The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1931, Page 4

Published by the Comprodafty Publishing Co. ith Street, New York City, Addrese and mati all checks to the Dally Worker, Tse, dafly, Telephone Algonquin 1956-7. except Sanday, uw Y Cable: St 80 Best “DAIWORK." 50 Hast 18th Strest, New York, N. ¥, Daily, oe ee MR. GORMAN-THE DANVILLE, BOSSES’ BEST FRIEND (Editor's Note.—Since this article was writ- ten, Gorman has called off the Danville strike and praised the company for taking scabs dur- ing the strike without asking whether they were union men or not). a.) tae By CLARA HOLDE R. FRANCIS J. GORMAN, vice-president of the United Textile Workers Union, and so- called leader of the Danville cotton mill strike, | has proved to be the bosses’ best friend. He has* consistently played the bosses’ game from day of the strike, and has con- the very fir sistently acted against the interests of the work- | ers. | No one going into Danville would know a strike was on. except for the several hundred | militia. men. members of the National Guard | and extra cops. ‘There is no mass picketing, no © strike committee, evictions of active strikers ace with no attempt to pre them. onl ' a week are held. sisters! onl d is recognition of the unfon there is no defense committee, no licity com- mit‘es, no entertainment committee, no da no bulletins, nothing is done to keep up the morale of the ; ‘Tt seems like our leaders home and wait. It seems like they don't want to do anything.” vice president of the Wom- (the other chief strike I stilda Lindsay, en’s Trade Union League leader). says “The most sp cular thing about this strike is that there is nothing spec- tacular about it. There is no violence. The po- lice chief is fair. Police have not attacked peace- ful pickets.” (Federated Pres , 1930), Workers Voted Strike ‘The strike was voted by a 95 per cent majority of the 4,000 workers of the Dan River and River- side Mills. on September 19, 1930, when Gorman was out of town. The workers were prevented from striking for Gorman, who said a representative of the U. S. Bureau of Conciliation would come to Danville. So for ten days, until September 29, when the strike actually took place, the man- agement had time to prepare for the strike, com- plete orders and transfer work to other mills. At the time of the strike there was about $100,000 worth of goods being bleached. If the work on this material had not been finished in three days, the goods would have been spoiled. An excellent strategic Situation. Mr. Gorman stated: “We want to show our good faith with the management. The bleachers must go in and finish their work.” and he ordered them back to scab on the other strikers, and present the bosses with $100.000 with which to fight the strike. There has not been a strike in Danville sine? 1901. 1d most of the ikers are’ com- pletely inexncrienced. They “We thought that was a kind of funny wat to begin a strike.” The Cop As a Mettiber "At the first strike meeting. the chief speaker was a M ibal Marti. Martin is the chief of polic> of Danville. He made a wonderful speech, telline the strikers to be quiet and peace- ful, obey the law and not get drunk. He con- fided to the strikers that he was on their side. Miss Lincsay cutely said: “Everyone thinks. Mr. Ma: es a union card in his pocket. (Feder- | ated Press. Oct. 1930). The strikers say: “How covld he be on our side. , We know that police chief, Is r-vord’s not so good, either, Where money is cone2rned.” That sneech wes certcinly. worth a cool $5,000 | :* to the mill maragement. When the were thrown at the pickets, Mr. n, the strikers’ friend, threw the ‘be he left his U.T.W. union card or maybe he didn't. knew that they must picket in At first they not only kept out . but also refused to let in any over- | . superintendents or watchmen; when Mr. HP. Fitz: jd, president of the company, drove vm i9 cece of the mills in his big car one day, the strikers picked up his car bodily, turned it around and told him to run along home! This, of -ec shocked Mr. Gorman very much, who told them not to act that way. In tite meantime, carloads of coal were piling up’in the mill yards—several hundred of them would have to be emptied. It cost the company $5 a day each day each carload remained un- load=d. Mr. Gorman refused to let the strikers | keep the coal from being unloaded. The strikers say: “%Why,*it would have been easy to keep the coal there in the car.” Would Violate Injunction As soon es possible, the bosses got an in- junction azainst picketing. The workers wanted to vio’ate the injunction, and picket anyway. They | even used to go down to the mill gates and tele- phone back to the leaders, saying scabs were go- ing in, shouldn't they picket? Gorman repeat- edly ordered them not to, even saying, “The scabs won't/ hurt the strike; they're unskilled workers.” About 1,500 to 2,000 got in, only two er three hundred being strikers. ‘The strikers say: “We knew we should picket. | We could have kept those scabs out, but the | leaders kept saying: ‘Don't do this and don't do th One striker says: “I would gladly do five years if necessary, for fighting for my rights.” Needless to say, the chief of police did