The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 23, 1931, Page 1

Unemployed and Employed! Unite for the Feb. 25th demonstrations: Against Wage Cuts! Support the Philadelphia Needle Strike! Smash the wage-cut drive in the Lawrence woolen mills! Employed and Unemployed, join in mass picketing! Rally to the Feb. 25th world demonstrations against hunger! Dail Central Orga (Section of ~Comn the Ae Gia ily es Norker frumict Party U.S.A. tional) WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Entered as secen Vol. VIII, No. 47 class matter at the Post Office <2 at New York, N. Y., onder the act of March 3, 1979 21 NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1931 CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents DEMONSTRATE IN UNION SQUARE, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 25! New Shops Join Stnke of Dressmakers The Only Way Out! 1. An 18 year old boy, Wesley D. Clarke, of 1615 Benson Ave., in New York City, despondent over being out of work for more than a year, hung himself with his belt, 2. A 15 year old girl of Detroit, Zema Payne, dependent for her bread on what Hoover calls “individual initiative,” and finding no job, drank iodine in an attempt to kill herself. 3. John Steuart, 45 years old, and “once a newspaper man, but un- employed for some time,” according to the capitalist press which tells us every day that prosperity is just around the corner but who had no use for its 45 year old slave, committed suicide with gas at 149 West 10th Street, New York City. He left a note saying it was “the only way out.” It is not the only way out! It is no way out! But it is what John Steuart, unemployed newspaper man for the capitalist press, had been taught by his employers. It is what the capitalist press taught the 18 year old boy, Wesley Clarke; and the 15 year old girl, Zema Payne. But day after day these ghastly murders by the capitalist class, for they are nothing less than murders, occur in every city. If the capitalist press prints them at all, it is on obscure pages under deceptive headlines. The front pages and “big stories” are reserved for the president of the capitalist government in declarations against taxing the rich to feed the jobless as a “matter of principle”! It is reserved for complicated lies about the “efficiency” of the thieving Salvation Army and other miserable “charity.” It is reserved for “hope stories” to make the starving millions believe that “prosperity” is coming back “in the spring.” To make them think that if they starve it is somehow their “own fault.” ‘The monstrosity of this crime that drives the nation’s toiling youths and adults to self destruction is plain. It is intentional and deliberate murder of the workers to save taxes on the capitalists who have robbed the workers of the billions they squander on lives of luxury and in- dolence, Only last week the mayor of Philadelphia admitted that the rich go to Florida for the winter to their usual idle luxury and debauchery, and #o not give a damn about the millions of starving jobless. Last November Mayor Walker of New York said no unemployed would be evicted, “the tity would pay the rent’—but tomorrow 300 families are to be evicted in just one section of New York! Only the past out-pourings of mass protest forced the capitalists to grant the little they did of so-called “charity.” It was only after the New York demonstration of Oct. 16, that the Tammany grafters were forced to appropriate $1,000,000 from the city, start a fund of $8,000,000 and make pretensions of feeding the starving. It has been the same in every city. But now there is an attempt to drop even the miserable dole of soup and coffee on the breadlines. Mayor Walker is evicting hundreds of families. Only by the way of struggle, of mass struggle and not by individual action, can the capitalists be forced to stop this murderous maneuver against the workers. No worker's job is safe! At any moment, even the employed may be out in the street. And every employed worker should unite with the jobless to protect the common interests of both. The refusal by Congress to hear the petition of over 1,000,000 workers for unemployment insur- ance is directly an attack on the employed workers, as the employers want starving millions in reserve to enforce wage cuts on those who still have jobs. The refusal to establish unemployment insurance can be broken down!’ It is absolutely possible for American capitalists to pay it, just as it is for European capitalists. It can be won and must be won! But it will only be won by the fiercest struggle, by mass demonstrations break- ing down all capitalist resistance! ‘The fight to force immediate relief, to stop evictions, to furnish real food and adequate shelter, and to defeat the attempt to cut off even the insulting breadline dole, can be and must be won. Only a worker who does not understand the power of united, mass action, kills himself. The power of the masses must sweep everything before it! Workers! You who have toiled to pile up profits for the capitalists— demand that you be given the security of food, clothing and shelter! Out on the streets,Wednesday to demonstrate your refusal to starve! "fo assert your readiness to fight! Onto the streets to demand unemployment insurance! Onto the streets to demand food for the starving, clothing and shelter for the cold and homeless workers! Onto the streets to protest the murder of the mnasses for the profits of a few! Fill the Red Shock Troop Lists! THE total received to date for liquidating the deficit is $15,942.41, about 53 per cent. The amount received from February 19 through February 21 is $192.35. Comrades should watch these reports regularly and see to it that in your city the Red Shock Troop lists are sent out, See that the Daily Worker representative in your city be assigned to visit readers who have received the Red Shock Troop lists and help them get donations ar send in their lists. District of Chi and Detroit must increase their percentages. Their quota of 17 per it is too low. Certainly from Chicago and Detroit more money can be sent to the Daily Worker. Detroit and Chicago are the next largest distributing centers after New York City. There are many workers’ organizations that have not yet contributed and there are many workers, if approached will contribute gladly, ‘The next 10 days at the most will be the final days of the drive. Workers in Chicago and Detroit must answer this urgent call. This will set an example to the other districts that lagged behind in contributing to the liquidation of the deficit. Large masses of workers are mobilizing for unemployment demonstra- tions, February 25th. These new workers must get the Daily Worker. The Daily Worker must become their official paper. Large sections of workers who are ex-servicemen will join the ranks of the militant work- ers. There are millions of them who now clearly see the fact that the government is stealing half of the Tombstone Bonus that is due them. A law passed in Congress, supposedly to help the ex-servicemen, is actually stealing 50 per cent of the money due them and enriching the bankers. ‘These workers who fought for the safety of Morgan’s invested interests are disillusioned and through the Daily Worker can be brought into the! ranks of the militant workers in shops and factories. Unless the deficit is liquidated it will be impossible for the Daily Worker to carry on its main purpose, that of organizing the masses of workers for struggles. Form your Red Shock Troops. Visit the Daily Worker readers who cave received lists. Visit the workers’ organizition. Get funds from the workers with whom you work. Send money immediately to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St., New York City, Many Shions. Forced To Concede To Strikers’ Demands dressmakers here and in Philadel- phia is already beginning to bear fruit. In both cities the Strike Commit- tees have begun to draw up settle- ments with the needle trades em- ployers, and dressmakers have gone back to work after winning the fol- lowing demands: recognition of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, affiliated with the T.U.U.L., an increase in wages, the 40-hour, 5-day week, recognition of the shop committee, equal pay for equal work for young workers, women and Ne- gros, abolition of all discrimination against Negro dressmakers, and un- employment insurance. The Dress Contractors Protective Association in New York as well as independent stores has already sign- ed agreements with the Industrial Union to this effect. The remarkable enthusiasm of these fighting dressmakers continues to exert a powerful influence on their fellow-workers who have re- mained in the shops. Shops have joined the strike every day since the strike began and the number of those joining daily is increasing. Strike Halls Already Crowded The eagerness with which the dressmakers are answering the call of the Industrial Union is admitted- ly unparalled. The strike halls are always crowded to overflowing. In Harlem, where this enthusiasm is most pronounced, girls sing on the picket line and dance in the strike headquarters. That this enthusiasm is beginning to communicate itself to other shops in Harlem is evid- enced by the walking out the other day of one of the largest shops in the entire district — one with 137 dressmakers. The most notable feature of the strike is the dressmakers who come to the various halls and beg for a delegation of strikers to lead their shop out on strike. The mass pick- (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) NEW YORK.—The strike of the| MASS PICKETING STARTS AGAIN TOMORROW AS STRIKE STOPS WAGE-CUTS 'PICKETS SWEEP LAWRENCE MILLS Bring 8,000 Out By 1912 Tactics LAWRENCE, Mass., Feb. 22.