The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 31, 1930, Page 1

Speed thie Signature Collection Campaign lor the Unemployment Insurance Bill. Unemployment Insurance Mest Be Won Now! Dail Central ‘ ae of the Communist Intern rok epymet sit ationat) orker Party U.S.A. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! ee tiie fol. VII. _No. 313 Entered as second-class matter at the Fost Office at New York. N. ¥., under the act ef Mareh 8. 1879 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1930 CITY EDITION ad Price 3 Cents ~— Two Percent Fish Eo the court proceedings in the steel merger case, it was shown that the Bethlehem Steel paid out bonuses of $3,600,000 in 1929. But these bonuses did not go to the workers—only to the “executives,” Mr, Grace taking down not less than $1,600,000. That, workers, is a bonus of importance. And it is particularly im- portant in view of the exposure by Senator Garner that during the nine years of Secretary Mellon's rule of the Treasury Department, the govern- ment has given back to the big corporations in income tax refunds, credits and abatements, the colossal sum of $2,252,042,000. And all this—while the capitalist government was refusing a cash bonus to the ex-service men of the late Morgan's war on the plea of “poverty” of the government. As a compromise, forced out of the capi- talists by fear of ex-soldier workers “turning red” after the World War, the government did finally, by 1925 (!) arrange the infamous “Tombstone Bonus,” or insurance policy, for amounts varying according to time and place of service, but niggardly in total in all cases. Those veterans who are workers had then and still have in more ‘te form, the need for cash. Cheated of a cash bonus, in the growing ,, ¥ they face they have availed themselves of the “privilege” of bor- “og against their insurance policies—the six per cent interest the gov- sent demands (though it asks only two per cent from bankers!) being lucted from their insurance total. ‘These worker veterans thus already have the “right” of borrowing up 23 por cent of their policies. But in the grip of mass misery of un- iloyment and starvation, they are demanding, through the Workers Servicemen’s League with headquarters at 15 East 3rd St., New York wy, the immediate payment in cash and in full of all policies held by ch veterans as are workers and who desire it in order to stave off the enace of starvation. ‘The American Legion, at its Boston convention, dodged the issue by eferring it to a committee, but its opposition is well known and is cited y Congressmen who oppose the proposal for immediate conversion into ish of the “Tombstone Bonus.” Secretary Mellon, who presents bonuses 7 the billisn to corporations, of course objects, as’ this would touch the sensitive nerves of the capitalists, the money nerves, and might prevent the bonuses they are getting. The Hon. Fish comes forward with a proposal that 25 per cent be paid, posing as a great friend of the veterans. Actually, we see that his is the cheapest heroics, since the yeterans already may draw 23 per cent. But a two per cent hero is just about Fish’s size. All workers should support the demand raised by the Workers Ex- Servicemen’s League as an immediate demand to aid hundreds of thou- sands of worker veterans over the winter of crisis and starvation, pointing out the necessity for these worker veterans to join the struggle for unem- ployment insurance and actively support the hunger marches of all un- employed workers. A Deliberate Attack barring from the mails of the official organ of the Young Commu- nist League, the “Young Worker,” is the latest in a series of attatts gainst the working class press; the same attack being made previously m “The Young Pioneer,” organ of the Young Pioneers, and “Vida Obrera” Workers’ Life), the Spanish language organ of the Communist Party. No one can look upon these attacks as isolated incidents. The capi- alist government has, of course, plenty of alibis to excuse its action in &ch particular casc. But the fact is inescapable that the government is ( a geliéral offensive agains’ the Conimunist presse. | The reasons are not hard to find. The Communist press is the only to take the lead in organizing and preparing the workers to strike wage-cuts. Only the Communist papers are waging a struggle for lequate immediate relief for the unemployed and the establishment of unemployment insurance. Just now the capitalist press is trying to conceal the hinger marches of workers demanding