The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 25, 1930, Page 1

‘BAR LABOR JURY AT JOBLESS C ‘Communist Wins Answer the Conspiracy to Railroad the Elected Representatives of the Jobless to Prison by Organizing Unemployed and Employed Workers; Elect Delegates to the March 27 and March 29 Conferences; From Coun- cils of the Unemployed; Build the Militant. Unions and Leagues of the Trade Union Unity League. at Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N.Y. under the uct of March 3. 1879, : ba FINAL CITY EDITION Published daily except Sunday by T Company, Ine. 26-28 Union Sau: po See Vol. VI., No. 327 © rodaily Publishing i> ., York City, N. Y. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1930 Outside SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York by mail, $5.00 per year. New York, by mail §6.00 per year. Price 3 Cents The 7-Hour Day; Its Role in Overcoming Unemployment in the U.S. S. R. **Yn the old Russia, the length of the working day was fixed by law at 11% hours. However, in separate cases a 12-hour day was al- lowed. But in practice the length of the working day was not decided by this law. A great role was played by the degree of organization and solidarity of the working class. The law did not prevent the in- troduction of overtime, and in most provincial factories, the working day was in reality considerably more than 12 hours. Only in the big- gest industrial centers, the average working day on the eve of the war was kept at the level of 10 hours. The workers’ movement set itself the task of bringing about an 8-hour working day. Only the setting up of the dictatorship of the proletariat made it possible to. grant in full this long repeated demand of the working class. One of the first acts of the Soviet Government was to fix the 8-hour working day as the maximum for all toilers, and a reduction to 6 hours for all workers who were occupied in industries’ which were harmful to the health or underground, and likewise for workers who had not reached the age of 18 years. The actual observance of the 8-hour day, the strict limiting of overtime, the introduction of a shortened working day in harmful in- dustries, brought about the result that the actual working day in the industry of the U.S.S.R. (including overtime work) consisted in 1927 of an average of 7 hours 29 minutes. : As is well known, the Soviet Government has not stopped there. Having completed the reconstruction of industry which was destroyed by the wars and intervention, and having started on the complete re- building industry and agriculture on socialist lines, tHe Soviet Go.- ernment, “in accordance with the program of the Communist Party Soviet Union, commenced a further shortening of the working day. Two and a half years ago, a 7-hour working day was decreed in order to mark the tenth anniversary of the Octover Revolution. The 7-hour day was to be introduced gradually. At the present time it will be interesting to examine how far the working class of the U. S. S. R. has actually solved this important problem, which is of tremendots social and cultural importance. The textile industry was the first to pass on to the 7-hour working day. In 1927-28, 24 textile factories with 104,000 workers began to work the 7-hour day. After the textile workers, other branches of industry began to introduce the shortened working day. In 1928-29, 801 factories with 287,000 workers were transferred to the 7-hour day reached. 437,000, in 329 factories and works, including 174 factories On October 1, 1929, the total number of workers on the 7-hour day had in heavy industry. By January ist this year, the number of workers who have passed on to the 7-hour day had grown to 650,000, according to: incomplete data, P : At the end of the current financial year (October ist) the number | of workers in Soviet industry and transport who will be working the T-hour day will be over 1,100,000, not including the office workers of these factories, who will have their working day shortened at the same time as the workers. This number also does not include the workers in the large,number of new works and factories which are being built, and in which according to Soviet law, the 7-hour working day must be introduced from the very commencement. Thus at the end of the years, the number of workers on the 7-hour day will in reality be nearly 1,500,000. The partial introduction of the 7-hour day has already, in the first. months of 1929, reduced the average working day in all Soviet industry to 7 hours 23 minutes. When