his duty in seeing the injunction was carried out. and rm Rt Hanribil Mar first one. Ma: at hone that The ord. any seer her Green Comes. As a masterly stroke, Mr. Gorman invited down his boy friend, Mr. William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor. At a huge meeting, on December 30, of 7,000 strikers and their families, Mr. Green urged the strikers to immediately go back to work; upon their return grievances would be adjusted by a committee of five. two from the union, two from the manage- ment. and the fifth either Ex-Governor H. F. Byrd, of Virginia, or Admiral R. E. Byrd (N.Y. Times; Dec. 31, 1930). In other words, three to two for the bosses, “We didn’t like the sound of that at all,” the strikers say, “It didn't seem like he could have meant just what he said.” Negro Strikers About 500, or approximately 12 per cent of the strikers are Negroes. They are scrubbers and sweepers. Mr. Gorman has jim crowed them into a separate local. This is the U.T.W. policy. In 1929, President McMahon of the U.T.W. called a Mr. Dayid Clark, a Southern white fanatic, a liar when the latter charged him wtih “pro- Claiming social equality with the Negroes, when speaking in the North,” and on another occasion shouted an emphatic “No!” when asked if he organize Negroes in the same locals with ite workers (Labor and Textiles). tead of helping the strikers strengthen their Danville, Mr. Gorman keeps running — on, sceing the Red Cross, interview- | College St, Charlotte, N. C. ing Secretary of Labor Doak, and reporting to Red Herring Fish that he should make an in- vestigation of the wicked Communists in Dan- ville. The strikers say: “Mr. Gorman called a special meeting on Communists and told us we should run them out of town. We think we ought to have a special meeting on picket- ing.” Back in 1916, 85 per cent of the workers in the mills, the largest cotton -plant in the South, were organized. Then the management stepped in and formed a company union. All the work- ers were asked to vote for or against it. It was very simple. Anyone who voted against it was immediately fired. The company called it “Industrial Democracy.” “I didn’t ‘Know just what that meant,” a worker said, “but I found out right quick it meant ‘Ever: gs for the bosses, and nothing for the workers. In 1930 the bosses tried to make the work- n yellow dog contracts, promising not to union, join a Wage Cuts In 1920, the workers got a 40 per cent cut and a 10 per cent cut in 1924. On February 1, 1930, they got another 10 per cent cut, bringing wages for Negro workers down to an average of $6.91 a week, and white workers from $6 to $15 a week when they worked full time. The mills are often on part time. Even before the last cut, the management admitted workers were getting only $18 a week. Wages were further reduced by weavers being docked for imperfect cloth, fines for breakage. and money being “voted” out. of their pay for donations to the local Red Cross, YMCA, Salvation Army, local hospitals, etc. When given to these institutions, the donations were alw given ni the name of Mr. Fitz- gerald, n in the name of the workers. “Why, | we know those hospitals wouldn't care for us without our paying the regular rate, or any of those organizations do anything for us,” the workers says, “And we didn’t want to give to charity when we haven't enough for our own, but it was a case of be charitable or be fired.” Although thousands of dollars have been given by the workers to the local Red Cross, the Red Cross is stating publicly that it will give no aid to strikers’ families. Money was also de- ducted from the workers’ pay for the many “welfare” schemes of the company union. For small loans, the workers are asked anywhere from 40 per cent to 500 per cent from the mill supervisors. tistics gives $11.23 as the actual weekly earnings of cotton mill workers of Virginia, in 1928. Wages have gone down since then. They are about 30 per cent lower thai! wages in New England; this, although food. clothing and other items are more expensive in the south. Wages—And Salaries said that President Fitzgerald. a leader American Cotton Manufacturers Asso- . and a pillar of the church, gets a sal- $75,000 a year. The com any has also never missed regular payments of 6 per cent on its $7,500,000 of preferred and 10 per cent on its $12,000,000 of common stock, owned by «a handful of stockholders. (Labor and Textiles). Stretch-out was forced on the workers. The company announced it in the following elegant language: “Permitting efficient operatives to run more machines when practicable and there- by to improve their earnings.” ‘(Federated Press, Feb. 1, 1930). Hundreds of workers were thrown on the streets, and those remaining speeded up to an inhuman extent, in one ‘nstance, a weaver being increased to 34 looms, and getting $14 a week, Tt is in the Piece Work Although 55 hours is the legal working week, Danville workers work 60, 70 and sometimes even 80 hours. Most of the work is piece work. The company-owned shacks, from which the strikers are now being evicted, often do not have running water or toilets, and are flimsily built. 