bread and shelter in dozens of cities. Only the Communist press expresses the demands of these starving workers. Only the Communist newspapers are sounding the warning of an ap- proaching imperialist war against the Soviet Union. ‘The capitalist’ papers lull the workers to a feeling of false security against the horrors of war, with all manner of humbug about “peace” and “disarmament.” In all ways the Communist press stands at the forefront of the battle for working-class interests on every field. And it is in the effort of capi- talism and capitalist government to silence the protests, of the workers rmsinst wage-cuts, speed-up, starvation and war, that the government 4 taken this line ot deliberate attack on the workers’ own press, which is the.Communist newspapers. ‘Every worker will understand the meaning of this attack. And more than ever will rally to support the only means of expression of the work- ing class in struggle for bread today, for emancipation from capitalist rule tomorrow. a Defend your class interests! tna ~~" pl 70 Defend the Communist Press! Thousandsof Workers Needed. _to Help Collect Signatures J. Pie Daily Worker joins the National Campaign Committee for Unem- ., ployment Insurance in an earnest call to all readers of this paper to > collect signatures for Unemployment Insurance. We have before us 7% task of securing signatures, so that when the workers’ ‘rank and file "slegation goes to Washington, D. C., on February 9th to demand from Ae Congress of the United States the passage of our proposed Unemploy- ment Insurance Bill, there will stand in back of this delegation immense masses of workers, who, by signing in support of our bill have voiced their determination that Congress shall create a fund so that the unemployed workers can live during the economic crisis. Struggles for immediate local relief, initiated by the Unemployed Councils, affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League, grow. and become * more militant. Hunger marches upon city halls are taking place in many cities. Our demand upon the United States Congress, to use all war funds, to tax the rich, to levy upon property in order to create a fund to insure the unemployed must go hand in hand with these local struggles. All readers ofthis paper can help collect signatures in the shops and mines, in their neighborhoods, in the organizations they belong to. Write at once to the National Campaign Committee for Unemployment Insur- ance, 2 West 15th St., Room 414, New York, N. Y., and order as many ‘signature blanks as you can use. Ask all workers you know to also help. your organization to activize its members to help collect signatures, send for signature blanks at once. tional Campaign Committee for Unemployment Insurance 2 West 15th Street, Room 414, New York City, N. Y. I will cooperate in the campaign to collect signatures for our pro- posed Unemployment Insurance Bill. Send me signature blanks. Jobless Worker, Wife, Baby Face Eviction NEW YORK. — A Stoltz, a painter YEW YORK. — XV More than 1500; who has been out of work for the gall depositors in the Bank of the pe lap taleripe gual . 8. met at ferent halls in} ¢v!ction. fe out of the inet lam ‘ ws hospital after giving birth to s child. The state fake job agency at 54 {} turned away. The depositors met at Lafayette Street has offered aid to this unemployed pointer in the form Sine iciace ee te fanilly houses where he is to attend to four furnaces, ¢ ested bage in four houses and all re- ‘| dow anoraer mass ye MEET OF DEPOSITORS Workers Youth Center, The secre- mittee Wollin was one of the speak- . ihc aes aos bey yap HALF MILLION JOBLESS IN HUNGER MARCH ONCiTY HALL Without Work; Plants Are Closing Down With Lying Promise of Reopening Few Get Relief From City; Quantity of Food Issued Insures Slow Starvation Mass Meeting, Foster as Speaker, Jan. 9th; United Front Unemployment Conference on Jan. 11; Hunger March on Jan. 12 Dec. 30.—The-Herald-Examiner, capitalist CHICAGO, IIL, unemployment in this city now admits there are 375,000 job- less in Chicago. This is substantially larger than the figure given by President William Green of the A. Fe L. recently, CHICAGO; PREPARE GIANT Capitalist Press Admits There Are. 375,000: paper here, unable to keep still any longer about the terrific} Bosses Prepare for Conflict with USSR, Says Prof. Hoover Swift and Co. Economist Says Communism Will Spread Throughout the World With Suecess of Soviet Union © CLEVELAND, Ohio, Dec. 30.