the 7-hour day is fully in opera- tion, the average working day, if we take’ into consideration the re- duced working day (less than 7 hours), in harmful industries, will be not more than 6 hours 45 minutes. . The introductipn of the shortened working day in the U, S. S. R. has not only not caused a reduction of wages, but on the contrary, { has beén accompanied by a continuous growth of wages. Thus,*for in- stance, the wages of the workers in textile factories, which have been working a 7-hour day since 1928, has increased by 14 to 15 per cent. In a number of factories in the metallurgical, mining and chemical industries, wages increaSed by 4 to 9 per cent after the introduction of the 7-hour day. * * * The introduction of the 7-hour day in Soviet industry is usually accompanied by an improvement in the organization of labor at the factory, an increase in the number of shifts, and ‘a tremendous ja- crease in production. This in turn causes a considerable growth in the number of workers in the 7-hour factories, and consequently the re- duction, and partial or complete liquidation of unempldyment. Thus, for instance when the 7-hour day was introduced in the first 24 textile factories in 1927-28, the increased demand for workers absorbed almost all the unemployed textile workers who were registered at that time in the Jocal labor exchanges. And in some districts,sthe labor ex- changes, having sent the whole of their reserves to the factories, were compelled, so as to satisfy the ever-growing demand of the factories, to commence the rapid preparation of worker cadres from amongst the members of the families of the workers and from the peasants of sur- rounding villages,,;who had never before worked for wages. The following figures give a vivid picture of the role of the 7-hour day in the struggle against unemployment. In 171 factories out of the total of 329 which had passed on the shortened working day before October, 1929, the number of workers increased by 13.9 per cent after the introduction of the 7-hour day (chiefly in heavy industry); in 48 textile “factories, the number of workers increased by 10.9 per cent after the introduction of the 7-hour day; in another 72 factories, the in- crease was 4.5 per cent, and only in 38 factories (out of 329), mostly smal! factories, the number of workers remained unchanged after the introduction of the shortened working day. In some braches of in- dustry, the increase in the number of workers after the introduction of the 7-hour day even increased by 27 per cent compared with the number who were working before the working hours were shortened (e. g. the leather industry). * * . While in all capitalist countries there is going on an actual lengthening of the working day, the working class of the U. 8. S. R. is inflexibly carrying out the shortening of the working day. = The complete introduction of the 7-hour working day in all fac- tories without exception in the U. S. S. R. must be finished by October 1,91988, i, e., by the end of the Five Year program, However, we may confidently say that the ever-growing tempo with which the Five Year Plan-is-being carried out, will make it possible to speed up the com- plete introduction of the 7-hour working day. And _besides this, the successful carrying out of the Five Year Plan of socialist construction will make it possible for the working class of the U. S. S. R. to com- mence ir*the near future a further shortening of working hours, and the introduction of the 6-hour working day. eee ey ema eS Cy ANS SEVEN DIE IN FIRE. in Paris Election (Wireless By Inprecorr) PARIS, March 24.—Jacques Dor- burned to death early yesterday as the two-story wooden house in jot, Communist, candidate, won . which they were trapped burned victory’ in the second: election at|down “in Bayside, Queens, An St. Dennis. The Communist vote|cleven-year old boy was the only was 7,860 against the reactionary) member of the f 4 nt ‘amily to escape. ervdidate who received 7,245 votes. aN Re | | | AM, NEGRO LABOR CONGRESS CALL 'To Be Held in St. Louis ; June 6, 7, 8; Invite All Workers Bodies Fight Discrimination ‘Thousands At Inter- Racial Dances Calling upon all Negro workers’ organizations to sefid delegates to organize and fight against “mass unemployment and starvation, against high rents and evictions of |jobless workers, and against police brutality, lynching, segregation, peonage, Jim-crowism and other manifestations of white-ruling class terrorism,” the American Negro La- bor Congress announces its National |Convention to be held