20 per cent more for their goods than the other stores. The workers are not able to buy the proper food and pellagra is widespread. What do Mr. Gorman, Mr. McMahon, and Mr. Green say to all this—all these conditions which are not confined to Danville, but to the entire South, affecting 300.000 textile workers? In January, 1930, Mr. Green made a speech in Memphis, Tenn., to 200 business and profes- sional men, about which the Memphis Com- mercial Appeal, a leading southern daily, said: “William Green, president of the American Fed- eration of Labor, might be taken for the pres- ident of a bank, the president of a railroad, a United States senator or a good corporation lawyer. .. . He is the kind of person who de- plores strikes or walk-outs and considers friction between employer and employe a result of mis- understanding of labor conditions. . . Mr. Green made a favorable impression on those who heard him in Memphis. The policies he advocates might have come with propriety from the pres- ident of the American Bankers’ Association or the head of any group of business or profes- sional men.” And Mr. McMahon of the United Textile Workers, in 1929, said: “We aren't talk- ing higher wages. We aren’t talking shorter hours. You can’t express our objectives in those terms. We want to sit down with the mill owners, we want to take up their problems as our problems, we want the owners, ourselves, and the general public to sit down and diagnose the industry's ills and seek mutually a means to heal them.” (Labor and Textiles). The National Textile Workers Union would like to make clear to the Southern workers that we are talking higher wages and shorter hours. We can express our objectives in those terms and more. We do not want to sit down with the mill owners, nor do we consider their prob- lems our problems. We are talking and fighting the bosses for higher wages, shorter hours, for equal rights for Negroes, for a minimum wage of $20, for a shorter work day, for unemployment insurance, and for equal pay for equal work. We are talking and fighting against the stretch- out, against piece work, against overtime, against night work for women, and against all the other thousand and one ways that the mill bosses are squeezing the life out of the mill workers. The National Textile Workers Union will also continue to expose and fight the Gormans, the McMahons, and the Greens, the agents of the bosses, and betrayers of the workers. Southern mill workers, white workers, you have been slaves long enough!! You are fighters and should join a fighting union! Join the National Textile Work- ers Union! National headquarters—77 “Potomska St, New Bedford, Mass. Souther headquarters—Dewcy Martin, 30 8. Negro workers and | The U. S. Bureau of Labor Sta- | The company stores charge as high as | “BROTHERS!” NEWS ITEM:— The “new era” PARTY: LIFE The Correct Approach to the Lenin Recruiting Drive NE of the first districts to send center the plan for the Lenin Recruiting Drive was the Boston district, where already the comrades have started the drive with enthus iasm, connecting it up with all Party campaig? The Plan is a gcod one and the only suggestic that we made to improve it, was the necessi that the Plan-shall not only point out in a cor rect manner the tasks of the units and fracti but at the same time—besides written instruc tions to the basic unit hall include the direci participation in this work of the leading com- rades, whose duty it is to participate in unit meetings, make them conscious of the impor- tance of the drive, work out with them the tasks of the drive, the tasks of single comrades in ap- proaching their fellow workers in the shops, in checking up the activities of the units, ete. And here we publish as an example some of the points included in the instructions sent out to the units in the District Org. Letter of Jan. 20, which shcws how the Boston com- rades approach the problem in a concrete and correct manner. At the same timé we expressed confidence that our suggestions to the Plan will be taken into serious consideration. Of course, the Drive must begin with the working out of a concrete plan, but this is not sufficient. The necessity is self-evident for continual check-up and improvemnet. As the saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” “Although we speak a whole lot about turn- ing ‘the face of the Party towards the fac- tories,” ‘rooting the Party within the factories,’ the in to some sections and units still orientate themselves | towards the language organizations to make them the main recruiting source for new mem- bers. The language organizations can by no means be neglected and we must get from these organizations as many new members as possible, but our main orientation must be to get a maxi- mum number of members from mills and fac- tories. Therefore at every meeting of the unit you must have on the agenda and decide on visiting of contacts from the factory on which you are concentrating. Have the comrades re- port on what contacts they have made speak- ing to workers. at. that factory, etc. “Decide on a date when there should be an open meeting of the unit. To this meeting a maximum number of sympathizers shall be in- vited. A comrade shall be prepared to lead a discussion on the role of the