The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 23, 1930, Page 1

Speed the Signature Collection Campaign for the Unemployment Insurance Bill. Unemployment Insurance Must Be Won Now! er Decor WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Vol. VIL. J "CITY EDITION Price 3 Cen Another Merger ‘HERE is nothing surprising about the report that the so-called Railroad “Brotherhoods” are thinking of merging with the American Federation of Labor. Indeed, there is no good reason for the two bodies remaining sepa- | rate. Politically considered, their policies are identical—they are both | completely reactionary in every official policy. Which is to say that | they are anti-working class and pro-capitalist class. Since upon this basis each body is a profitable business in boom times for the bureaucracy in charge, and doubtless has suffered a fall in income | since the economic crisis began, the “assets’ in stocks held by one or both having depreciated as in other businesses, why, indeed, should they not try merging as other businesses do? | | » More than one union’s treasury has been “invested” in stocks by the bureaucrats who thought to turn an honest penny thus, behind the backs of the membership, for their private profit. So a merger is as logical in such cases as in other businesses where such things need covering up. 90,000,000 PHILADELPHIA BANK CRASHES Sin seovin’ deni | 35,000 Depositors Involved: No MISSOURIMOB GATHERING TO ‘Reports Gi ven Out on ORs? Bank Worker-Depositors INO FACTS GIVEN ON, MASS PRESSURE FORCES McGRADY TO PROPOSE FAKE INSURANCE PLAN LYNCH NEGRO It would, however, be wholly mistaken to regard this merger as a 4 sign of “progress.” The bureaucrats who control both bodies from the Being Organized to ‘SOCIALIST AIDS | top are mostly adherents of fascism in politics, whether they ‘be republi- cans or democrats or “socialists.” Therefore, the announcement that the merger will create a “solid labor front” must be taken as entirely misleading. If it had been said that the merger would better centralize the work of betraying the in- | terests of the workers to the employing class, if it were said that the | merger would aid in the far-advanced process of making company unions | out of the labor unions—then we could nod our head in approval. But the “solid front” that may be created by the fascist bureaucrats | Charged on Flimsiest Evidenée With Murder ST. JOSEPH, Mo., Dec. 22. — A| mob which yesterday morning made an unsuccessful attempt to take Ray- BANK CONDITION Few Having Backers Get “Loans” At | 5 Per Cent Demand Funds PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 22.—Another huge bank has crashed. The ers Trust Company of this city, | 19 branches and $45,036,592 in | posits, closed its doors today. | 35,000,s mostly worker deposit are | | unable to draw out their money and| with | de-| Over | the same situation U.S. BANK HEAD May Indicate Recognition by ‘AFL Chiefs of Thomas’ Letter White- washes Kressel in Bank Deals Complete Failure to Make Jobless Believe “Dole” Is “Degrading”’; No Relief in It { Jobless AFL Rank and File in Revolt; Half of Seattle Conference From AFL Locals | A ae ’ | face that the| “Broderick Is Honest” | 400,000 depositors of the Bank of the | ae | United States in New York are met! Thomas Worried About with. | i Nat'l Campaign Committee Reports Increased { of the A. F. of L, and the “Brotherhoods” (O, what Brothers!), is to be, | ee Gunn, a Negro trapper, from if anything, a “front” against the working class. | the Buchanan county jail here, was | | reported reorganizing today for an-| Broderick Hides Truth It will be opposed to strikes against wage cuts. It will fight against | unemployment insurance. It will “cooperate” with the employers to in- | crease production by way of speeding up the workers. It will even take the initiative in persecuting and blacklisting militant workers for the | greater glory of the bosses. It will represent a “consolidation of the rear” | when capitalism makes war against the Soviet Union. But it will never, | never lead the workers to struggle against capitalism. Workers who are members of the A. F. of L. or Railroad Brotherhoods should recognize these facts. And in spite of the strangling of rank and file expression by the bureducrats, organize a movement to drive these fascist bureaucrats out of the labor movement, and to unite all workers | against capitalism under the banner of the Trade Union Unity League! | Prepare for More Bank Failures 'HILE the capittlist daily press (and also the socialist press) is assuring the workers and the lower middle-class masses that “the banking situation for the country as a whole is in a generally sound condition,” the capitalists themselves know better. This propaganda for the masses is, in fact, a screen to cover their own feverish activities to reap great profits themselves S:om.the growing.tide of bank. failures... . The role of the Federal Reserve Bank in this process is illuminating. In the “Journal of Commerce” (New York) of Dec. 20, a director of a Reserve Bank in one of the western districts is quoted as declaring: “Yhe