The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 19, 1931, Page 1

The Unemployed Councils Are the Fighting Organizations for Immediate Relief and Unem- ployment Insurance for the Unemployed Workers. Or- ganize Them Everywhere Vol. VIII, No. 44 at New York, N.Y. ae ered ns seccnd class matter at the Post Office <@@ip>21 (Section of under the art of March 3, 1979 SAS the Communist anit ~C)> Interna orker Party U.S.A. tional) NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1931 CITY EDITION WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Price 3 Cents PREPARE MASS DEMONSTRATION FOR FEBRUARY 25! Out More Shops Robbing the War Veterans [ASHINGTON politicians of all political faiths are busily concerned these days with the war veterans bonus loan bill. It is not yet cer- tain what the final outcome of these maneuvers will be. The Bacharach bill has already been adopted by the House with an overwhelming vote. The bill is now before the Senate Finance Committee. According to schedule it will be adopted by the Senate today. In the event Hoover vetoes the bill, which still remains doubtful, the threat in both the House and the Senate is to pass the bill over the presidential veto. But all this is only a tempest in a teapot; there are no real differ- ences on the issue. They are all agreed that the workers among the veterans, now sorely pressed by unemployment and wage cuts, must be made the goats in any settlement reached. The great majority of the Senators and Representatives, in their anxiety to prevent the veterans from joining in the fight of the unemployed for immediate relief and for unemployment insurance and to secure the veterans’ support in the 1932 elections, wish to rob the veterans in such a way as to actually make them think that they are getting something now for little or nothing. This is shown by the following New York Times report: “According to some usually loyal followers of President Hoover, one of its (the bill's) designs is to prevent the next Congress from pass- ing a measure which would provide for the immediate cash payment of the jull face value of the certificates.” Later on in the same report it states that “President Hoover might n Dress Strike; Extend Picketing —-% MUST SWELL PICKETING - T0 WIN: STRIKERS SHOW GOOD FIGHTING SPIR,T Go Out In Rain to Bring Out More Shops for Strike; Hold Many Meetings All Over the City Hundreds of Shops Need Picket Lines to Get Workers Out On Strike Girls In Shop Write of Slave Conditions and | | Frame-UbIn | Nessin Case Is Deteated NEW YORK. — Mass pressure of} the workers plus the fact that Jaz-{ zy Mayor Walker did not want to be questioned by thé three leaders of! the October 16th delegation that he ordered slugged in the city hall, was| responsible for the discharge of the case against Sam Nesin, Robert Lea- less and Milton Stone yesterday in the Court of Special Sessions. The three leaders of the Unem- ployed Council conducted their own) defense. They refused to go on with the case until Walker stated he would be present. The District @étorney put on two witnesses. One was a Tammany cop who helped to slug | orkers Will Mass In Albany March, 400 Combers Strike in 4 Lawrence Woolen Mills | Ask National Textile Workers Union to Lead Them; Threatens to Spread— Workers Fight Inhuman System BULLETIN | LAWRENCE, Feb. 18. — Four American woolen mills have been af- “6 Union Sq. at 4:30 p.m.; Feb. 26 Albany Hunger March Leaders to Speak at Square NEW YORK—New York workers will come out on Union Square on February 25 in participation in the demonstrations against unemploy- ment and for unemployment insur- ance which will occur all over the country and throughout the capitalist world on that day. The leaders of the Albany Hunger Appeal! for Aid In Calling Out All Needle Workers the defendants, and the other was the official stenographer of the Board | of Estimates. The stenographer's approye the bill because of the argument that it would forestall a full- payment measure in the next Congress.” Until now, however, Secretary Mellon, undoubtedly speaking also for | March, which will start out for the | State Capital on February 26, will | be among the speakers at the Union fected by the Combers strike here. Ayer Mill combers joined the Wash- ington and Wood Mill strikers today. The strike is spreading to the Shawshee Miil, if it is not settled today. The strikers have extended the Hoover, has opposed any additional payments to the Veterans on their bonus certificates. This opposition is based on the fact that such pay- ments would cause some slight immediate embarrassment to the Treas- ury department and, of even greater importance, because of their cynical disregard for the suffering now widespread among the unemployed and underpaid veterans. It appears, though, that the argument of the major- ity will prevail and that the Bacharach bill will be adopted with or without Hoover's approval. And what does this Bacharach bill actually mean for the veterans? Does