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

Speed the Sfenature Collection Campaign for the Unemployment Insurance Bill. Unemployment ir-urance Must Be Won Now! Dail (Section of the Communist > @) unist Porty U.S.A. International) WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! = at New York, Vol. VII. No. 308 ‘ Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office N. ¥., under the act of March 8. 1879 NEW YORK, THURSDAY. DECEMBER 25, 1930 CITY EDITION The Familiar Red Herring “(APITALISM is strong! Capitalism is impregnable! But, lo! the Com- munists ‘whisper’ and capitalism falls into ruins!” How very convenient an “explanation” of the bank failures. It is, of course, self-contradictory, but the absurdities of capitalism are in- herent in it, and hence follow its apologists like their shadow. Indeed one may say that the capitalists are tremblingly afraid of their own shadow, the shadow of the crisis created by them. In part this ac- counts for the ridiculous claims that rumors by “Communists” or “Mos- cow agents” are to blame for the bank crash. As far as reports damaging to the Chelsea Bank are concerned, the Communists must hang their heads in shame that. the N. Y. Times beat them to it by some six weeks In proof of this one has only to read the Times story on the bank in Wednesday's issue, where the Times was in difficulties. The Times says: “As reported to and published in the New York Times each Sunday, deposits of the bank have shown a marked shrinkage in recent weeks.” The Times then proceeds to prove it in detail. But of course that does not prevent the same story from dragging in the red herring about “malicious rumors for which Communists, among others, were held re- sponsible.” So much for the malicious rumors started by the N. Y. Times. But the Chelsea Bank of New York was not the only one which closed its doors. On the same page wherein the Times brags that it started the run on the Chelsea bank, there are accounts from six cities in as many states of other bank failures, and in at least two of them we are quite positive that there are no “reds” to start rumors. However, there are capitalists in these towns who, as in New York, are responsible for the crisis in the system they uphold. And also in those towns there are workers, not yet Communists, it is true, but who will be learning from the losses they suffer at the hands of these bank robbers their first infant steps on the road to becoming Communists. If the capitalists can get any comfort out of that they are welcome to it. Meanwhile, the Communists raise the demands for the payment of small depositors first. If that be treason, make the most of it! Santa Claus st Capitali RECENT editorial of the Y. Times, commenting upon Soviet Russia, asks for—“general sympathy for the children of that vast country, especially at this y are of the associa- tions which belong to it in all the we rn In short, the Times has found another Bolshevik “atrocity” in the absence, for Soviet young- sters, of the myth known as.Santa Claus. This is supposed to be an “innocent” criticism, just “a word of sym- pathy for Russian children.” But this is a fraud. Santa Claus for Rus- sian children before the Revolution went along with the Czar, who was head of the church and of the police as well. And the Soviet children repudiate the whole lot of superstitious mummery behind which lurked the hunger and misery and oppression of Czardom and capitalist exploitation. But it is not strange that the N. Y. Times expresses its sympathy for children who are getting along very nicely without Santa Claus in the Soviet Union, but is silent about those tens and hundreds of thousands of children right in New York—tens of millions throughout America—who because they are the children of the workers suffer heartache and actual starvation for lack of any substantial proof that Santa is more than a bourgeois myth. It is especially cynical on the part of the N. Y. Times to mourn over Russian. children, :when=righi ander. its nose on the Bowery is one of the most horrible evidences of what sort of Santa Claus the Times up- holds: a BREADLINE FOR CHILDREN! Here, as many as 2,000 children line up twice each day to get a dole of watery milk and a piece of bread. Like their elders they must be “in- vestigated” by a swarm of well-paid sneaks of the Salvation Army, an “officer” of which stands over them with a heavy flat stick, menacing them, yelling at the little ones who stand shivering in the cold, and roughly yanking out of line any who may be accused of shoving! Only one child may come from a family—the