June 6-7-8 in St. Louis. m “Send delegates from your unions, clubs, lodges, ete.,”” says the invita- tion to Negro workers to attend ths convention. “Organize committees jin every shop, on the job, for the ‘election of delegates to this conven- ition.” * * * Support “Liberator” Drive. A drive is now on to make the “Liberator” fighting organ of the ithe Negro workers, into a mass |paper. The goal of the drive is a |10,000 circulation and the collection funds to enlarge the paper and jincrease its distribution among the jbroad masses of Negro workers. All jdonations and subscriptions should (Continued on Page Three) ‘CONVENTION OF Second Int’ Congress ot Friends of Soviet Union: Calls for Defenseof USSR iMunzenberg Hits German Boss Government «For Visa Refusal to Soviet Delegates Issue Appeal to Workers of the World for Fight Against Imperialist War Plans (Wireless By Inprecorr) BERLIN, March 24.—The second congress of the Friends of the So- viet Union opened Thursday. In his speech, Willi Munzenberg, interna- tional secretary of the Friends of the Soviet Union. condemned among other things, the action of the Ger- man government in refusing visas to the delegation to the Congress from the Soviet Union. ° The agenda contains the follow- ing points: 1. Situation of the So- viet Union and the Five-Year Plan; 2. The war danger; 3. Organiza- tional matters. Bell, delegate from Great Britain, declared at the Sunday session that the presént war danger was due first, to the extreme crisis of capi- talism; second, to the rising revo- lutionary wave in the imperialist nations and their colonies; third, be- | progress of Socialist construction. He stated that the present task of the Friends of the Soviet Unién is to organize fighting, not passive, members in the struggle for the defence of the Soviet Union. Edith Rudquist, delegate from the United States, stated that the basis of the organization should be the workers, whereby however, the in- tellectuals should be activized. She demanded uniform organization in- structions to all séctiofis of the Friends of the Soviet Union. She stressed the importance of collective membership. ‘ SOUTH AND NORTH PROTEST GROWS Masses Still Demand For No Railroading (By jal Wire.) An appeal was adopted by the! Congress appealing to the worke of the world to defend the Soviet Union. Delegates were present from France, Germany, Britain, Norway, Denmark Sweden, Finland, Holland, cause the imperialists fear the rapid | Belgium Poland, Austria, Romania. “NO JOBS,” ADMIT BKLYN BOSSES One Builds 3 Closets For Hoover Plan oe Over 50 of the leading bankers 1 MOBILIZING FOR MAY 1 STRUGGLE |Conference April 4 to Demand Use of Streets BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 24.— ‘wo hundréd and fifty workers, two- {thirds of them Negros, attended an enthusiastic masspmeeting of the Trade Union Unity League here this afternoon. After listening to W. W. Lewis, Negro organizer of the Metal | Workers’ Industrial League; J. J. | Giglio, secretary of the Birmingham T. U. U. L., and Tom Johnson, rep- resentative of the Metal Workers’ Industrial League, a resolution was passed unanimously denouncing the brutal police attacks upon the un- employed demonstrations of March 6, and demanding the immediate re- lease of the delegation represent- \ing 100,000 New York workers. r Thirty “workers, mostly Negroes, | j@ined the Metal Workers Indus- tivial League and T. U. U. L. The | |and_ exploiters. of the workers of | Brooklyn met. yesterday. at the 'Chamber of Commiéree headquarters, EXPOSE WHALEN ROTHSTEIN LINK s sevscures eis.2 aes 1 ence, to discuss:unemployment. Eo meee | All the fat, sleek bourgeois pres- 1 + ent admitted that unemployment was |Police Beat Jobless; very severe, but were unanimous | Hobnob With Crooks ‘that a campaign of optimism should | |be inaugurated in order to fool the | Whalen, who was rushed into the/Masses. » Be |job of police commissioner to hide| That Hoover's building program is | the connection between the Tam-|@ complete flop was admitted by | many politicians and gangland, re- | Thomas Holden, civic president of vealed in the Rothstein murder case, the F. W. Dodt Corporation, build- and who has spent most of his tithe ine construction statisticians. “There as chief-cossack attacking workers|have been no results yet from Hoo- organizations and unemployed dem-|Ver’s business council. Some public onstrations ip the interest of the|construction planned two years ago bosses, is again faced with the Roth-|are not under way yet,” he said. stein