Reserve Bank of this district is constantly in the habit of making loans to member banks on collateral and often continues this practice until the bank fails, when it appears that most of the good assets are in the hands of the Reserve Bank, the management having continued the same processes which forced the bank to bor- row in the first place, until everything realizable has been disposed of, and at time of failure the depositors are left in an empty shell.” The above-described process of looting the banks where small de- positors have left their savings “for safety,” carried on by the Federal Reserve as the main agent of finance capital, has been carried to its con- clusion in the case of 1,100 banks which closed their doors in 1930. Systematic looting of the savings of the masses is thus seen to be an integral part of the banking system of the United States. The bank rob- bers who are dangerous to the people are not those small-scale bandits, such as those who robbed the Seward bank in New York Saturday of $30,000, “but rather the official heads of our banking system who are ba robbing the masses of billions of dollars, for which hardly a one of them even spends a day in jail. “Death to bank-robbers” is the slogan of the big bank robbers directed against the little “non-union” bank robbers. ‘The masses of workers and small depositors should turn this slogan against the dangerous big robbers who sit in the rich offices in the banks and especially in the Federal Reserve. They are the real looters of the savings of the people. They are the real criminals, who daily are condemning new hundreds of thou- sands of men, women, and children to starvation. ANTI-XMAS CIRCUS) with “Crisis In City ONCHRISTMASDAY of “Brotherly Love” NEW YORK. — At the national : office of the League of Struggle for Young Pioneers Put Up Novel Affair NEW YORK, — An anti-Christmas cireus has been arranged by .the ‘Young Pioneers starting at 2 p. m., Get our! IE HAVE Wo tt te For You. se OU SPREADE Fe Surcsritiong Christmas Day, at the Central Opera “House, 7th Street and Third Ave. * The circus will open by 1 freak parade and all sorts of wild animal acts, featuring Hoover and the Pope. Another big feature will be the “Christmas Tree” decorated in its true colors by Young Pioneers. There will be special features for the workers’ children. A snake- dance of more than 700 Pioneers will take place. Due to pressure on the part of the police department on the owners of Irving Plaza the'Pioneers were re- fused the ise of that hall, despite their written contract. The Pioneers have now secured the Central Opera Negro Rights, 799 Broadway, it was said that a telegram had been sent to its affiliated groups in Missouri instructing them to get busy in mob- ilizing mass sentiment against the latest activities of the bosses lynching mobs and to organize, with the In- ternational Labor Defense, legal de- fense for Gunn. Guide to N. J. Labor Rackets Ted Brandle, A. F. of L. labor czar in New Jersey got himself $25,000 a year from the iron bosses and pulled strike after strike to collect his. overdue boodle bills. His st of settling disputes with workers who protest his sell- outs is to visit them with a baker's dozen of cops and di¢ks. Unbelievable secrets! The true story of the New Jersey labor racket by the same Allen Johnson who ripped up Tammany Hall. Series starts Saturday. (60,000 circulation drive news page 3.) House. This will enable the Pioneers to seat about 1000 workers more. So if you haven't secured a ticket yet, you better get it before it’s too late as all the Irving Plaza tickets are sold and the new ones are going like hot-cakes, too, So—Central Opera House, 67th St. and 3rd Street, at 2 P. m., Christmas Day. Admission is only 25¢, for adults and kids 2 for 7c, . other attack on the jail. At the same time Gunn, charged | on the flimsiest evidence with at- tacking and killing a white school | teacher, was ‘reported to have been spirited away from St. Joseph, where | originally he was brought for safe- | keeping. As it is the custom of the southern bosses and their state prisoners as a prelude to “officers surprised by mob”, the friends of | Gunn are anxiously watching devel- opments, Not far from St. Joseph, in the Farmington county jail, three other Negro workers are living in daily fear of visitation by a lynching mob. They are the three framed-up vict- ims of the St. Genevieve troubles of a few months ago when the entire Negro population of St. Genevieve were driven from their homes. Although their defense has been undertaken by the National Associ- ‘ation for’ the AIVENCSTHENE OT WOLGE= | Means ed People, that reformist organiza- tion refuses to furnish bail “for people of that sort” (workers) and have left them in the jail with the menace of lynching daily hanging over their heads. The N. A. A. C. P. did the same thing in the case of Herbert Cameron, 16-year old youth held in Marion, Ind., jail on a trum- ped-up charge of rape, and murder. RYKOV REMOVED FROM POLITBURO} Central Committee to Meet in Moscow (Cable by Inprecorr) MOSCOW, Dec. 22.