Salvation Army's detec- tives see to that! And its authority is reinforced. by the presence of burly cops swinging their clubs! i 3 ‘This, workers, is the true capitalist Santa Claus! Santa with his mask laid aside! Of course for the children of the rich there is quite a different Santa. The workers have toiled the year around to fill the stockings of Mr. an Mrs. Capitalist with profits. ‘They have good reason to believe in*Santa Claus, and to teach their children that not only toys but their’ food, clothing and shelter as well are miraculously produced without, labor. But the children of the workers have no use for a Santa Claus bestowing them a charity rattle on the 365th day. They know that toys and food, clothing and shelter are produced by the working class. ‘They know that if their parents were not exploited by their employ- ers, if they were not thrown on the street jobless without unemployment insurance, there would be no need for the cruel myth of Santa Claus, who—unmaskd—is found out to be the same policeman who clubs their father on the picket line! Defend the Foreign Born! TT New York Police Department has established a new “Alien Bureau,” the purpose of which is supposed to be to have a bunch of dicks on hand at the headquarters “line up” to “take notes” on prisoners who are not citizens. The Bureau is to “cooperate closely with the Federal Immi- gration, Passport and Naturalization Bureaus.” | All of which is very interesting, but which has nothing to do with the actual purpose of the Bureau, which is NOT the apprehension and de- portation of criminals, but the persecution of foreign-born workers who side with their class in its struggles against the employing class. ‘This is, in short, one more of the many attacks against the working class as a whole, for the attempt to terrorize the foreign born part of the working class is an attempt to make these workers submit to any and all wage cuts and speed-up and miserable conditions, and thus to weaken the growing solidatity of native and foreign born workers in struggle for their mutual interests. All workers and workers’ organizations have a sound reason, a class reason, in combatting this campaign, one of the most flagrant attacks of | which is the murderous insistence of the Washington government to de- | port Guido Serio to Italy in evident collaboration with fascist authorities who are anxious to shed his blood in revenge for his former working class activities in Italy. Every native born worker should leap to the defense of his foreign-born fellow worker, for it is a common fight against the class enemy. The Council for the Protection of the Foreign-Born should be given full sup- port, and the International Labor Defense, which is defending those per- secuted, deserves the unstinted aid of all workers, both foreign-born and native. 2 GAMES AT OVAL TODAY your fellow-workers in the shop. Un- employed admitted free, others pay 25 cents. ‘Take the 242 Broadway subway to that starves them 364 days in the year and tries to cover this up by | | | | SUPPRESSION OF “YOUNG WORKER” IS F ISH ATTACK Gov’t Says You Can’t| Expose War Plots | NEW YORK.—Despite the 600 mil-| lion dollars given over by Ronee | |2 weeks ago to the building of arms| ja working class paper cannot say | that the “U> S, Prepares For War.” | This is the heart of a letter concern- ing the “Young Worker” from F. A. Tiltcn, 3rd assistant postmaster to | | to the postmaster at Worcester, Mass. | where the “Young Worker,” militant jorgan of the Young Communist League, has been published for the | |last eignt months. Tammany Tnes to Hide Rotten Bank Deals by Attack on ‘Reds’ ENG YS Post Admits Wall ANOTHER PHILA. BANK CLOSES UP Mayor Mackey Tries to Fool Depositors; They Organize PHILADELPHIA, Pa. Dec. 24.— After the failure of the Bankers Trust Co. of Philadelphia, with over $50,000,000 in deposits, and 135,000 depositors, mostly workers, unable to draw out a cent, a run began on the Franklin Trust Co. Tuesday. The headline, “U. S, Prepares Por | Wer,” appeared on the front page ot | the May 19th issue of the “Young | Worker,” one of three issues whic |the Hoover postal agents hold to be “unmailable.” The other issues which | the Post Office say cannot go through the U. S. mails are those of May ist and June 2nd. The May Ist / issue aiso carried a long article on the rotten conditions of the work- ers in uniform and listed a group of | (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) PIONEERS PUT ON ANTI-XMAS CIRCUS At Central Opera) House Today NEW YORK —After cancelling their contract with the Young Pio- neers for