scandal. Arthur Sommers, the head of a Shades of the Rothstein murder, (Continued on'Enue 2 (00) jwhich is interwoven in the Tam- muiany-Walker-Whalen machine arose | again to plague the chief cossack} | The unsolved Frankie Mar-| | today. | filiated preanizations are ‘electing| at a meeting called by the local | lof the working class for May Day} Peeparations for the May Day |T- U. U. L. and its program were | Conference to be held April 4 at 7| welcomed with tremendous enthu- |p. m. at Manhattan Lyteum are be-| siasm, 5 ing made with great energy. | es oe am The. Trade” Union Unity League| 1,500 Meet in Rochester. has announced. that many of its af-} ROCHESTER, N. Y., March | delegates. All . organizations “Are|council of the unemployed, 1,500 | urged to immediately send’ in cred- | workers gathered yesterday at Con- | entials for delegates to the’May Day| vention. Hall to protest the rail-| Committee, 26 Union Sq. | roading to prison of the delegates The need for greater organization Jof the unemployed in New York. | William Z. Foster, one of the com-} ‘Ready to Start for Tobless’. Conterences While the unemployed councils and local unions in New York push the elections for delegates to the city conference on unemployment, to be held here March 27 in Manhattan | Lyceum, the national office of. the Trade Union Unity League reports new gtoups of delegates elected to the national conference, which will meet in the same hall March 29. It was reported today that a dele- gation of 7 Negro and white workers was ready to,leave Winston-Salem, N. C., and Chattanooga, Tenn. In Washington, D. C. yesterday, the unemployed councils elected a |delegation to the conference. + The Boston delegation of 20 shoe, marine and needle trades workers especially, is being chosen. Phila- | on their election is expected momen- {tarily. From New Bedford andeFall River a strong delegation of textile jworkers and-others is expected. Un- jemployment is particularly bad in |the textile mills. : Word from Chicago is that. the delegation, at first supposed to be 10, will be increased, and will start soon. Delegations are elected or being elected in Minneapolis, Du- luth, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo and many other ¢ities. The draft program for-the unem- ployment conference is about ready, the national office of the T. U. U. L. states. ' delphid has 20, and definite word’ A family of 6 and a boarder were |, low and Hotsy Totsy Club murders, béth of which happéned in Grover! Whalen’s regime as police commis- sioner, were thrown at the Wana- maker exploiters’ head today by former Inspector John D. Coughlin in response to Whalen’s charge that he and former Inspector Arthur Carey “were responsible for the po- lice monkey-business in connection with the Rothstein murder. ee 8 Cop Pickpockets, $273. ATLANTIC, CITY, N. J., Mar. 24.—William Eckbold, a dick in this city, deliberately shoved his hand into Dick Black’s pocket and drew out $273 in cash. The entire “vice- squad” with which Eckbold is con- nected is accused of wholesale brib- ery and graft. fei Suey vis *T'ALK to your fellow worker in your shop about the Daily Worker. . Sell him a copy every day for a week. Then ask him to In the first part of this article the author points out that the postal service in U. S., which em- ploys- 400,000 workers, is one of the lowest paid, and that ration- alization is proceeding here, too, with great speed-up and all sorts of schemes to keep the workers divided. * * * |fighting with the working. class POSTMEN NEED.T.U.U. L. Negro Discrimination in A.F.L. Unions | high, the postal workers used to get TO FREE EISMAN Call on All Workers to Take Up Battle A call to afl workers’ children to fight the freedom of Harry Eis- man, militant mepber of the Young Pioneers, who has been sentenced to five years in a reformatory for staying out of school on March 6 and taking part in the unemployed demonstration at Union Square, was issued by the Young Pioneers of America today. “Five years in prison for a work+ er’s child!” the call states. “Five years in prison for-the. ‘crime’ of against joblessness and starvation. This is the answer of the bosses, their government and the capitalist (Continued on Page Two) category in different branches of industry. The highest wage rate of a postal employee is by $200 a year lower than the minimum amount neéded. by‘an American family, ac- cording to: the living minimum as recognized by the government. Dur- , ing the war, when wages of all categories of workers ranged very “By JAMES W. FORD. PART Il, Lower Wages. according to the wage rates‘of the |year.1900. On the average the wages of the postal workers are by The wages are by about 30 or 40}$52 per month lower than the! per cent lower than those of the| wages of miners, bricklayers, print- average skilled workers! Wages of/ers and metal workers. Wages are the unskilled workers are much / controlled by law. - As arguments was clearly shown’ by Whalen who said he is determined to “handle the (Continued on Page Two) GRUNDY TARIFF PASSED SENATE Contains Provision to | BULLETIN. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 24.—The senate. passed: the tariff bill by a vote of 53 to 31, late this afternoon. It now goes back to | the house, and then to a confer- ence committee for adjustment. s 8 8 WASHINGTON, March 24.— Everything is greased for the final passage of the Smoot-Hawley Wa!l Street tariff bill. That it will pass is a foregone conclusion. The tariff¢bill, which contains a clause against the importation of revolutionary working class litera- ture from eabroad, will be .used to rob the workers still more. Several senators belonging to the fake opposition, expressing the in- terests of the rich farmers and petty bourgeois are now appealing to Hoo- ver to veto or revise the tariff. Hoo- ver, however, will do nothing of éhe kind. , DOUBLE SECRECY AT LONDON MEET War Preparations Be- hind 3-PoWer Pact Tatk LONDON, ' Mar. 24—What is happening here regarding the race- for-armament conference? At the present moment there is no Five- Power conference. There are a lot of secret maneuverings behind | closed doors—veiled in even thicker secrecy than were the bickerings at the official conference itself. | The French delegation is not even| present. Both British and Ameri- chn imperialist spokesmen have de- clared the conference a flop, due to Jower than of workers of this saine | (Continued on Page Three) . ° rs . . the sharpening’ rivalries. semdiate. jmittee, had been scheduled to speak {at this meeting, but was prevented | jby the arrest, and the principal! |speaker was J. W. Ford. Ford told the workers the meaning and rea-| sons of unemployment. | The meeting adopted a resolution | to push the organization work among jobless and employed workers, and | | |representatives of the unemployed. PITTSBURGH, Pa., March 24.—) A mass protest meeting here Satur-| Bar Rebel Writings jday night at Labor Lyceum adopted | * ‘a strong resolution demanding the (Continued on Page Three) ‘ANTISHOLY” WAR John Reed Club, FSU Call for Defense of SU While the united front of reac- tion continues its efforts to incite an imperialist “holy” war against the Soviet Union, the workers of New York will show tonight their determination to defend the first Workers’ Republic when they“gather at 8 o’clock at Central Opera House, 67th Street, near Third Avenue. Arranged by the John Reed Club, (Continued on Page Two) catholic and a member of the Friends of the Soviet Union,” writes one O¥ the readers of the Daily Worker, “I herewith enclose part of our paper published in Ireland in which you will see ‘an open. let- ter addressed to the Lord Primate of all Ireland’ by P. O'Donnell. « “We revolutionaries in Ireland know very well the nefarious game played by the bishops and clergy of Ireland down through the ages, particularly during the last war there in 1922-1923. Where othe clergy played the role of spy agd informer for the British made free state—so-called Junta, It provides plans for the calling | OMMITTEE TRIAL SECRET TRIAL FOR FIVE ELECTED WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES; BOSS COURT DELAYS ONLY TO APRIL 11 Spectators Kept From Court As Authorities Start Jailing Committee of 110,000; Bosses to Hide Raw Details Negro and White Workers United in Birmingham Protest; Shop Meet Denounces Plot Against Jobless Workers; Conference Move Grows ‘JUDGES THREATEN BAN WITNESSES Defense Demand Right to Show Movies Three New York judges in special session court, Part 6, yesterday very grudgingly granted Foster, Minor, Amter, Raymond and Lesten, mem- bers of the committee élected by the | unemployed workers of New York, a postponement until April 11, ta prepare their defense in the prose- cution for voicing the demands of the workers for unemployment in- surance. Meanwhile the Labor Jury, elected by the Trade Union Unity League, was barred from the courtroom by police, Great num- hers of workers tried unsuccessfully to enter the courtrogm in the New York Criminal Courts Building. A mass-protest movement of tens of thousands in