—A joint plen- ary session of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party, Soviet Union, was held beginning the 17th of December and lasting until the 21st. Economic plans for 193% were discussed and reports were heard on the vegetable and meat supply, on workers and peasants inspection, co- operative activities and the new So- viet elections. The session relieved Rykov of his duties as member of the Political Bu- reau. Molotov was relieved of his duties as secretary and member of the Organization Bureau in conse- quense ;of his appointment as Chair- man ofthe Council of Peoples’ Com- in Rykov's place. Andreyev was relieved of his duties as substi- tute member of the Political Bureau in consequence of his appointment as chairman of the Central Control Commission. Ordjonikidze was elect- ed as member of the Political Bu- reau. Organize 15,000 to De- mand Deposits | | | NEW YORK.—A few depositors of the Bank of the United States who were able to get endorsers or had a few assets left to mortgage, were given “loans” of 50 per cent of their | deposits, on which they are forced | agents to use the removal of Negro|to pay 5 per cent interest. Only | 5,000 out of the 400,000 depositors | were given this “privilege” on Mon- | day. Meanwhile, Broderick, the Tam- many bank superintendent has be- come tighter than a clam. He has about the conditions of the Bank of the U.S. The fact is, Broderick and his. Tammany associates know the condition of the bank but do not want the 400,000 depositors to know the truth. There has been too much inside robbery that has to be covered Rumors published in the capitalist papers state that Broderick is try- ing to get rid of some of the “frozen” assets and is attempting to get back some of the millions given out as “loans” to good friends of the bank directors. Organization of the depositors is still going on. The following resolu- tion, which was passed by 3,000 small depositors of the bank at a meeting held on Dec. 19 at Hunts Point Palace has now been endorsed by more than 15,000 of the bank’s depositors: We, the workers depositors of the U.S. Bank resolve that we shall carry (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) refused to give out any information , as mi was involved in 1926, the sh eT oe PAGE ERT Long lines of depositors have | formed at the doors of every one of | the 19 branches, but the police are | | chasing them away. The workers are | enraged over the loss of their savings. | | The city treasurer of Philadelphia knew of the rotten condition of the bank and on Saturday hdrew all the funds of the city, $265,0000. The Pennsylvania Secretary of Finance declared ‘that the condition of the| | bank was O. K. as far back as last | | September. | The Communist Party is calling on | all worker-depositors to organize committees to demand the return of their deposits in full. This brings the total bank failures {for the year up to the largest num- |ber in the history of the United States. Since the first of the year over 1,100 banks have crashed, with a total amount of over $565,000,000 involved. This is nearly three times Sixty-Five Billions Spent for Wars) WASHINGTON, D. C.—The U. S. government has spent close to 65 bil- | lion dollars for “national defense” from 1791 to 1928. This year 83 cents | out of every dollar it spends goes to preparation for more robber wars. “Banking Practice” | NEW YORK. finding it difficult to hide the real situation of the robbery of 400,000 de- positors of the Bank of the United States, welcomes a letter written by Norman Thomas, socialist, to the | state banking department, in which Thomas rushes to the support of | Broderick, state banking superinten- dent. The most outrageous part of | Thomas's letter is the section in nich he comes to the rescue of Isi- dor J. Kresel, attorney for the bank and one of its directors. “Word has reached me,” writes Thomas, “that jinterested parties are preparing to | use the connection of Isidor J. Kresel as counsel and director of the bank ‘to knife’ the investigation Mr. Kresel is conducting into the magistrates’ courts.” The very reason that Kresel is so pabusx..digging up minor scandal is to detract attention from his activi- ties in the bank where 400,000 depos- itors were robbed of nearly $200,000,- | 000. Thomas comes to the rescue of Kresel, urging he be whitewashed in his part in the bank failure so that he can continue the work of putting up a smoke screen around the city magistrates’ courts so the workers will have more faith in capitalist justice. Thomas makes no demand that the Volunteers wanted for I. | —National Office, 80 E. 11th si Room 430, Very important. Lies to A ‘The day after Admiral Pratt, chief of operations of the United States navy, asks for $1,100,000,000 for pre- paring the navy for war, Arthur Hen-. derson, “labor” secretary for foreign Government, broadcasts a radio speech from Brighton, England, to the U. S. in which he tries to make the workers believe that “peace” is the uppermost wish of all the imperialist bandits. “By the treaty”, said Henderson, referring to the London Naval Treaty, “we settled two of the most urgent Political questions in the world, the so-called question of parity between England and America, and a similar question between America Japan.” 