the anti-Christmas circus, the Central Opera House yielded to the demand of the Young Pioneers and were forced to let them have | the. hall-for--Christmas. Day. One. again the Young Pioneers have proven that they cannot be bulldozed by any authorities or any reactionary forces. | The Pioneers are now working time-and-a-half to prepare a more elaborate program and to make a | bigger and better affair. The an- | swer of the workers and their chil- dren to the threats of the city au- thorities will be a mass demonstra- tion at the Pioneer circus against all attempts of the black forces to hin- der the work of the Pioneers, The private bank of M. L. Blitzs- tech: & Co., Fourth and Lombard Streets, which is patronized mainly by the poorest paid workers, was forced to close its doors. It had deposits of $2,000,000. BBbyH8 Mayor Mackey of Philadelphia, in | an attempt to stop the run on the Franklin Trust, put on a circus stunt at one of the branches of the Frank- lin Trust Co. Millionaire Mackey rushed into the bank with a thous- and dollars into his pocket, got up on a table and made a speech about the “good condition” of the Frank- lin Trust Co., and then depesited the thousand dollars. This did not stop the rush, as depositors lined up and continued to demand their money. Most of them are workers and cannot afford to lose their few pennies because the millionaire May- or Mackey can play around with thousand-dollar bills. Mass meetings of the 135,000 de- positors of the Bankers Trust are being called especially to organize the small depositors to demand the full return of their deposits, or to demand that the state immediately make a loan amounting to the full amount of the deposits of the small depositors, with which to pay therti immediately. COOPER THINKS 5 YR. PLAN SUCCESS NEW YORK—When asked what he thought of the success of the five year plan, Colonel Hugh L. Cooper stated that he thought the success of the 5 Year Plan was assured, be- cause it is, “a marvellously conceived plan which contains little that is not | in harmony with the immediate needs of the Russian people.” Green Forced to Admit at NEW YORK.—The American Fed- eration of Labor officials continue in their estimates of the number of job- less to back away from their first |Pposition that “unemployment is slight” “only 2 and a half million,” ete. The utter scorn with which even the members of their own organiza- tions received these figures and the continued evidence of revolt against the AFL. official theory that nothing should be done about unem- ployment except such charity and emergency work as the employers care to grant, has forced the retreat. Press Hesitates. William Green, President of the AF.L, admitted openly that there were 5,300,000 out of work, and that the number was still increasing. This statement got into one or two morn- ing papers Tuesday, was quickly jerked out, and finally thrown again into most of the editions yesterday morning. In general it appeared under such headlines as “Green Sights Hope For Improvement,” etc., Least 5,300,000 Jobless based on loose talk by Green about “the decrease in jobs not being as sharp as the decrease a year ago in December” (when the crisis was just getting under full swing!) Some idea of the distance Green still is from the truth is indicated by his statement that there was in No- vember only 15.9 per cent unemploy- ment in the building trades—when every building trades worker knows, and the AFL. building trades coun- cils admit that there is over 40 per cent—and every building trades worker knows it is much greater than that. Nation’s League Closes. However, if Green keeps on, he may eventually get around to admitting that the calculations of the Daily Worker, that there are between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000 out of work, is correct. At present he lags be- hind the International Labor Office of the League of Nations, which in its last monthly reports allows for over 7,000,000 jobless in U. S, Street Knew Inside Dope Long Ago | ( | NEW YORK.—Er shift | the atention of the growing economic crisis this j year has smashed over 1,100 banks, | involving. sum nounting to nearly | $1,000,000,000, the Tammany district together with Detective of the “Radical and Bomb Squad,” are charging that the Chelsea Bank & Trust Co. failed because of rumors “instigated by the | Reds,” n of rumors, according was conducted “over the telephon y the names tnd telephone numbers of the dep itors of the Chelsea Bank (j Trust Co. were supposed to have been ob- tained by the “Reds” is not men- tioned by Lyons or his associates, Crain and Washburn of the district attorney's office. The fact of the matter before the Chelse: | hat long Trust Co. crashed its stocks weve being sold at a furious pace over-the-counter | cn Wall Street, and it s irom W: Street that the “rumo: about the bank's conditior before the bank clc dropped to $4 a share. $120. On Dec. 18, there had already been It had been (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) ‘No U. $ Bank | Reports Given On Conditions NEW YOR .