it mean that Congress is doing something for the veterans? De- cidedly not! By means of this bill the workers among the veterans, who badly need the money, will actually liquidate their bonus certificates at 50% of their face value.. Under the terms of this bill a veteran may bor- | row. up to 50% of the face value of his bonus certificate and “the veteran is to pay 412% compound interest.” Or as Representative Hawley put it: “The average face value of the certificates is practically $1,000. If a veteran borrows the 50%, authorized by the bill . .. at the end of fourteen years (the expiration date—Ed.) the’accumulated interest will | be some $420 (actually pi Sa he will have as a remainder | due him about $80.00 (actually d.)” | So the veteran now borrows $500 to tide himself through a crisis pe- riod. He must repay this $500 and in addition another $428.90 as interest. The government, therefore, taking advantage of the hardships which the veterans and their families are now facing, liquidates the veterans’ bonus certificates for half price. And this of course, only affects the workers and poor farmers among the veterans. The others will not make loans and after 14 years will receive the full amount. This is the way the po- litical hirelings of the capitalists are trying to fleece the veterans in the ranks of the toilers, Against this robbery every veteran and every worker must fight. Washington politicians must be emphatically told that the Bacharach bill don’t go. The nation-wide demonstrations on International Unemploy- | ment Day, February 25th, while fighting most militantly for the imme- | diate appropriation of funds sufficient to pay to every unemployed worker | and his family a lump sum for their maintenance for a period of two months and for unemployment insurance, must develop the struggle for a cash bonus, not a loan, to the veterans, ‘Daily’ Needs Your Hel The ‘Daily s Your Help! atl following quotation from a letter received this morning, speaks for itself: . “You are aware, no doubt, that there is a judgment on record against you.” This is one of the bills that make up the deficit that presses the Daily Worker. Bank notes haye fallen due and we have no means of paying them, These bills, added to the current bills for the increase in circulation, are crippling and endangering the Daily Worker. Monday and Tuesday were devoted solely to raising $1,000.00 so that the paper could come out. The record of the various districts show that only about 50% of the quota is reached. There have been more Daily Workers sold than ever before. The Daily Worker is receiving mass support as it has never received. However, we are not connecting up the financial responsibility enough with our activities and struggles against the bosses. These struggles are now becoming more sharp. Arrests and intimidations are again open in the coal mine distriet, Throughout the country the workers are moboliz- ing for the hunger marches and the unemployment demonstrations on the 25th. , In all these struggles the Daily Worker must appear every day. The increased circulation of the Daily Worker proves the support that the Daily Worker is receiving. We must connect this support up financially. We must increase our donations to liquidate the deficit. Push the Red Shook Troop lists and mail them in immediately to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York City. PENNSYLVANIA STATE TROOPERS ATTACK MINE PICKET LINE | and Safe Movers Union, have been PITTSBURGH, Feb. 18.—State po- lice yesterday launched a btutal at- tack on the mass picket line of the striking miners and their families at Edna No, 1 Mine. » Many strikers were beaten up, as well as their women and children, who have been on the picket lines right along helping their men fight against the wage-cut which would condemn them to increased starva- tion and misery. Conditions, the workers declate, are ban enough now. Many families exist on hunger ra- ions because of the low wages paid -—wages. which the bosses now seek to cut further, Several scabs were beaten up by the strikers in their fight against the bosses’ attacks on their already meager wages. Police arrested 26 men and 4 women and beat up sev- eral of them in the lock-up. The In- ternational Labor Defense is defend- ing the strikers and rallying the workers to struggle against the sen- tences of the boss-controlled courts. The picket line tomorrow will be stronger than ever, as the militant miners and their families defy the Police attacks on the strike. Every- where there is a militant spirit of struggle, but these workers and their families must have relief immedi- ately. Money should be sent to Miners’ Union, 611 Penn Ave., Room 519, Pittsburgh, Pa, LOCK OUT 500 RIGGERS FROM BROOKLYN JOBS Worker Arrested, Held; On $2500 Bail NEW YORK.