—Using again the tactics of 1912, the mass picket line at the Wood and Washing- ton mills ‘of the American Woolen Co. here charged the mill gates just be- fore 9 a. m. yesterday, swept through from department to department, and called out on strike. The police were able only to clear the streets, not to stop the mass picketing inside the mills. Five thousand at work in these mills were pulled out in short order, the power was shut off, and belts thrown off in the spinning room, Together with those pulled out of the other American Woolen Co. mill here, the Ayer mill, there are 8,000 out now, and the company has an- nounced no attempt will be made to reopen until Tuesday. Will Spread ‘The capitalist press states: “Spread of the strike to other mills not owned (CONTINUED PA THREE) Suicides Increase As Misery of Masses Continues to Grow NEW YORK.—Young, willing to work but unable to find work, Wesley D. Clarke, 18, of 1615 Benson Ave., Bronx, committed suicide by hang- ing himself in the basement of his home, Despondent for a long time Clarke was driven to self-destruction when he heard his father had just lost his job. Taking gas when he could not stand his misery any longer, John Steuart, 45, 181 W. 4th Street was found dead in a basement room. Steuart, a former newspaper man, was doing odd jobs at painting. “War Nearer Than in 1914”, Says Ferrero; Fears Revolt There is greater danger of war to- day than there was in 1914, admits Guglielmo Ferrero, Italian historian, in a feature article written for the Hearst papers. Ferrero’s article ap- pears in the very day that Congress passes the $358,000,000 bill for pre- paring the American navy for war. There is no hitch whatever in Con- gress when it} comes to spending money for war. More than a billion has already been set aside. For the unemployed, the boss government does not vote a cent. Ferrero declares that “Only war has been talked of and only war thought of.” Then he adds: “I do not remember even in the years that preceded the catastrophe of 1914 so universal and acute an anxiety. ‘Then the world feared war in theory, but did not know what species of war was about to deva- state the world.” At the same time, this capitalist historian points out that it is the threat of revolution that is keeping ack the actual declaration of war now. “Europe indeed is on the edge of an abyss,” he states. “But the abyss is not war, but revolution.” In other words, only the working- class by its revolutionary activity can stop war. The same idea was ex- pressed recently by Senator Reed of the United States, when he said: “Only the fear of bolshevism has kept back war.” Ferrero goes on to state that “The danger of revolution is much more grave than many think.” Here are the two forces, the cap- italists drive toward war and their fear of the workingclass, 30,000,000 of whom are unemployed, threaten~ ing the system which condemns them to starvation and slaughter. On February 25, one of the leading demands in the World Unemploy- ment Day demonstrations will be: “Demand all war funds be turned BULLETIN. NEW YORK.—Come tonight at 8 p. m,, Irving Plaza Hall, to hear Raymond. Other speakers will in- clude Israel Amter, who got six months at the time Raymond got 10. The occasion is a reception to Raymond, the last to be released of the March 6 jobless delegation. NEW YORK. — Harry Raymond, just out of prison where he served ten months as one of the committee to see the mayor, elected by the 110,000 jobless demonstrators last March 6 in Union Square, calls on} the workers and unemployed work- | ers to make Feb. 25 demonstrations an even more powerful show of strength. He says: “Almost a year ago the March 6th Unemployment Delegation represent- ing 110,000 workers, was sent to jail for presenting to the government a program of demands for unemploy- ment relief. “The bosses’ government thought that this jailing would frighten the workers and crush their militant spirit. They thought that through jailing a handful of workers’ repre- sentatives they could force the mil- lions of unemployed to starve quietly. “The bosses, however, were mis- taken. The delegation is out of jail; a host of new organizers have been developed and the fight goes on. Since March 6th the crisis has reached unprecedented depths, and in spite of the optimistic predictions of rapid recovery by the bourgeois eco- nomists, the crisis is still deepening and today instead of 6,000,000 unem- ployed as on March 6th, over 10,- 000,000 workers are without jobs and face starvation. Hundreds of thou- sands of workers since March 6th have battled bitterly in huge demon- strations demanding unemployment insurance. and relief, and on Feb. 10th these workers exposed the capitalist government as an enemy to the work- ers when Speaker Longworth refused to see the delegation representing the unemployed. “The bosses’ government instead of giving relief to the starving millions has resorted to all kinds of social demagogy. Money is appropriated for the building of more jails and mad houses by the New York