—Two weeks after the States, the 400,000 depositors are without a single bit of information from Broderick, Tammany superin- tendent cf banks, on the real con. dition of the bank. Though Brod- erick has been asked many questions by depositors about wholesale graft and robbery in the bank, he has refused to reply. The promises for “loans” to the depositors are not being lived up to as only 8,000 depostors were given this “privilege,” and the money they are entitled to “loan” at 5 per cent interest amounts to about $3,000,000 as compared to the $20,000,000 in States. meeting at Irving Plaza Hall of the executive committee of 25 represent- ing 20,000 small depositors of the Bank of the United States. The committees took yp concrete tasks of organization to press the demand for (CONTIN ED ON PAGE THREE) JOBLESS BATTLE FOR BREAD IN BERLIN BERLIN, Germany, Dec. 24.—Most of Berlin is a battlefield on Christ- mas eve, All police are under arms, and as the jo! beat them up. Government figures show that there are 4,000,000 jobless in Ger- many, of which 400,000 are in Berlin. During the first two weeks of De- cember, the jobless army increased in Germany at the rate of 20,000 a day. deposits in the Bank of the United , On Tuesday night there was a! the Conn. closing of the Bank of the United | ss swarm through | the city shouting, “We want bread,” | flying squadrons of police seek to family had to crawl for shelter after JAIERD BOR TALK: Work On Small Dey to Or i RD, Conn., Dec. 4.—Be- addressed the work ; Calls cause he er-de- positors who were ai nery because they could not withdrew ‘heir money from the Riverside Trust Co, and the Pal- lotti Andretta Co., two banks which Nat Rich- section organizer of the Com- vas arrested and placed $10,000 bail. Large crowds of angry workers lined up in front of the banks and were urged to organize to demand the full return of their deposits. Richards was immediately jailed and charged with inciting to’ riot. The Riverside Trust Co. had de- posits of r ly $4,000,000. Both these banks were suspended by Les- lie E. Shippee, state bank commis- sioner, On the same day that the two Hartford banks failed, the Chelsea Bank & Trust Co. of New York, with six branches and deposits of nearly $20,000,000 closed its doors. In the South there was a whole series of bank smashes. The City Bank of Miami Beach closed its doors. It had deposits of $600,000. The Peo- ples Bank of Gretna, Va., with $474,- 000 in deposits failed. The City Na- tional Bank and Bessemer Trust and Savings Bank, on the same day, closed its doors. It had deposits of 000. In Washington, Ga., the National Bank of Wilkes County, with $400,000 in depesits smashed. This is the record of just one day’s bank crashes, which brings the total for the year well over 1,110 with nearly a billion dollars involved, crashed here yesterday, ards, on FOOD WORKER OPEN FORUM NEW YORK.—Competent speakers will lead the discussion at the Food Workers’ Open Forum Friday at 8 p. m. at the Bronx headquarters, 341 E. 149th St., Industrial Union. The topic will be: “The War Danger and the Class Struggle.” This is the first of a series of Open Forums to be held here. ALL PARTY NEE (All Branches) will have a special fraction meeting on Thursday, 6 p. m., at Workers’ Center, 8th floor. Representative of the C, C. will be present. of the Food Workers’ | COUNCIL OF THREAT TO | Blank to Hold 600,000) | More Signatures Sent | | Out by Nat’?l Comm. | Jobless for Insurance ilroad, Marine, Mill) Mobilizing | Workers NEW YORK York, troit, Seattle lotte the mittee for U; has just sent thousand signature bl on which t manding of the Wo employment In names. been out to collect 2,000,000 signatures. The latest back will pro- vide for 600,000 more signatures Meanwhile the National Committee reports having received orders for more blanks which it will fil/as soon as possible. Reno and Sparks, Ne for more, saying that they are circulating widely among railroad workers, especially The Marine Workers Industrial Union local in New Orleans sends in its first signed blanks, and orders more. ; Textile Union Active. Pat Devine reports from New E: and that the National Textile Work- ers Union there is in the heart of the signature collection drive, and prominent in united front confere held in Lawrence, New Bedford and Providence to organize for the collec- ion of signatures, end to prepare mass demonstrations for immediate relief and granting of local demands against evictions. There is 60 per cent unemployment in the textile industry. ces The Unemployed Council in vetroit hes already held a preliminary united front conference on the signature | drive and local demands and a house to house convassing and a tag da will have a demonstration January 2 at Grand Circus Park and a parade to the city hall, will present the de- | mands of the jobless to the state leg- | islature on Jan. 7 at Lansing, will |hold the Foster mass meeting at | Danceland Auditorium on Jan. 11. In Detroit speakers are being sent | to all workers’ organizations to enlist | their support; all militant workers’ | headquarters carry banners calling on jens jobless to organize, sign the de- mand for the Workers Unemployment | | Detroit Program. |Insurance Bill to take over the war | funds of the national government and use them to pay jobless insurance. Mother and 3 Children Forced to Live in Dirty Chicken Coop While the bosses and their agents are resisting the demands of the workers for unemployed insurance, a working-class mother and her three small children are forced to live in an abandoned chicken coop at Ulster He'ghts, near Ellenville, N. Y. The chicken coop, into which this being evicted by the landlords and the boss courts, has no floor and the woman and her three small children were forced to sleep on the bare |ground. The mother made a vain ef- | fort to keep her children warm with an old wood stove she had picked up on the grounds. Mounting Deficit Threatens Appearance of Tomorrow’s Daily Worker SUSPENSION WOULD THREATEN WORKERS’ ORGANIZATION IN CRISIS The Daily Worker deficit continues to mount. Contributions to the AID JOBLESS COUNCILS NEW YORK.—How can you spend the day better? Go up to Dyckman Oval today at noon, sharp, and you'll yse two first-class soccer games, be- | tween picked teams, and hear the Jatest on the unemployment situa- tion by Amter and Sam Nesin, two | of the leaders of the jobless and great speakers, both of them. Am-_ ter has just served six months for his part in the March 6 demonstra- tion and Nesin goes on trial’ befove the same court tomorrow for his part in the Oct. 16 demonstration, This is just the place to Invite ih Dyckman station, then walk one} $30,000 Emergency Fund Campaign are coming in too slowly to make block north on Broadway. The Bronx | headway against debts contracted to get out past issues of the paper, and and an Cortland Park car comes to} long since overdue. Tuesday’s paper was published only by using funds the corner of Dyckman Oval. Un-| set aside to pay pressing obligations. This has not eased the crisis but employed admitted free, others pay| intensified it. 25 cents. THESE PAST DEBTS MUST BE PAID IMMEDIATELY. THE i aie anf a h apr tari an hoagie DAILY WORKER CAN APPEAR THIS WEEK ONLY BY THE AID OF = ae anit Maeatinatern Sa et aged | A GREATLY STIFFENED SUPPORT OF THE EMERGENCY FUND. Councils of the Unemployed for or- ganization ,work. The Labor Sports Some of the Tag Day boxes are still outstanding. Comrades, turn in Union puts on the exhibition, all money collected for the Daily Worker IMMEDIATELY. The sum that you may haye in your possession, already given for the paper, may very well mean the difference between the appearance and non-appearance of tomorrow’s Daily. Throughout the country an increasing number of banks are crashing, Bankers and bank examiners are making every attempt to refuse all com- pensation to worker-depositors. “Socialists,” coming to their support with | Hot Dog Jamboree of Red Builders News Club, 27 East 4th St, Sunday, 3 p.m, assurances of the “honesty” of the officials, are helping in the effort to mislead and confuse the workers who are offered “loans” at high rates in exchange for the small savings on which many of them, often out of work for months, depend. Through the Daily Worker, the Communist Party is organizing these workers to demand their rights. The Daily Worker is helping workers to stay out of the bread lines, It is helping organize the working class to fight; not to be misled into accepting “charity.” As the crisis grows there is a growing attempt on the part of the bosses to confuse workers by attempting to create race hatred against Negroes. The Daily Worker exposes these attempts. It organizes the workingclass, white