The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 31, 1931, Page 1

M. ‘United Front Conterence for Dressmakers’ Strike at 2 P. Daily, Worker (Section of Today in Webster Hall Carry on the Drive for Signa- tures. Intensify It. However, Remember That All Signa- tures Must Be in Hands of the National Commit- tee in N. Y. C. Not Later Than Feb. 5 WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! SF oe the Communist international) Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office <i%>21 ON EDITI at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3. 187° NEW YORK, SATURD Y, JANUARY, 31, Price 3 Cents NATION-WIDE HUNGER DEMONSTRATIONS FEBRUARY 10 The Washington Scene are irresistibly tempted to take the United States Government by the nape of the neck and hold it up where all may see exactly what a wonderful institution it is. It is too respectable, too moral, to maintain diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union; but it has the mountainous effrontery to seriously propose in Congress that the Soviet should allow a horde of its own spies to run around the Soviet Union to “investigate labor conditions.” Meanwhile, labor conditions in the United States itself are such that Chairman Cramton of a Congressional Committee, admits that there are “20,000,000 people lacking the necessities of life,” as a result of unem~ ployment. In reality there are more than 20,000,000. But the fact that millions of workers and a million of the farm popu- lation in addition (this last is admitted by the Red Cross) are destitute and starving, by no means indicates that tle U. S. Government is going to do anything about it—except to let them starve. Indeed, the Hoover administration is vigorously insisting that they shall starve. After jockeying around in Congress with various so-called “relief bills’ supposedly to do something for the straving farmers, Presi- dent Hoover trots out the Red Cross and ‘has it officially refuse to accept any appropriation that Congress might make to feed the million starving farm_ population. This astounding action takes place while the Red Cross is trying to raise $10,000,000. What the row is about, of course, is over who pays. The U. S. Government, that almost daily hands. back taxes it has collected from big corporations and millionaires to the tune of hundreds of millions, insists that. the rich be relieved from paying taxes, and equally insists that employers use “pressure” upon their workers to make these workers raise the’ $10,000,000 wanted by the Red Cross. It is, of course, ridiculous to assume that the Red Cross can, or everT wants to, give adequate relief to the million people starving on the farms. And neither does the “opposition” to Hoover grow hot over Hoover's in- sistence that the farmers starve, out of any noble principle, but ‘because firstly they want votes, and“ equally ,they are terror-stricken with fear that if the farmers are left to starve they, the farmers, may get down the old rifle and not to shoot rabbits, either} but: to seize food and refuse to pay rents and mortgages and defend themselves against evictions. But if this is causing turmoil at the seat of government, so also is the demand of the ex-servicemen for payment of their “tombstone bonus.” The American Legion tried its best to suppress the demand, but the workers among the veterans are forcing the issue. . whi very idea of givini Congressmen are cautiously say.ag that “some kind” of must be done, Andy Mellon comes out and““denounces” the ~ a penny to the veterans, on the ground that even talk- ing about it has caused tears in a “ruined bond market.” ‘So a first- class fight is in nt on that quarter. To top it all, now the U.'S. Government has had to arrest one of its most relizble killers, Major parent ‘ie: te of “UBho! Gen. Smedley Butler, because of the ap- | ine the well known reputatién of Mussolini for kind-heartedness and nobility of soul. In reslity, the U. line up with ceftain other European Young Plan and all, w! here, avein ton ex! in the Butler case, the hington. Delegation of t millions of wor certain in their and determined to keep on fichting for those demands until they are won! Forward, workers, for the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bjll! loyed will visit this Washington in the name of S, Government is troubled at Mussolini’s efforts to nations against the Versailles treaty, h might deeply touch Wall Street interests. But management of affairs at Washing- | hibits: all the confusion, disintegration and decay of the whole And on February 10 the National | opinions, concrete in their demands, United Textile __ Co. for Its Strike Breaking More details on the most shameless sell out of the United Textile Work- ers long career of treachery have ar- rived.from Danville. The strike which | started Sept. 29, 1930, was against | a@ ten per cent wage cut earlier in the year, as well as against a. policy the Dan River Mills had shown of discharging unionists. The U.T.W. leaders persistently opposed a strike, and even now, Vice President Gor- man in his statement