4 Admiral Pratt said just the con- trary, that there was no parity, but that the United States must build its war machinery at a higher level for the coming war. With every imperialist nation Henderson Spouts Peace affairs of His Majesty's Imperialist | and | id War Moves spending more for war preparations |than before the last world war, with | jthe conflicts between thg imperialist Powers growing at a feVerish pace, and with the proof of war prepara- | tions against the Soviet Union, Hen- | derson had to gall to say: | “I am absolutely convinced there is | no one who wants war, no one who is | plotting for war, no one who does not | realize that war would be an unmiti- | gated disaster to all concerned.” | In the same breath, however,‘ this hypocrite practically admits that the | imperialist robber: are rushing head- | long into war. - “Unless we can build the st-ucture | of world peace upon a firm founda- tion”, he said, “unless we can do it now before the memories of war have | faded, we may depend upon it that | sooner or later—and probably rather sooner than 1<‘-~~ > will) come upon the world which will en- gulf all that we'care about in West- ern Civilization.” | small depositors be given their money back immediately. He is more con- cerned about “sound banking prac- tice.” NPERQ WORKER One of the most atrocious crimes against a Negro worker occurred here last night when Timothy Rouse, 24, employed as orderly at the Municipal Hospital on Davis Island, and sum- marily thrown into jail earlier in the day on a charge of flirting with a white woman nurse, was as sum- marily released, without hearing or trial, to a mob of white business men who picked him up in an automobile and carried him to the outskirts of |the city where he was anaesthetized by a doctor in the mob and castrated. One of the mob then called an ambulance and advised the driver to | pick up a patient at this point. Rouse was taken to a Jim Crow hospital for treatment. No investigation is proposed to find out the members of the mob, or the reason for his release to the mob by the jail authorities. The bosses and their state agents will give the usual verdict that he suffered a cruel and inhuman operation “at the hands of parties unknown.” New York Tag Day Saves Daily Worker. On Monday, Crisis Is Acute the fact that some of the comrades who participated in the Only Daily Worker Tag Day, necessary that every comrade is true held in New York on Saturday and Sunday, their collection boxes promptly averted the non-appearance of yesterday’s paper. In order that the tag day may prove really effective, turn in his collections immediately. of every affair, every drive made for the Daily Worker $30,000 Emergency Fund Campaign. Daily Worker drives help the Dally Worker AFTER the money has been turned over to the paper, the expense of printing and distributing. to help defray The Daily Worker can participate in the class struggle by appearing every day. It must reach the working class regularly. The effect that this workers’ paper has in every phase of the class struggle is well shown by the Bank of United States crash. While capi- talist papers assured the workers whose funds were deposited in this bank that things were “fundamentally sound,” the hs workers that they are being treated 50 per cent of their money—at 5 per shown the true nature of this entangle workers’ The Communist Party, through bankers, but to fight for justice, the Daily Worker. IMMEDIATELY. SEND IN The working class needs the Datly Worker every day. class support can insure its appearance. Comrades, A comrade from Worcester, Mass., who has his working class friends shows the way. Use the Red Shock Troop coupon\on Page 3. to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th St. New York. ALL FUNDS MUST BE TURNED IN PROMPTLY fairly by being allowed to “borrow” cent interest, the Daily Worker has “loan” which is designed to still further earnings—and those of their friends—with the bankers. the Daily Worker, has organized thousands of swindled worker-depositors, not to accept “charity” from Only working organ‘ze to support THE FUNDS THAT YOU COLLECT |is needed is an organized fight to collected $40 from among Send funds immediately he capitalist press, | Organization and Intensified Signature Drive; Terror in Chicago, Everett | NEW YORK.