Party. The sym- pathizers shall be stimulated to ask questions and to participate in the discussion and shall be urged to join the Party right there at the meeting. “The recruiting in the language organizations must also be planned and organized. (a) The unit shall in cooperation with the language de- partment and the language bureaus call meet- ings of the fractions in the language organiza- tions. A list of prospective members shall be worked out and comrades shall be assigned to visit them, and here too a close check-up must, be made on the accomplishments of these visits. (b) The fractions should see to it that their respective organizations arrange lectures with Party speakers (in their own language or Eng- lish). The organization to issue leaflets for these lectures inviting: broad masses of workers to attend. “Although we should be careful with whom we take into the Party and not rush’ undeveloped elements into the Party, we must at the same time combat the tendency of being afraid of the workers, the tendency of non-confidence in the workers, which in some units have resulted in that uo new members are taken in and a worker who shows sympathy with the Party and a willingness to participate in the work is shoved aside by our sophisticated elements on the unfounded basis that ‘he might be a. stool pigeon.’ We must be on steady guard against stools but neyer get into a hysteria, so we de- velop the idea that every worker is a stool, “From last year’s experience we learned that many members weye driven out of our Party because of bad function of)the unit. Coming to a meeting on time and have to wait for the opening of the meeting 30 minutes or more and then tha meeting will last for 3-4 hours and Mes of Indian “fre: yorker hrumict Party USA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail averywhere: One year, $6; six montba $3; two monthe, $1: excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: One year, $8; six monthy $456. was Sue driaers by Booed MacDonald ee the aes of five Indian workers. \By BURCK pute The Devil Condemns Fire By HARRISON GEORGE. READER calls our attention to an article entitled “Sabotage” by one Louis Adamic, appearing in Harper’s Magazine for January, quoting for our information the following para- ph: +. There were rumors among the I. W. W’s at, the Communists in the United States. had wders from the new Bolshevik Government in foscow to sabotage on the American industry. xe rumors, I’ am satisfied, were not without undation. Some time later the United States epartment of Justice discovered and published rhat was described as ‘an unquestionably au- entice and confidential circular, sent by the *xecutive Committee of the Soviet Government 9 its agents abroad urging them, among other hing to instigate general and particular ikes, injure machinery and boilers in factories, and do everything. possible to disorganize capi- ‘alist indu: It is worth remark, firstly, that this stupid lie “happens” to be given publication concurrently th the Fish Committee maneuvers and other obvious anti-Soviet war preparations. The “ru- mors among the I-W.W.” and the vaporings of the “Department of Justice” are equally false. | To any Communist, and to any sensible worker, To any Communist, and to any sensible work- | er, it is clear that it is wholly unnecessary for the Soviet Government to instruct its agents to “disorganize American industries.” The Amer- can capitalists have done a pretty thorough job of that themselves. Moreover, only a crack- brained person could fancy that any “Moscow agents"—outside of American industry and with- out the slightest control over it—could disor- ganize it. Such a job can only be done from the inside of industry and by those directing it, as was shown to be the case in Soviet industry by the confessions of the engineers at the Moscow trial. The article by Mr. Adamic undoubtedly was intended to offset the damning evidence of capitalist sabotage in the Soviet Union. Our reader remarks that the article also leaves the inference that the tactics of the Com- munists and of the I. W. V’. are identical as regards sabotage. Practically, of course. the I. W. W. has given up sabotage, except that which it carries on against any revolutionary action of the workers. And this’sabotage is, of course, not “injuring machinery or boilers in factories,” but trying to obstruct and disrupt the organization and action of the masses under Communist leadership. All of which raises the question of definitions as to just what the word “sabotage” means. The Communists have given neither a blanket en- dorsement nor a blanket condemnation of sabo- tage “in general.” Sabotage embraces no eternal and undying “principle” upen which Commu- nists are required to pronounce a categoric judgment. Sabotage, as defined by the horrified capitalists, means principally or wholly, indi- vidual acts of destructive character against machinery. Communists do not share the moral indigna- tion of the capitalists on this point, because a moral attitude is beside the point, but neither do they believe that such individual actions help the workers as a class in any way. The Communists advocate mass action, but not for the purpose