and Negro, to fight together against its class enemies, Never was there a greater need for this workers’ newspaper. Never was it more essential that not a single issue be missed. ‘ Collect funds in your union, in your organization, among your worker friends. Every day and every dollar is important. Send all money for the Daily Worker to 50 East 13th Street, New York, Use the Red Sheck Troop Coupon on page three of this issue, pare te Ny Her husband was working on one |of the typical part-time jobs which the charity fakers are offering as a | substitute for workers unemployment | |insurance which the state and the bosses would have to pay to the de- | triment of their huge profits and co- | lossal war preparations. His job was out of town, and he returned each week-end with just enough money | to play tag with starvation. From Vanceburg, Ky., comes news of a family living in a cliff on a mountain in a remote part of Lewis county. The roof is an overhanging ledge of sandstone forming a ‘shelter | that served as combined living room, bedroom and kitchen. Living in this shelter were Willis Riley, 52, and his 14-year old twin children, James and Alice, together with his six year old grandchild Mary Stephan. The boss press makes a great deal of the fact that neighbors have taken in 6-year old Mary: “on Christmas Day Mary is going to have a cozy one-room cabin home ... and there will be a chimney for Santa Claus to come down.” The boss press, how- ever, fails to mention what will hap- pen to the rest of the family. In the meantime, the same boss | press publishes figures showing that the bosses spent over $20,000,000 this year to build private yachts to which the rich parasites can retreat when they get tired of other expensive amusements or bored with their palatial homes or want to put on a little sex circus away from their wives, DETROIT PAYS 15 CENTS HOUR DETROIT.—Local contractors are paying a hunger wage of 15 to 20 cents an hour for common labor. |FLOUT Price 3 Cents HUNGER MARCH ON CITY TOLEDO, 02; TAKE RELIEF T DEMANDS i 500 Ca ‘ry Work Or > Ready Food — Five others ety build- eoroes.Womenk to Fight f io, Dec demanding evictions, the the ing’ unemploymen no ete on way, f steps council he de- con= 1ed to Council of crowd rters of headqu Unemy meeting a cou joining 1 he count Work Or Wages” The parade attracted much tention 1e 500 who started it m at. Workers © Hall, marching at 7.15 p. m. led by a big sign, “We Der or Wages—Join The Toledo Cour of Unemployed!” The thirty local de= placards carried by the marci . As the long line swept through the busiest sections of the city, job i Charle the Trade Uni Toledo, “nd Secretary Young of the Council of Unemployed led the long line toward the court house. On arriving, hundreds more of workers and jobless were found around the McKinley monument and police thi The jobless, many of thi Negro, women and foreign born, re- fused to be scattered, and listened to speeches, to the reading of the dema approved them tically, and formed again to mare on the old “Safety Bt i: which the city council had hidden itself. Police Fail. More police were encountered at the steps of the “Safety Building” but the crowd massed around the steps, elected its committee, headed by Stephenson, and sent it in. While Young, Willneker, ana *. Cellow, sec tion organizer here of the Commmue nist Party, spoke from the steps. The committee came out at 9 p. m. and reported the city council's flouting of the demands of the jobless for the right to live. The hundreds of workers protested vigorously, and warned the city gov- ernment that if the jobless were not given relief from the city, they would take it. The Toledo council of unemployed holds regular meetings every moru- ing at 9, is conducting many mass meetings, and is fighting all evic- tions of unemployed workers who can not pay rent. DEMAND REJECTYED RAILWA LONDON. — Demands of railway workers for a minimum wage of 3 pounds (approximately 15 dollars) a week for adults, and improved cone ditions were rejected by the ems ployers. Famous Fat Boys to Squirm Only the Communist Daily Worker dares publish the corruption floating about the amazing story of robbery and names of Mayor Hague, Sen, Morrow, Sen, Hamilton Kean, Ambassador Edge, ete. oog Watch the Daily Worker slit up dress-suited, silk-hatted pretense in a remarkable series telling the real, back-room narrative of Rockefeller, Mor- gan, Meilon and Ford’s brib- ery-bought New Jersey open shops. Written by Allen John- son who exposed T; Hall. The highest wage is 35 cents an houm * i (60,000 circulation car” news page 3.) y