many cities against the hundreds of, arrests of workers for participating in unemployment demonstrations in many cities on and before March 6, is developing. The judges in the New York case made the time as short as it was humanly possible, sand some color to the fiction of a “fair trial” in the capitalist court. In the brief session held yesterday | the gctions of the police in exelud- jing the labor jury and other work- jers from the courtroom revealed that it is the intention to try these | delegates elected by the 110,000 who demonstrated in Union Square March 6, in a high-handed manner, | still give . | both. for the immediate release of the | of a great national convention in| with the public barred. A jury trial Chicago in, May, and for, the con-| has already been denied. A strong tinued organization of both jobless | guard of police reinforced the regu- and employed workers, and their | lar court attendants at the doors of full co-operation for demands of |the courtroom, in the basement of the old criminal court building next conditions grow door to the Tombs prison, and ‘hree) |barred not only the labor jury, but @| all others. Only prosecutors, de- fendants,. lawyers, reporters and | those subpoenaed as witness were admitted. The ruling class wants no publicity on this railroading, ex- cept what comes distorted through the bosses’ newspapers. Unemployment (Continued on Page |Rush Elections to Jobless’ Conference; | Bldg. Trades Meet | Secretaries organizations are urged by the Trade Union Unity League to put on the order of business of | their meetings the eléction of] delegates to the city conference) | i Manhattan Lyceum, March “97. | Union Unity League ‘to the ‘sec- retaries, “to represent your or- ganization yourself at this con- ference if you do not have a meeting before the 27th.” There will be meetings of all unemployed councils today. A meeting of all executive committees elected by the coun- cils will be held at headquarters of the unemployed movement, and of the Trade Union Unity, League, at 13, West 17th St., today. A meeting of all employed and unemployed building trades work-@ ers is scheduled for tonight at 8 IgP m. sharp, at 13 West 17th St. ———$$_—$$ $$$ $$$ | $ MEETING TONIGHT, “It is your duty,” says the Trade 5 ‘POPE FOR WAR ON USSR? Letters trot. ssuuwn ana N.Y. Workers “As an Irish revolutionary, a; “Where the clergy-catholié with- jheld absolution from the boys in confession when ‘the latter’ refused to renounce what militant Ireland (you mean the militant: Irish work- ers artd peasants._Ed) always stood for in preference to losing sense of initiative and -manliness. “Considering. the strength of the race here and particularly the role now being played by the pope, etc.,' | a8 a shield for an imperial united! | War against the.Soviet, I hope you | will give this letter the Prominence | it deserves in your widely read Daily Worker and thereby expose the game played by the head of the - Continued on Page Three) | of working-class | | on unemployment, to be held, in! | Demand Entrance. Charles Hope, a Negro laundry worker and foreman of the Labor | Jury nominated by unions and: un- employed councils, elected by 110,000 workers at the mass-protest meet- ing Wednesday, appeared at the | head of the labor jury and demanded entrance, “We were elected to sit in court | and watch this case,” he said to the police lieutenant, “and we intend ;making a report to the thousands of workers and unemployed who are demanding the immediate: release of |their delegation.”, | The police not only barred them from the courtroom, bit ordered them to leave the building. ‘They insisted on their right to be present at the trial, and finally. weré al- jlowed to stay in the hallway, but jnot to come into the courtroom or |listen to the case. Yesterday the jury issued a state- ment, protesting vigorously against the trial in secret, announcing that they would continue their struggle to be present in ‘the courtroom, Get No Public Trial. At 9:50, before the judges ap- |peared, an attendant pounced on the Spectators who had filtered through and chased them from the court room. | “Go on,” they said. “Isn't this the case of Foster, |Minor, Amter? Raymond and. Les- ten?” said a wor é | “Yes, that’s why you can’t stay.” | “Don’t these men get a- public trial? “No!” .Zealous police, detegmined to pre- serve the secrets of Tammany “jus- tice” even tried for a time to bar Robert Minor, one of the defendants. Eleven Times in Court. Joseph Brodsky, attorney for the (Continued on Page Threa) ,.