—Five hundred work- } ers, who organized into the Rigging locked out. Up until two weeks ago they were “unorganized. and- were working for $5 a day, with no pay for overtime. They were working 10 and 12 hours. ‘The workers organized and went on a one-day strike, in order to force the boss to sign contracts with the union. These contracts provided a wage scale of $8, with $1.50 for over- time. The bosses signed. However, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, they were locked out because the bosses did not want | to recognize their union, The work- ers were told that if they would tear up their union cards they would get their jobs back and would be given a full week’s pay. ‘The leader of the bosses is the Center Trucking Co., Hope St., Brook- lyn, and since Monday he has been running his trucks under police pro- tection, with a policeman on every truck. The other trucking concerns are willing to settle with the work- ers and up to the present time have been letting their trucks stand idle. The American Federation of Labor has been collaborating with the bosses in a clever scheme to avoid paying the union scale, It goes this way: The Center Trucking Co. se- cures a number of membership cards from the A. F. of L. union. These are given to the men when they come to work, The workers carry the card, but do not receive the union scale. One day he works under the name of Brown, the next day under the name of Smith, in accordance with the name on the card that is given him, ‘The workers went over to the Hope St. Garage, in an attempt to win over the scabs. They were met by 20-40 thugs, who proceeded to fight the workers. One of the strike- breakers hit one of their own men on the head with a piece of iron. A striker was arrested for this and charged with felonious assauult. He was held under $1,500 bail. Two hours later the trucking com- pany brought over a piece of pipe which they said they had found in the garage. (It is the kind of pipe that can be found in quantities in any garage.) The bail was then in- creased to $2,500, The case comes up tomorrow in the Williamsburg Plaza Court in Brooklyn. NEEDLE TRADES FRACTION MEETING “There will be a Needle Trades fraction meeting of all Party and ¥. C. L. members Sunday, at 12 noon. All comrades are Instructed to report at the usual place with- out fail as most important matters connected with the strike will be taken up, DISTRICT COMMITTEE, | all strikers were held in ten halls Communist Party of U. S. NEW YORK.—The remarkable en- thusiasm of the first day of the dress- makers’ strike here, with its cheer- ing, exultant mass meetings, settled down yesterday to the important business of fhass picketing. Considering the cold, rainy morn- ing, the picketing was good, but it will have to assume the character of mass picketing if the strike is to come to a victorious conclusion scon. The spirit among the eager but still more or less disorganized strik- | ers is excellent. Shop meetings of | | throughout the city. The N. T. W.| IU, entertainment committee has | arranged for singers, pianists, John Reed Club artists and well-known speakers to entertain at the mass meetings today in Bryant Hall, Sixth Ave., near 42nd St.; Irving Plaza, Ir- ving Place and 16th St., and Man- hattan Lyceum, 66 E. Fourth St. A score of shops in Manhattan and the Bronx had walked out by noon and many more were expected to (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) testimony contradicted the testimony (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) HARLEM DRESS MEET FRIDAY) To Rally Support for Strike NEW YORK.—A mass meeting to | Promote and spread the dressmakers’ | strike among the Negro, Spanish and Italian. workers of Harlem will. be held’ Friday night at the Harlem Casino, 116th St. and Lenox Ave. ‘The meeting is sponsored by sym- pathetic working-class organizations | and workers. All Harlem workers are urged to attend this meeting.) Speakers from the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union will be| present to tell of the struggle of the dressmakers to eliminate sweatshop conditions in the industry. | : Chicago Jobless to Mass at Union Park All over the country preparations are being made for world Unemploy- ment Day, February 25th. In Chi- cago, due to mass pressure of the workers who marched through the streets of Chicago on February 10th, @ permit has been granted for the northeast corner of Unfon Park, cor. of Randolph and Ogden on February 25th, at 3:30 p.m. All previous at- tempts to use this place for unem- ployment demonstrations have been met with police brutality and slug- gings. It is the growing militancy of the unemployed which finally forced the permit for Union Park. Dozens of meetings are being held throughout Chicago in preparation | for February 25th, when thousands | of workers will be rallied to fight for | immediate relief and for unemploy- | ment insurance. | Expect 10,000 In Cincinnati. The Unemployed Councils and the | Trade Union Unity League of Cin- cinnati are preparing for the Febru- ary 25th hunger march on Interna- tional Unemployment Day. The mem. bership are of the opinion that 10,- 000 will take part