to the press ending the struggle states that the union officials “fully realized at the time that economic conditions exist- ing throughout the country, particu- larly the unemployment \ situation, made a protest of this kind on the part. of organized labor inexpedient and untimely.” The many-timds repeated state- ments before the strike of the U.T. W. officials that their, union “would never strike,” showed the employers that it was perfectly safe to rely on Gorman and President McMahon of the U.T.W. as strike breakers. The. strike was forced by the rank and file. \ (A history of the misleadership and treachery of the U.T.W. will appear in Monday's Daily Worker). There is so far no announcement of the result of the.vote on going back as indtviduals, defeated, which the U.T.W. ordered taken Thursday. 1 any event, they count the ballots. What Vice President Gorman did Ciitef Lauds - | Was to simply anrlounce late Thurs- day that the strike was over, that | the workers should go back as indi- viduals and try to get their jobs if they could, and to defend this retreat with the most amazing claim of vic- tory ever put forward. Several weeks | ago Gorman announced that all ‘the strike was for was recognition of the union. And Thursday he stated in the capitalist press: “However, during the past weeks it has been increasingly plain, both from press statements and from Mr. Fitzgerald and by the action of the company in taking old em- ployes back in the mills in con- siderable numbers without rasiing the question of union membership, that this principle of labor is being respected, “With this fundamental prin- | ciple no longer questioned, those especially charged with the inter- ests of organized labor feel that the necessity for this strike no longer exists, and members of the union ‘are called upon-to return to their work as promptly as places may be found for them. The “action of the company in taking old employes back” was, of course, before the strike ended, ani was simply giving jobs to the several hundred men out of 4,000 on strike, who had been on strike and went back to scab. Raid Birmingham Communist ,Headquarters; Arrest Five BIRMINGHAM, Als., Jan. 31—Police raided headquarters of the Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity Leagudé here! yesterday and arrested Harris Gibbert, District Organizer of the Young Communist League, and four other workers, They are held on char of criminal anarchy and under the “red flag” law. Besides, the polcie siezed a great deal, of literature, lettérs, mimeograph supplies and other materials found in the office. ! si Police are now searching for other organizers of the Communist Party and revokutionary trade unions. The effective advance of organizing the Negro and white workers against ‘wage cuts and unemployment is, the reacon for the raids. The Southern bosses in ‘this. important industrial cb: , through fascist terror, want to stamp out working class organi- vation, . ‘ ‘ander the criminal anarchy law passed in Alabama in 1923, those erre: oc face jail terms up to ten ‘Years and fihes of $5,000. All worktrs ‘ nits. sally to the defense of these arrested workers in the South. The VOICE OF Play for Pressure on Mussolini WASHINGTON, Jan. 30.—Major General Smedley D. Butler of the U. S. marines is the leading figure in aestage-play arranged by the State Department to give Mussolini a fore- taste of the greater pressure Wall Street will bring to bear to swing fascism into line with the leading im- perialist powers. While Butler is under “arrest” and awaiting court-martial what he said has the fullyendorsement of the Hoo- | ver government. Butler, in the course | of a speech at the Contemporary,| Club of Philadelphia on Jan. 19th, | stated that Mussolini was a “mad | dog” driving to war and must be stopped. | He further recited a story about | Mussolini running over a little girl | in an armored car and carelessly | | {CONTINUED ON PAG | FIVE) |3inclair Becomes Tool of Anti-Soviet War Campaigr (Wirefess by Inprecorr) | BERLIN. — Great sensation has been caused by “Vorwaerts” of Ber- | | my publishing a letter from Upton clair against the leader of the In= tornational Workers Relief, Munzen- berg. ' Sinclair protests that Munzenberg put his (Sinclair’s) name under an appeal protesting against the war campaign against the Soviet Union. Sinclair at the same time alleges to be still for Soviet jRussia. It is a well known fact that the Vorwaerts is the Central Organ of the social democratic party and is the worst jingo paper against Soviet Russia, not only in Germany, but in the whole world. There are no lies against Soviet Russia base enough which Vorwaerts would not publish. Even Brandler's Berlin Daily which is noted for its campaign against the Communist Party and _ especially against Munzenberg, expresses sur- prise at Sinclair's action of using the Vorwaerts as his mouthpiece. WALL ST. His Arrest Is Stage) plan beca B Deedine and Sandad Oil BUTLER IS Press Anti-Soviet War Plans | BULLETIN. (Wireless by Inprecorr.) | BERLIN.