—That | a war is impending against the| Soviet Union was the crux of a speech made by Prof. Calvin B. Hooyer at a meeting of the American Economic ( Fake Bac \ Se Money! | Ta soba TAM SECRETARY OF | Association Convention on Monday. AEN Hoover predicted that an inevitable oa ¢ om world conflict between Communism i + and capitalism would come on if the Soviet regime carried on for the next | two years, | Another speaker, George E. Put- |nam, economist of Swift & Co., sald | that, if the counter-revolution ‘did not succeed, the Communist’ regime would develop indefinitely and per- | haps spread to a large part of the [OS [S 74 Du: iS one AX, po) z world. A pro-Czarist professor made a wild attack on the principles of | é ate -, Communism, assuring Hoovem# that eral professors of economics foamed at the mouth against the big trusts | (and called for “economic planning” | the counter-revolution would @o its bit against the workers’ state. |which in turn is far larger® than he ever admitted before. The Chicago Campaign Com-! mittee for Unemployment Re- lief on the basis of its own | figures finds’ that unemployment ‘here reaches at least half a ~uillion. Metal factories, railroad shops, shoe, | needle shops, stockyards, etc.’ are firing men right and left, and clos- ing down, with the usual se of “taking inventory.” The Hurley ma- chine shop has closed down “for two or three weeks” and all expect a wage slash when the place reopens, if it does. | Breadlines grow continually. The | Cook County Welfare Board hands out food to some of the jobless. It calls this “full month’s rations for 2 family of seven”: 5 pounds beans, 5 pounds rice, 3 pounds oats, 3 pounds | macaroni, 5 pounds flour, 10 pounds | sugar, 4 pounds lard; 21-2 pounds WASHINGTON POST THREATENS CUBA /Menaces Revolt Move | With Intervention | WASHINGTON, Dec. 30. — From) all reports coming from Cuba, it is clear that the tensity of the political crisis, based on the terrible misery of the masses, which the bourgeois “nationalists” are taking advantage of to foree Machado out, is reaching such a point that an explosion soon appears inevitable, In this light, the editorial in the “Washington Post” of December 29, the “Post” being considered as a House, since it flatly condemns any and all attempts to overthrow Machado and openly threatens armed occupation by Yankee troops. syrup, 9 cans tomatoes, 8 cans milk, | semi-official organ of the White | acquires great importance, | ‘The opposition in Cuba has grown | recently by addition to the longstand- | | 6 cans prunes, 4 cans bacon. For a | family of seven this would be short rations, badly balanced at that, for a week. For a month it is just slow starvation. But the jobless and the militant workers /in the sb ps are fighting. Three main ey’ .s will mark the struggle in th next few days. Dozens of working-class organiza- tions are electing delegates to the United Front Unemployment Insur- ance Conference being held Jan. 11. Two A. F, of L. locals so far have voted to send delegates, and others | are being visited by committees. The | city budget will be examined and de- mands for unemployment relief made. Before this, there will be a great cutpouring of the jobless and work- ers at the unemployment mass meet- ing, Jan. 9, at 7:30 p. m., at Chicago Coliseum, 14 St. and Wabash. Wil-_ liam Z. Foster will be the main speaker, Then the most important single | of thousand of workers, Jan. 12, at noon, on the city hall to demand | immediate relief. Further details of the hunger march plans will be an- nounced soon, Chicago sends six delegates to Washington on Feb. 10 to carry the signatures demanding passage of the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill. Collection of signatures gocs on continually. Third Article on AFL and Political Corrup- j tion On Page Three A New Jersey reader of the Daily Worker wrote to us about a week ago, saying,that if the New Jersey articles told the truth about the strangle- hold Morgan and Rockefeller, .allied with crooked A. F. of L, officials and | politicians, have on’ the workers of New Jersey, he would send us $250 a day or so after the series started. We were somewhat surprised at | the amount promised and came to the conclusion that the reader, suc- cumbing to his enthusiasm, forgot to struggle of all is the hunger march | A few of the 2 petty ~bour} othe lib- GRAFTERS PUSH TRACTION PLAN Stock Gamblers Clean Up On It Too NEW YORK. —The first bunch of | graft was already gathered by the | stock gamblers and politicians be- hind the Untermeyer