in the march on this day. Over 40.000workers are out of jobs in Cincinnati. In the last unemployment meeting here which (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) | tied up. Both day following demands: two combs plus nition of the National Textile Work negotiations with the strike committee today. Settlement will mean that the strike will spread to other departments of the four mills. Over 400 strikers are out. Mass at Union Hall, 234 Essex Street. LAWRENCE, Mass., Feb. combing department of the Was |the attempt of the bosses to make two men work 9 combs, | which is a terrific rate of sp execute: ni The workers. immediately | a went up to the National Tex- tile Workers Union office, and| organized themselves into the} union. They eleeted a com-| mittee to present their demands to the boss, who answered: “But let them try it. If you won't go back to work, well it’s just up to you.” The workers, upon hearing the re- | port of the committee, voted unani- | mously for a strike agains: 9 combs! for 2 men, against efficiency experts, against speed-up and for 2 combs for | one man. | The combing room !s completely} and night shifts | are out. Today the section hands and power men of the combing room | came out and the finishers were re- | leased for the morning because they had no work, The official in charge of the mill called up the New York office of the American Woolen Company yesterday (The Washington Mill is an Amer- ican Woolen concern) to come to town to negotiate with the rank and file strikers committee of the Na- tional Textile Workers Union. The strike has a great significance for all textile workers. If the com- pany officiols insist on their outrage- ous speed-up proposal today the strike will spread to the other departments ot the mill and also to the combing rooms of the Wood and Ayer, also American Woolen Company concerns in Lawrence. : Militant picketing by the strikers Workers Die Like Flies‘on Bread- Lines; Suicides Increase Daily NEW YORK.—A huge increase in Suicides and cases of “reportable dis- eases” is shown in the current bulle- tin of the State Department’ of Health. After doing its best to cover up the alarming increase in jobless suicides, the Department admits that the rise to “new heights in the num- ber of suicides and homicides very likely is a direct reflection of the bad economic situation.” The number of cases of “report- able diseases exceeded in 1930 the total for 1929 by almost 9,000.” While these figures indicate the widespread suffering of the masses under the bosses’ starvation system they are by no means correct, since they include only cases in which the doctors were called in. Many work- ers are too poor to call a doctor. This ds true even of those who still have jobs. For the vast army of the un- employed it is a luxury they cannot enjoy under the capitalist system. In the meantime the toll of jobless | suicides continue to mount, as work- | ers crushed by misery and starvation, | Five Poisoned at Mu-| nicipal Lodging House in New York continue mistakenly to resort to this boss-approved method of solving their problems. In Jackson, O., William Bartlett, 60-year-old farmer, could no longer Stand the sight of his invalid wife starving before his eyes. He fired a shot gun directly into his face, blowing his head off, _ In Cincinnati, John Ware, 30, with @ wife and two small children, com- mitted suicide Feb. 16, following his failure to find work and the refusal of the bosses and their government to pay unemployment insurance so that he could feed his starving family. The Denver Post of Feb. 19 carries a story with the following head: “Children Lack Food, Mother Takes | > Kulp family of 857 Acoma St., was starving, that the father, “who is ambitious to work, hasn’t had a job for two years.” The mother, who recovered from her poison attempt said she thought if she was out of the way, the children would be put in homes, That's what capitalism and its hunger system is doing to the workers! Tn New York City Mrs. Anna Kass, 26, mother of a boy of five, jumped from the window of the fourth floor of a tenement at 717 East Ninth St. yesterday. She was killed. The boss papers say shse had suffered a break- down as a result of worry. In the meantime, unemployed workers are dying like flies in the flop houses and on the bread lines. Five died in New York City yesterday after eating the slops served at the Municipal Lodging House in EF. 25th St. The boss press says they died of ptomaine poisoning. Workers, don’t surrender! | trict Organizer, Nat Kaplan and the | tee spoke. time and a half for overtime, recog- | ers Union, The company requested meetings are being held every night * 18.