—Welt am Abend reports that Deterding is in | Berlin negotiating to secure the oil monopoly with Standard | Oil, excluding Soviet Oil. Germany was offered a billion | loan as a reward. Finance Minister, Dietrich, supports the | difficulties. se the loan offers possibility of settling the budget Deterding was reported tg have met Minister Treviranus Rechberg. | intriguer, Deterding. OUT WEST! THEY x . and Duisberg of the Dye Trust as well as Schacht and Arnold | | Welamabend demands the expulsion of the unserpwous ® FIGHT FOR JOBLESS INSURANCE; BILL TO BE FORCED ON CONGRESS; FEBRUARY 25 IS INTERNATIONAL FIGHTING DAY! Red International Calls All Build Councils of the Unemployed; Unions To Aid Dressmakers Strike) of the Employed! ‘Many Organizations At Conference Today DEMAND RELIEF! Scene of hunger demonstration in Denver, held January 22, when thousands of American workers joined the demand for unemployment insurance and immediate relief. Ham Fish will have a‘hard time try- ing to deport most of these workers, as nearly all of them were born .) in the United States. Detroit Partiat Returns | DETROIT, Jan. 30.—First partial returns in the special election in the Second Senatorial Distriet in Detroit, | credit Phillip Raymond, Communist candidate, with 647 votes, out of a total of 9,735, a little more than 6 per cent. This is more than three times the proportiom received in the November -elections, when, from a total of over 31,000 votes the Com- munist candidate received 658. Ex- ;teme apathy among the voters Danbury Needle Workers Forum DANBURY, Conn.—All fur workers |and hatters are invited to attend the | Open Forum and hear the speaker |from New York City at the Needle | Trades Industrial Union headquar- ters, 253 Main Street, this Sunday afternoon, February 1, at 3 p.m. 93 Delegates Meet to Organize Small Farmers of Michigan MASS, Mich., Jan. 30.— Ninety- three delegates from 25 different lecalities representing 14 different workers and farmers organizations met here to organize the upper pe- ninsula farmers into the United Farmers League. The enthustasm of the delegates was shown by the thunderous ap- plause given the different represent- atives giving reports and greetings. The delegates themselves- took the floor one after the other and brought out the unbearable conditions of the small farmers in Michigan. The de- legate from Paynesville showed how year ago 45% of the farmers were unable to pay their taxes and how now the percentage is 60. “The delegates showed how it was neg for the farmers to ‘seek work im the lumber camps and mills in order to get a living, and at pre- sent no work is ayailable, so they are simply forced to starve. Delegates from around Mass. called attention to the fact that the government was making huge tax refunds to the bos- ses, how the taxes of the copper trust had been cut, while on the other hand the farmers taxes remain the same or even go up. Another pointed out how crooked county officials em- bezzle $30,000 from the county and nothing is done about it and the de- ficit is taken out of the poor farm- ers’ hides by increasing their taxes. How gambling in food stuffs has sent down the price of butter, fat and eggs, while stil maintaining high prices to the public. Many farmers said they had been fotced to sell their cows and chickens. A committee was elected. to carry International Labor Defense is demanding the ,eleake of the arrested” on the work of organization. The conference decided to distribute the U. F. L. platform and the “United Farmer” among the farming terri- tories. GEYSER, Mont., Jan. 30.—Three- hundred farmers with their wives and children gathered this afternoon in the Community Hall to hear Wil- lis L. Wright; the District Organizer of the Communist Party, tell the truth about the exploiting capitalist system and offer a program for or- ganiation and struggle of the poor farmers. Show Communist Vote Up marked the special election. Election officials are very slow reporting Communist votes. | Whose Credentials Were Delayed; G.E.B. and Strike Comm. Take Up Problems | NEW YORK. — The International Committee of Needle Workers of the| |Red International of Labor Unions| has issued a call to all the workers| in the needle industry and all other | industries to give their wholehearted support to the coming strike of the! dvessmakers. The call of the Red In-| ternational of Labor Unions pointed | out the conditions to which the dress- “)makers are subjected, due to the greed of the bosses and the greater} treachery on the part of the Schles-} }inger company union. AT POST OFFICE. PROTEST TODAY Demand Mail Right: for Worker Press NEW YORK.