400. MIDDLETOWN, N. Y., Feb. 20.— The Ontario and Western’ Railroad has just laid off 400 workers. This the shops. Every new Daily Wi you get is a potential ker reader is 75 per cent of the labor force in| arty mem: | gah masses, while the real aim of the | plan is to take advantage of cheap \labor, with war preparations, to lerush strikes and further intensify | rationalization. “In these capitalist attacks the workers will have arrayed against (Continued on Page Three) USSR PILOT FINDS EIELSON BODY. FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Feb. 20.— The body of Carl Eielson, the avia- tor who lost“his bearings and crash- ed in Siberia some months ago, has | been found by a searching party ‘headed by Commander Slipneov, a Soviet Union pilot. PEORIA PRINTERS WIN. PEORIA, TL, Feb. 20,—A $1 raise and a reduction in the working week of two hours, have been won hy Peoria union printers. x