of “injuring machinery,” but to take all machinery away from all capi- take up one routine matter after another. An- other new member accepted to go with 3 older comrades in the Party to participate in a leaflet distribution. In the morning he got up early, waited 45 minutes for the other comrades* to show up and_bring the leaflets; the rest of the comrades failed to show up. It is only natural that with such meetings and such methods of work we will not keep the new members in the Party but actually drive them out. “Revolutionary Competition: Section (Boston) ‘challenges Section Two (Rox-Dorch.) to achieve the quota before they do. Section Six (Worcester, ote.) challenges Section Four (New Bedford-Providence), Units must chal- lenge other units within the section and a mem- ber assigned to visit a contact should challenge another member in the unit who is assigned the SE ae Cea tee aoe quicker results,” One | talists, carefully safeguarding these same. capi- talists from injuring it, so it may be used for the benefit of the working class. The I. W. W. not only accepts the definition | | of the capitalists as to what sabotage means, but it accepts also the capitalists’ moral viewpoint toward it—since it got its fingers burned dur- ing the last World War. Hence the I. W. W., which rejects mass action, has ‘had to choose between sabotage and pessimistic inactivity. It leaves each worker to choose, and if he chooses sabotage he is compelled to act as an individual member challenging capitalist moral | and legal codes secretly and alone; which is in- effective to produce any social result, to begin | with, and tends to create an anti-social attitude on the part of the worker engaging in such action, And if the worker does not choose such a mis- taken tactic, the I. W. W. has nothing much left for him to chcose but a miserable fit of pes- simism. Which explains concisely why those workers who have not !2ft the I. W. W. and | come over to the Com:nunist movement, are Pitiable examples of the cy al hopelessness and lack of faith in the working class that is engendered by petty bourgeois radicalism, that talks bravely of sabotage and violence but which slinks out of sight in dismay at the first breath of revolutionary action of the masses, Another instance of the attempt by, the capi- talists to cover up their own crimes by shouting | about “Communist sabotage,” is seen in the lying news reports from Cuba, The N. Y. Times of Jan. 28, gave a dispatch from Havana telling of raids and arrests at the small town of Bata- bano. In part it says: “Large quantities of leaflets were found attacking the administration and urging the people to revolt by refusing to pay taxes and by burning cane plantations and mill proper- ties. The police assert that most of the men seized are Communists of fore‘rn origin who have been undermining the morale of a Peace- ful population devoted strictly to fishing.” | What absurdity! The humble fisher-folk “de- | voted” to the ancient tzcade of fishing, are se- duced by Communists, who are, as is invariably the case in all countries “of foreign origin”! The Communist Party of Cuba certainly is against the Machado government. But so are numerous and powerful Cuban capitalists. The Communists are calling the masses to action by strikes and demonstrations on the basis of their , simple daily needs, for bread and land. | But the Cuban capitalists in opposition to the | Machado regime, frustrated ‘in their struggle to | take his place by ridiculous “elections” and | close contro’ of the army,-are resorting to in- dividualist sabotage, the bombing of buildings and the burning of sugar cane and sugar mills, because, and this is the important point, they are afraid to call upon the masses for action, for fear that these: masses, listening more to the Communists than to these capitalists, would “go too far” and take the canefields for the peas- antry and the factories for the workers. In this individual violence against property, we see the essence of petty bourgeois revolu- tionism which has nothing, absolutely nothing, in common with the Communist Party. Yet it is highly ironical for the trembling gentlemen of Harper’s Magazine to moralize about destruc- tion of property, in a society run by capite'ists who are trying to “solve” their insane produc- tion system by burning up coffee because there is “too much”; by “reducing wheat if while millions go without bread, and other luna- , tic actions only possible under capitalist class | sistant Superintendent. | pers,” says the Associated Press, “are responsible | ful demands for the latest modes, should heed rule. Workers! Join the Party of Your + Class! Communist Party 0 S A P. O, Box 87 Station D. New York City Please send me more information on the Cum- munist Party. NAME ....sseescesecccsssccesceseeseneseceeneses, Address seseses eeeee Clty ..eseeees: toes Sinatra heen seeveveeeeeees ABO sooeee By JORGE Perfectly Gentle Wars The Brooklyn “Daily Times” of Jan, 25, came out with an editorial called “Humanity in War,” just to remind us that wars will always be “nec- essary’—to capitalism, and to recall tq our at- tention that the Kellogg Pact will no more “pre~ vent war” than the “Truce of God” made back in the Middle Ages, The “Daily Times” says that “human naturel is responsible. “But there is no reason,” it adds, “why such wars should not be conducted with. humanity.” And it cites Admiral William V. Pratt; chief of operations (ugh! operations!) of the U. S. Navy, as saying that it is possible to: conduct war in “a somewhat Jawful manner.” Legality, of course, is not just exactly synony- mous with humanity. About the inference that “human nature” is simply aching for war, a reader comments: “It apparently infers that we like to shoot ourselves full of holes just for recreation. And the editorial sees no reason why wars can't be conducted with humanity. It seems the writer was cramped for space or he would have made a few suggestions. Let us say, for example, no shooting below the belt, or maybe all bayonets should be sterilized, or maybe no poison gases should be used during lunch hour. One thing is certain, that when the workers turn their guns_ against the capitalists, all pleas for nae will be in vain." ( x ' ie sc oe Varmints; Habitat, Butte, Mont. vores From that center of copper and hell know. as Butte, Montana, we get the following bi 8 a hard rock miner: “As one purpose of this paper is education, toe day we will study rats; Rats, or, as they are. better known to Butte men of science, “Genus Rahilla” or “Rat-hilla,” from their dens amohg filth carry with them frequently the Buboni¢e plague, “But this rat brought to Butte, along with his Christ loving associate, a pestilence known as the “One Man on a Machine System,” some- times called “widow makers.” I have watched this rat Rahilla and the church rat Kerrigan, with no little interest, develop from the larval stage of Assistant Foreman to the stage of As- Both developed out of the first stage to the secondary stage, by: per- verse tactics. ~ “Rahilla, however, stands out as the most faithful whip of the bosses. Today he again comes, to the front, and’ showed all his natural filth by keeping a worker's card for the black- list on pretense of hiring him. This poor work- er is illiterate and could not read the papers he was handing out to the poor starving rustlers. “Miners, are you going to stand for this mis- erable condition? Join the Mine Union of .the Trade Union Unity League, and fight to abolish the Rustling Card, known to the bosses as. the “Slave Tag System,” and help rid the mines of rats and pests like Rahilla and Kerrigan.—J. K.” Here You Are Again! Again the issue of short skirts is raised. “Flap- for some unemployment.” Which it explains as the gist of a speech by Miss Frances Perkins, New York State Labor Commissioner, at the home of Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt, The lady labor commissioner contended that “garment workers, instead of catering to youth- the average ‘middle aged woman,- and they'd have business at a normal pace throughout the year.” Evidently the lady labor commissioner {s her- self middle aged, if not “average,” but what we wanted to note was that Miss Perkins’ ideas. match nicely into the Trotskyite theory of the economic crisis recently revealed in this column, with the single difference that the Trotskyites~ claim the long skirt caused the crisis, while the lady commissioner thinks it is the short skirt. Oe ete, Ear Rubbing in Rochester “Rochester may be a hick town, but when it comes to sophism, we'll run New York City“a close second. The police chief has on numerous occasions assured us of his hearty cooperation in holding demonstrations, hunger marches, eté, To prove it, didn’t he send about two dozen cops armed with tear gas bombs and night sticks to ‘protect? us at the recent Lenin Memorial Meeting? “But now, alas, a former Assistant ‘District Attorney has the audacity to charge our “re- fined” and “educated” police (in this respect un- like those of New York City, according to the Police Chief) of using third degree methods in obtaining confessions. “Just because the dicks playfully pull the ends of a guy’s mustache or ‘rub his ears’ or blacken a couple of his eyes (methods charged by the. former Assistant District, Attorney as having been witnessed by him) are they to be calléd brutal? “When Comrade ‘Tem was slugged by @ couple of thugs in the hire of the local Amalgamated Machine, did not Chief Dick McDonald hush up the inquiry? “Now, a couple of cockroach businessmen are charged with arson, and in turn thelr lawyer, the former District Attorney, charges the po- lice with obtaining their confessions by brutal ity, and Police Commissioner Barker with: ‘While I was not Present W were brought in, I doubt very severe methods were used bureau,’ “we challenge New York City’s’ sume Mulrooney to go this-one better—H. 8.” y ° ee Why, Mr. Bennett! Mr. Bennett, Mr. John J. Bennett; Jr, is Attorney General of the great state of New York, thus it came as a shock to one of out readers who called our attention to it, to read in the N. Y. Telegram of Jan. 21, right on the front page in big black type, the following: head- ine: “51 Bedford Girls Arrive in Buses with 18 Bables; Surprise to Corrigan—Chief Bees eaiscwus + 896 2 [CR dD se Rp Sstaestdeens se. Spars # Big Bee 3a | 3) wey 8 FEE ggee3 532 gee ha8 ey