—The workers of New | York will demonstrate today at the | Important Details. | Post Office at 8th Ave. and 33rd St. |at 1 p.m. and demand that the work- ingclass newspapers, the Young Pio- |neer, Vida Obrera and the Young Worker be given back their mailing |rights. ‘Those workers who will be | delegates to the United Front Con- | ference of the Needle Trade Workers | Industrial Union at 2 p.m., will go to the conference directly after the de | monstration. i Workers of all organizations are | coming to this demonstration which will be the first real answer to the | all workingclass newspapers be de- clared illegal. The International Labor Defense in a statement issued today says: “The Hoover government BIG N.J. BANK GOES 10 SMASH |New Wave of Failures Reported More big bank crashes are being reported in the capitalist press, after nearly a month of suppression of such news. None of the capitalist papers reported the fact that in De- cember, 1930, more than 425 banks crashed, ‘The latest big bank to crash is the| Peoples Banking and Trust Company’| of Elizabeth, N. J., which closed its| doors Wednesday. The bank has three | branches and deposits of over $8,000,- | 000. As in all other bank crashes, the directors declare that the “bank is solvent.” The directors of the Bank of United States said the same thing; only later facts showed that at least $100,000 had been robbed from the in- side, 7 Two bank crashes were reported in one day in West Virginia. The Union Bank and Trust Co. of Huntington, | W. Va., smashed Wednesday. More! than $1,857,817 in deposits is involved. The New Martinsville Bank, of New| Martinsville, W. Va., closed. on the | thru its Fish Committee has started |@ campaign to suppress all workers publications and to smash the mil- | itant movement of the working class. The drive of terror has started. The | Young Worker, official organ of the ; Young Communist League, Young | Pioneer, papers of the workers chil- | dren, Viue Obrera, a Spanish weekly | have been banned from the mails for political reasons. The plans of the bosses to do away with the organs of defense of the working class must be smashed! The workers of the Uni- ted States must not allow the sup- pression of their press. The workers must demand full rights for the papers that fight for unemployment insurance, against war, for the pro- tection of the militant foreign born workers against deportation, etc. demands of the Fish Committee that | Last night the General Executive Board held a joint meeting with the enlarged strike committee including the entire executive committee of the |shop delegates council. | At that meeting very important |questions concerning the detailed |plans for the coming strike and the demands for which an immediate |struggle is to be started, were dis-| | cussed and decided upon. A full re- port of these decissions will be pub- | |lished soon in the Daily Worker. | The Needle Trades Workers In-| ustrial Union is intensifying the drive for the $15,000 strike fund and it is certain that the United Front conference to be held this afternoon will give both its sanction and stim- ulous to the raising of this fund to enable the union to conduct the} strike effectively. | Fight All Wage Cuts! New Orleans Latest to Get Into Action - BULLETIN ALBANY, N. Y., Jan. 30.—The unemployed marched on City Hall to demand that Mayor Thacher call the bluff of Governor Roose- velt who said that he had ordered the armories opened to lodge the jobless if the mayors would request it. The mayor declared that the demand for the armory and the other demands of the unemployed council were “unnecessary.” The Unemployed Councils of the Trade Union Unity League will lead a nation-wide mass demonstration in support of the Workers ‘Unemploy- ment Insurance Bill on Feb. 10, when that bill and the great roll of signa- tures secured on it will be forced upon the United States Congress. The degree of seriousness With which cqngress, the executive committee of the whole capitalist class, is forced to receive the demands of the bill will depend on the amount of mass pressure behind it. And this will de- pend very largely on the speed and jintensity of the campaign to organ- ize Councils of the Unemployed everywhere, on their persistent fight against evictions and for relief, and on the mass signature collections during the few days left. International Fighting Day. But this whole national demon- stration, following as it does count- |less city demonstrations, is itself but Large Representation. | From reports received at the time j the Daily Worker goes to press, the| | United Front Conference will appar-| jently have a large representation of many workers’ organizations which | | have not sent in their credentials but | whose delegates will bring them to | the conference. In many cases there | Were no meetings held recently and a great number of organizations will j be represented by their officials. So |far the following organizations have | sent in their credentials: International Workers» Order: Branches No. 10, 19, 20, 24, 27, 49, 56, | CONTINUED ON MARKED THREE, Ark., Jan, 30.