—The American Federation of Labor bur | eaucrats (at least some of them), faced with mass revolt from,| below on the question of unemployment insurance, have had to: make a drastic change in their position. Instead of stubbornly denouncing insurance as a “dole” and “unworthy of Americaiy workers,” they now seek to place themselves at the head of the ;mass demand for unemployment insurance, and try to lead tha campaign into channels harmless to capitalism and useless to the jobless. Edward P. McGrady, general organizer for the A. F, By and “legislative representative” for it in Washington, is quoted in the capitalist press yester= JACKSONVILLE, Fla, Dec, 22—| RANKS FIRM AS SHIRT STRIKE ENTERS 20 WEEK Strike Committee to Speak in N Y Wed. NEW HAVEN, Dec. 22. — ‘The Séc- | ond week of the strike at the Lesnow Bros. Shirt Factory finds the strikers | ranks firm. Mass picketing was con- tinued today in spite of police at- tacks and attempt to terrorize the girl strikers. A large police cordon was thrown | for blocks around the factory this/| morning in an attempt to prevent the | girls from picketing the factory or entering the strike headquarters. The | strike headquarters is a block from the factory. Another girl was arrest- ed this morning. Following the booing of police on Friday by large crowds of workers and sympathizers, the police changed their tactics somewhat this morning, using the cordon to cut off the strik- ers from their picketing and head- quarters. As a result of the vicious clubbing and kicking of girls in Friday’s po- lice orgy of brutality, the working- class population is thoroughly aroused Several Italian organizations are cir- culating petitions protesting against police brutality and demanding the withdrawal of the police thugs from the neighborhood. The strike committee has called a huge mass meeting of the striking girls and sympathizers for Tuesday night, Dec. 23, at the Fraternal Hall, 19 Elm St. The trial of the girls ar- rested Friday is scheduled for Wed- nesday. A committee of girl strikers has been elected to speak at the New York needle trades mass meeting ‘Wednesday evening. It is expected that the strike will | be extended within a few days to in- clude other shops, as it has become | known that the D. & I. Shirt Co.. is jalso planning to cgt wages. The strike at the Lesnow Bros. Shirt fac- | tory is against a 15 per cent wage | cut, The strike is under the leader- | ship of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union. ‘The local council of Working Wom- | en is running a relief kitchen with | sandwiches and hot coffee for the pickets. Jobless Shoe Worker | Is a Suicide; Others | Meet Today to Fight | NEW YORK.—One more unem- | ployed shoe worker, driven desperate by his starving wife and children and evicted from his home committed | suicide, He is H. Shaner, of. 379 Miller Ave., Bronx, The Independent Shoe Workers’ Union points out to the many job- less shoe workers that suicide is no solution; when you die the boss | laughs, he has plenty of others. What | forea granting of unemployment re- | Hef and insurance, , i | All jobless shoe workers are urged | day as announcing a plan which he says, “you can call insurance if you want to,” by which the government and the employers contribute to an “unem- ployment fund” to be used for relief of the jobless. Such details as are made pubhié indicate that the jobless will have a long time to wait for any insurance from this A. F. L. proposition. 6 goes first to the A. F. L. executive council meeting in the millionaire paradise at Miami, Florida, where such meetings are always held these days. Then, if it is adopted, it will be presented to Congress through some “progressive” republican, and while it slumbers in committee, the A. F. L. will shout to the working and unemployed millions: “Stop all this agitation for the Workers Unem- ployment Insurance Bill, we are get- ting your insurance for you!” Mass Demand. The National Campaign Commit- tee for Unemployment Insurance, 2 West 15th St., New York, points out that the A. F. L. switch in its form of propaganda, while it does not mean that A. F. L. President William Green & Co. are going to do any more than before for the unemployed, is an indication of the rapidly grow= ing demand for insurance for them— a demand that the A. F. L, officials can no longer simply shout down as they did at the Boston convention, with insults and denunciation as “degrading.” Some of the A. F. L. officials have to retreat, and try again to fool the workers, who scorn their falsehoods about “little unemployment,” crisis soon finished,” “no wage cuts have taken place,” etc. The National Campaign Committee For Unemployment Insurance points out that the reasons for the retreat are indicated in such events as the holding of an unemployment united front conference in Seattle on Dec. 14, in which out of 54 delegates, half were from the A. F. L. locals, with large delegations from such locals to (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE), Full Text of the Verdict Against Counter-Revolu; tionary Wreckers Today the Daily Worker hee gins publication on last page of the full text of the Verdict of the «| Supreme Court of the Soviet Union in the recent trial in Moscow of the counter-revolutionary “Indus« trial Party”, rendered by the Court on December 7th, which has just arrived. This is the official summing-ap of the revelations of the trial, which revealed the detailed inter« national conspira French General pated in by capitalists of and the United States, in prepara- tion for war against the Soviet a in 1931, worker must read cares document, the most ims in mobilizing the struggle | by the union to come today, at 1 p, m. to an organization meeting at 16 ‘West ist St. against war and for the defense. of | the Soviet Union,