so-called uni- fication plan for the subways and elevated roads, which opens the way for an $800,000,000 present to poli- ficians and Wall Street gamblers. Immediaiely after the publication of. the report, traction stocks went up and the big boys who had a lot of, stock unloaded and stuck the money , jin their pockets. The plan which offered to psy the |rich stockholders about twice. the. | price for which the stock was selling on the market is now being, sup- | ported by republican politicians as | The plan was drawn up by | | well. Untermeyer, who tries to appear as a “public spirited” lawyer, but who was appointed by the Tammany leader, Al Smith, and gets paid by the subway and elevated companies. The Daily Worker yesterday ex-/ posed the whole background of this graft scheme. The latest to come out | ;in favor of it is Samuel S. Koenig, ; chairman of the New York Count; ‘Republican Committee. Because the plan was so raw, at first theyTam- many grafters who were behind it Bee ay to be a little reticent. They to save capitalism, BRONX JOBLESS HALT EVICTION Mobilize Again Today | to Save Worker NEW YORK.—The Bronx Unem- ployed Council got on the job yes- terday in front of 524 E. 136th St., where the Raynes Realty Corporation | had it all arranged to throw out an} unemployed worker named Prezicso | | along with his sick wife and children. Police and néwsvaper photograph- | ers flocked around, but the demon- , strators stood their ground, and the eviction was postponed today. The Bronx jobless are determined that this middle aged worker and his family shall. not be thrown out on the street.and call. all to mobilize egain today at 11a. m. at the head- | | St., second floor, from where they will go to stop the eviction again if they have to. The Worker's’ School Committee ; announces that there will be no classes Wednesday and Thursday Classes will 1 and Jan. 1). umed Friday, favor of it so they can ‘collect their share of the millions te be gained from it. Sugur Masnite Puts On Orgy ‘As 9,000,000 Workers Starve At,Same Time, Five Five Workers’ Children Die in Gas Filled Mine Seeking Coal to Keep quarters of the council, 341 East 149th | CLEVELAND 26 of Their Big Bo: $5,000,000 Per Brazenly Lies About |Cleveland Workers an Three Points, Pa City Hall and P: ing that 26 individuals, owners income tax on over $5,000,000 DETROIT JOBLESS MARCH ON CITY HALL JANUARY 2; - ae MARCH JAN. 5 Millions Starving While Government Reports sses Paid Taxes on Year Incomes | Auto Factories Are Closing in Detroit; Mayor Relief, Gas and Light d Jobless Assemble at rades Converge on resent Demands Just as the Internal Revenue Bureau of U. S. was report- of the greatest industries, pald per year each, and 511 individ- | uals had incomes of over $1,000,000 per year each, the workers |these individuals hire through |in the chief industrial cities, Ito march on the city halls and} |demand immediate relief. Millions of these workers are starving. Their labor pfled up the enormous ‘ncome of their bosses, | but as soon as the industrial crisis, | tor which the workers are in no way to blame, hit, the bosses calmly dis- charged the workers wholesale and leave them to starve and freeze in the Streets, Many hunger poeta are cMetiot ROB 18 MILLION FROM DEPOSITORS Und} Bank § Fakery Is) Now Shown Up NEW YORK.—Court proceedings brought out £/ ts which were pub- lished in the Waily Worker weeks ago about the inside robbery of the Bank of the United States. It is now admitted that the Bankus Cor- poration, a sham outfit into which the officers of the bank poured mil- lions, now is bankrupt. It has only $15,000 on hend but was given loans | of between $16,000,000 and $18,000,000. | This money is gone. Instead of being in a position to pay back this money which belongs to the depos- | » itors, the Bankus Corporation is ask- ing for $1,000,000 to pay interest and taxes on its phoney real estate deals. With these facts coming out into the open, the talk about “reorganiza- tion” of the bank is the usual lies which Broderick and others have been handing out to keep back action of the 300,000 small depositors. Their | chances of getting money is slimmer | all the time. The capitalist press is silent on the offers of 50 per cent of deposits as| loans; This has flopped, and those of the depositors who are out of work face starvation, their companies were planning, {but the next immediate are the | marches in Detroit and Cleveland. Detroit workers and jobless march | Jon. 2. In Detroit there are