—Yesterday morning, the hington Mill walked out against eed, and almost impossible to has béen going on yesterday and to- A Support the Strikers meeting called last night by word of mouth had more than a hundred workers} present. Edith Berkman, Abe Hart- field, Trade Union Unity League Dis- representatives of the strike commit- Today at 10 a. m. the rank and file committee went into the mill to in-| terview the boss from New York. At the same time the mill officials de-| cided to greet the workers in the “good old democratic way” and sent down a squad of cops to terrorize the workers on the picket line. A number | of the pickets carrying signs reading: “Nine combs for th eefficiency guy. | Two combs for us!” “We are not} horses. Give us two combs!” etc.,| were herded by the police into the| station, Immediately after this at-| tempt at terrorizing, a number of} women workers came into the union office and said: “To hell with them. Sign us up in the union!” ‘The arrested workers were later re- leased. The company officials have | so far refused to concede to the de-| mands and the workers are continu- ing picketing. JERSEY HUNGER MARCH FEB. 27TH Route from Jersey City to Trenton JERSEY CITY, N. J., Feb. 18.—The workers of New Jersey are planning a hunger march, leaving Jersey City and Paterson on Feb, 27 and picking up forces along the route in Newark, Linden, Perth Amboy, Elizabeth, New Brunswick, wilt meet the marchers from southern New Jersey at Tren- ton on March 2. On that date they will present the demands of the hun- dreds of thousands of unemployed workers in New Jersey, backed up by the employed workers and workers’ organizations, for unemployment in- surance, ‘The growing misery in New Jersey, | the layoffs and shutdowns in many factories, the diminishing payrolls, are opening the eyes of the vast masses of workers, who are getting into an ugly mood and who are not content with the refusal of the state to make any provisions for their re- lief. On the’ way to Trenton meet- ings will be held in every city in front of the factories, public squares, ete. Funds for the lodging and pro- visioning of the marchers must be raised. This work is being conducted by the Workers’ International Relief branches which are being established Fight against the capitalist sys- tem! Out into the streets,, demon- Poison.” The article admits that the Workers! | ALL OUT FEB. 25! Employed and Unemployed strate Feb. 251 Broaden the fight for Unemploy- ment Insurance from the na- ~ tional government. in all parts of New Jersey. All work- ing-class organizations are asked to Square demonstration. Harry Ray- mond, one of the March 6 delegation who will be released on February 20, also speak at Union Square. Sam Nesin, Leales, Stone, the three lead- ers of the unemployed released yes- terday by mass pressure on the bosses courts, will also be among the speakers. Negro, White Workers! Refuse to Die of Starvation! Employed Work- ers! Stop work at 4 P. M. and sup- port the struggle of the unemployed against the bosses hunger system and for unemployment insurance. All Out February 25! eee NEW YORK--Full preparations are under way for the hunger march of about 500 workers who will march |from New York City on February 26th to the State Legislature at Albany to (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) FORM FASCIST GOV'T IN SPAIN Workers Will Lead Real Revolt With the failure of the attempt ot Jose Sanchez Guerra to form a cab- ‘inet in Spain, with the aim of fooling the masses into the belief that changes were to be made, Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar y Cabanas, rep- resenting the most reactionary feudal elements, formed an openly fascist cabinet on Wednesday. The half-way measures of recon- ciling the bourgeoisie with the feudal landowners was a complete fiasco, Now, to keep back the growing tide of revolution, led by the workers and oppressed peasants, King Alfonso has given full power to the most back- ward and reactionary aristocratic leaders. Admiral Cabanas has promised a reign of blood and terror. When he picked his cabinet he said: “I am a navy man and I place myself at the disposal of he’ who orders. I be- lieve, with the help of God, we wil! go ahead.” All of the members of the Cabanas cabinet are the most outspoken ene- mies of the workers and the rising revolution in Spain. A strong cen- sorship has ben clamped down. Ca- banas will begin his rule with mur ders and jailings. STRIKERS! If arrested give the police only your name and address and nothing more. If you are asked for information about your citizenship, your family, your comrades’ names or addresses, your membership in any organiza- tion, your other activities, or, in fact, any other subject in the world you should not answer, because you are not required by law to give any such information to the police, You are entitled to make three free telephone calls from the police sta- tion. and you should insist on your right to use the telephone, Call the local office of the International La- bor Defense—Stuyvesant: 9-3752—~ and give them: 1, Your name. 2. Where you are held. _ 3. In what court you will be tried, contribute liberally to this work, and when, Do not allow a single worker to . be evicted. Organize strikes \ against high rents, ‘