— Starving share croppers being fed charity meals by the Red Cross here are forced to work in wet trenches and cleaning drainage districts for the scrimpy meal they get. same day. They had $1,000,000 in| deposits. To get the paltry allowance of $2 weekly per couple, plus 50 cents ad- _No P Daily Worker: Dear Comrades: Enclosed, I am sending you an ex- act copy of a letter to the “Milwau- kee (mis) “Leader,” organ of the so- cialist party, which I asked them to print in their “Open Forum”. after they had written to me and asked me why I had quit their paper. This letter was sent to them more than a month ago, but they did not print it, neither did they answer the letter. Will you please print the copy of this letter in our Daily Worker, and show up these fakers. —A, H. May ee Unity, Wisc., Dec. 10, 1930. The Milwaukee Leader, Milwaukee, Wis. To the Editor: Having been a socialist for almost. Worker, After 20 Years in §.P. Joins the Communists twenty years and a subscriber to your paper the past 14 or 15 years and having now quit your paper and your party, you want to know what is wrong. So here goes: Why do you print long articles about Soviet Rus-| sia telling of the wonderful advance} in all lines of industry, education and| | also read a letter that came direct | from Russia and it told the same “Socialist Party Serves Bosses; Is lace for Honest Workers” ] I know that these things are all true because I personally talked with a man that just came from Russia and he told the same thing. I have story, and on top of that you tell) us through your paper that unem-_ ployment is new a thing of the past} in the USSR, that the standards of | living for the masses are being rap- idly raised and modern homes with all conveniences for the workers are taking the place of the * wretched the standards of living, the record-| novels of by-gone days; that where breaking speed with which the Turk- eighty per cent of the population Sib railroad was completed. the al-, could not read or avrite under capital- most unbeHevable speed with which ism and the czar, that when the five- modern machinery and methods are| year plan is up illiteracy will be al- being cast aside, that the carrying, most wiped out. out of the five-year plan ts now al- most a sure thing and probably will be completed in four years, Is not the USSR doing all these (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) “Getting So 1 Don't Mind to Go Without Supper”, Says Child ditional for each child up to a total of $4.50, the share croppers are made to work at least two days a week. Many share-croppers, particularly the Negro share croppers, are forced |by the Red Cross to work for their | landlords for $1 a week, plus $1 from the Red Cross. Most of the share croppers are forced into the damp trenches scanti- ly clad and without adequate protec- | tion against the dampness. The New Orleans Times Picayune, in a mild report on conditions here, admit that |* Some of these (share croppers) have been reporting for work for their Red Cross alotments with shoes worn through in the sole and clothed only in a shirt nad overalls.” The same paper admits that many of the men go without their suppers so their families can have .a little more than the meager allowance of the Red Cross. “One little tot in the ‘soup line’ at the school remarked ‘I’m getting so I don’t mind to go without my supper now’.” | Coney Island Open Forum Sunday NEW YORK.—The Gonzales branch of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, an organization of Negro and white workers and poor farmers, will hold its second open forum Sun- day evening, Feb. 1, at 8 o'clock at its center, 2853 W. 3rd St, “Coney Island. Sam Nesin, secretary of the Unem- ployed Councils of Greater New York, will speak on ie |a stage in the struggle. On Feb. 25 there will be an international fight- ing day for unemployment insur- ance. The Communist Parties and the revolutionary unions of the var- ious countrieS have sent out the call for this struggle. Included among those endorsing the Internationa! Fighting Day, Feb. 25, are the Com- munist Party of U. S. and the Trade Union Unity League. The demands of the national. day of demonstra- tions are for the passage of the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill, and the demands of the inter- national demonstration are for real insurance in each country, also for a lump sum of relief, large enough to support each jobless worker and his family during the winter, and for no wage cuts, no lengthening of (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) PROTEST MURDER OF WHITE YOUTH L.S.N.R. to Hold Mass Protest Meetings NEW YORK.—The City Commit- tee of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights last night issued a burning protest against the lynching by a mob of rich North Dakota fgrm- ers of Charles Bannon, a 22-year old white youth. The LS.N.R. City Committee also decided to hold a series of mass meetings in Harlem and throughout the city to rally the Negro and white masses in protest against this latest outrage against the working-class. The committee will call upon other | organizations, white and Negro, to |take part in these demonstrations {against the, boss lynching terror which took over 38 victims last year and has started the new year with 7 already for January. The Central Committee and all its departments have moved to the Workers’ Center, 35 E. 12th St. New ‘York City. All mail, should be addressed to: P.O, Box 87 Station D, New York City, All telegrams should be ad- dressed to 35 E. 12th St,