about 250,000 out of work, with more fac~ tories closing all the time. Ford, Dodge and Fisher are either closed partly or completely. Mayor Murphy promised the delegation of the unerfi- ployed on October 24, when 10,000 | workers demonstrated before the city. ‘hall that no evictions would take place, and gas, light would not be shut off. He was lying. He was ly- jing again when he promised relief. | | Not more than 9,000 of the 250,000 are | getting $1 a week for single persons and $5 for families, and are compel- | led to go out and do forced labor at | whatever the city sends them to do, When the workers resist evictions, they are clubbed and jailed. | ‘The Detroit demonstration assemb= | les at 1 p.m. Jan. 2, in Grand Circus Park and marches on the city hall tq demand real: relief. .and .. other Jocal demands. The Detroit workers and jobless are busy collecting signatures to the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill. They will send six delegates tc | Washington to present the bill and signatures to Congress on February | 3 Parades Converge. A Hunger March of Cleveland’s un employed is being organized by the unemployed councils. affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League for January 5 Gathering at factories, halls and other neighborhood centers, the’ hun- ger marchers. will proceed to three concentration paints: 30th St. and St. Clair; 30th St. and Central; and 25th St. and Lorain, They will leave these points af 6:15 p. m., marching on to | a mass demonstration together at the City Hall at 7 p. m. The leading demands of the or- ganized unemployed are an emergency fund to pay every unemployed worker @ minimum of $15 a week, if single, Families From Freezing ing “Union Nacionalistsa”, of other forces such as that headed by ex- We were a little bit hurt, too, be- president Menocal. Some of these op- cause the reader said, “if” we told positionists are reliably reported to the truth about New Jersey, imply- be getting arms from British sources, ing that the Daily ever does anything Menocal is in hiding and such aristo- | else but, about New Jersey or any cratic bodies as the Havan Yacht other state. Club is closed by martial law and/ Machado is jailing many of his capi- embarrassment, when the reader ac- talist enemies. | tually sent in the $250 after reading The Washington Post, bitterly con-| the second article. The reader pre- demning Menocal, tips its hat at Cu- | fers to remain anonymous and writes put a period betwen the 2 and the 5. threaten that: | of a club. Be that as it may, we Imagine our surprise, not to say | ban “independence”, but hastens to that the money is the contribution | “North American intervention would follow the overthrow of stable government in Cuba.” And then adds, significantly: “The third oc- cupation of Cuba by the United | will use this money to carry on our uncompromising revolutionary strug- gle. We take the money, at the same time recording sthe denomination NEW YORK.—With the breadlines growing longer and longer and with reports of suicides of jobless and | starving workers stuck away in ob- scure corners ‘of the capitalist press, the boss press announces a lavish dinner costing hundreds of thousands | of dollars held on Monday night for | Doris Haventbyer, daughter of the | sugar millionaire, Horace Havemeyer. While Havemeyer was entertaining hundreds of overfed young parasites | wearing millions in jewels, in the | South: Hills near Pittsburgh five) | young working-class boys breathed their parents were out of work. They never came out alive. Tens of thousends of Cuban sugar workers, who slaved to make the mil- lions for Havemeyer, couldn’t get a crust of bread, while hundreds of guests flocked to the Ritz-Carlton | ballroom in an orgy of luxurious dress, food, drink and revelry, It is to the Havemeyers that An- drew Mellon hands billions in tax re- turns so they can glut themselves, while the 9,000,000 starving workers roam the streets hungry and cold. | As part of the propaganda to keep | or $25 a week, if he has dependants, up faith in such rotten institutions | the money to be raised by reducing as the Banx of the United States, a| city officials’ salaries to a maximum catholic priest Jast Sunday maqe it | of $3,000 a year and a graduated tax the greatest point of his ss-=-on to/| on all incomes over $3,000 a year; ad= © appeal for “faith in the banking sys- | ministration of relief by workers’ ore: ~ tem of the United States.” This is ganizations; . rdinances prohibiting = the same type of religious opium that evictions of unemployed workers or is handed out to workers who get | foreclosure of mortgages on their — wage cuts to keep them from striking.| homes; free public service (gas, . 8 « | water, electric and street car) for the On Friday, the United Depositors | jobles=: use of vacant houses and pub= | Committee of 25, representing 20,000 lic buildings to provide shelter for the Bank of U. S. depositors will present homeless, and provision of two Sa the demands of the depositors to meals a day, free books and free Mayor Walker, and later call a mass | fare to and from school for all meeting of depositors to plan fur- | ren of unemployed parents. | The capitalist press thinks. it will ther action to demand the immed-| Cleveland will send 3 delegates te make the hungry unemployed feel iate return in full of the money of| carry to Washington on Feb, 10 the States would be of permanent char- acter.” | and serial numbers for any neces- sary reference, their last in a gas-filed mine'scrap-*their pangs less whén they read that | ing together coal to keep their fam- | the Havemeyer guests ate “supper | ilies from freezing to déath. The served in the Oval Restaurant at | five boys, all under sixteen, crawled | small tables decorated with Talisman into the mine to get coal because, roses and croton leaves.” Lack of Funds Forces Daily :to Suspend Phone Service ANONYMOUS DONATION SAVES DAILY QVORKER Almost until press time yesterday it appeared that the Daily Worker would have to skip an issue. An anonymous $250 donation came just In time to bring this paper to you. But such undependable and last minute aid is doing nothing to relieve the Daily of the weight of back debt which seems to threaten its very existence. ‘There has been no telephone in the Daily Worker office for more than a week. THE BILL IS ONLY $150. BUT SO FAR THERE HAS BEEN SO LITTLE SUPPORT TO THE $30,000 FUND THAT SUCH ESSEN- TIALS AS THIS HAVE HAD TO BE PASSED OVER. Unless this sam is paid immediately there is danger that the telephone connection will be taken from the Daily Worker office altogether. Comrades, this is an intolerable situation. Last week the Tag Day and other New York ay : helped to relieve some of the most im- | DAILY. But it must come from every part of the country. Districts that have consistently failed to support the Emergency Fund Campaign must ‘take immediate steps to ORGANIZE the workers for a mass drive to wipe out the deficit which might remove from the working class this essential weapon. Every day proves and proves again the imperative need of the workers for the Daily. . There is some consistent support to the Emergency Fund. The United Council of Working Class Women write that they “are canvassing the neighborhoods they live in.” At the Artef Theatre Benefit they con- tributed about $90. ‘There must be more of this kind of help. Use the Red Shock Troops | all small depositors. ‘thousands of signatures now being | collected here, which demand the pas- }sage of the Workers’ Unemployment COUNCIL GETS 1,000 MORE NAMES FOR B' — NEW YORK.—Over a thousand jobless who found as usual that there are no jobs at the Tammany fake employment agency on Lafayette St. gathered in spite of the cold and lis- tened to speakers from the Down Town Unemployed Council, Speakers were Murphy, Ross ‘and’ Overkirch. Thirty joined the council there and at the jammed meeting'of those who marched from the employment agen- cy to 27 East Fourth St,,.and an.in- door session there. The council has just turned over to the City Campaign Committee for Unemployment Insurance more thap. 1,000 signatures for the bill, sik has collected within the jdays. | ‘The Down Town Council speakers will be on hand again at the Laf- jayette St. cgency today at 10a. m, THE CITY HAS MONEY FOR COPS; MAKE IT. EBD 1 | Insurance Bill. { pec taal | SOVIET FILM IN HARLEM TONITE | The Soviet film, “The Seeds of | Freedom,” will be shown at the Sec= {tion Four headquarters, 308 Lenox Ave., tonight. All workers are urged to see this vitally interesting picture, Order Dailies to Mobilize Jobless The Red Builders’ News Club of Sacramento leads the way in | the use of the Daily Worker in mobilizing the unemployed for hunger marches. This wire comes from Mike Daniels: “Rush 1,000 Thursday issue to Sacramento, if possible, with | write-up first page, Hungar march Jan. 7. Converge Sac-. ramento. Delegations from all over state.” Use the Daily Worker | mobilize the jobless, Full re} on 60,000 circulation ©