Assem- bly, and the politicians call it un- employment relief. Millions are ap- propriated for the navy, millions for war, but not one cent have the capi- talists given for real relief for the unemployed workers. “This means, workers, that we must. tighten our belts and gird our loins for one of the most gigantic working class struggles that this country has ever seen. We must force the Wall Street government to establish a over to the unemployed, for unem- ployment insurance.” workers unemployment insurance law. “All over the world millions of HARRY RAYMOND starving and exploited workers will show their strength on Feb. 25th, In-| ternational Unemployment Day. } Feb. 25th in America must be still a bigger demonstration than March 6th. “All out Feb. 25th. Employed and unemployed workers! Don’t starve! Fight for {mmediate unemployment insurance!” LITHUANIAN MEET FOR FEBRUARY 25 Mass Meeting Monday | at Laisve Hall NEW YORK.—At a meeting of Lithuanian organizations held this week at 46 Ten Eyck St. the Inter-/ national Day Against Unemployment was endorsed and plans for the mob- | ilization of the members of the 13] organizations represented at this meeting and the mobilization of Lith- uanian workers was taken up. A mass meeting of the Lihtuanian workers, employed and unemployed, will be held Monday, Feb. 23, at 8 p.m. at the Laisve Hall, 46 Ten Eyck St., to mobilize workers for the demonstrations. Tuesday evening at 7 p. m. all Lithuanian workers and workers of other nationalities will meet at 46| Ten Eyck St., where a demonstration with trucks and automobiles will start to cover the territory of Wil-| liamsburgh and Boro Hall. Use your Red Shock Troop List every day un your job. The worker next to you will help save the Daily Worker. One Bronx Court Ready to Evict 300 Jobless Families Tomorrow NEW YORK—Three hundred Bronx families of unemployed work- ers will be up for eviction tomorrow morning in one court alone, the 162nd St. Municipal Court of Judge Morris, This is said by the cynical capl- talist reporters to be “breaking all records” in New York, and when you say that you mean something. Just a month ago Judge Cotillo ruled that it is illegal for the city marshals to delay serving eviction warrants because the breadwinners of a family were out of work. Co- tillo ruled, and Mayor Walker im- mediately endorsed, it as “good law” that if a man is out of work his family must be thrown out to freeze Demonstrate Wednes- day For “No Evictions Of The Unemployed” more likely to help cut wages later on, and capitalism is in one grand conspiracy to use the misery of the jobless to smash the workers’ stand- ards of living. Anyway, no landlord is to lose a penny of his rent, what- ever happens. Then They Started. Immediately after Cotillo ‘and Walker sang the praises of this “good law,” 1,443 evictions got under way. on the streets. That makes him Cutting off gas and electric lights goes on apace. In some other cities the ployed are even more persecuted. There are 50 evictionsa week in Baltimore, whereas two years ago it was about 10, In Youngstown, Ohio, unem- Steel city, 120 families have been evicted in the | last two months, and gas and light and city water is cut off wholesale. This situation is general through- out the smaller industrial towns. ‘The war on evictions is part of a greater struggle for unemployment relief and insurance. All workers facing eviction should be out demonstrating Feb. 25, and one of the demands fought for on International Fighting Day is “No Evictions!” 3,000 Starving at tt Mexicali Serve Notice Will Seize Food Raymond Calls All to Join Feb. 25th Demonstrations Jobless Leader Got Ten Months For March 6; Recently Released; Mass Meet To Greet Him Tonight at Irving Plaza © }2500 Crash Into Boston Agency With Shouts, “We Want Work;” City Hands Out 600 Jobs And Calls Police To Attack Vanderbilt Tells Of Millionaires Wallowing At Miami To Avoid Sight Of Bread Lines BULLETIN NEW YORK —The Salvation Army and commercial employment agencies announced yesterday that conditions have grown worse in the last two weeks. The conditions of the million unemployed in New York City is more desperate. Under the direct approval of Mayor Walker evictions go on at a terrific rate. Tomorrow 300 families are up for eviction in one court in the Bronx, and many more in other courts. Suicides increase at a sickening rate; the hungry jobless, weakened by months on the bread- lines, finding even those lines growing stricter, giving less food and ar- ranging their routine so that the worker waits longer and gets less, worried over the misery of wives and children, faced with the brutal declaration of the Prosser committee that it will soon stop giving out the few jobs it has been providing—hundreds of the unemployed give up hope and quit living. Their places are taken by others, for unemploy- ment grows steadily. But those who refuse to quit, who insist that as long as they made the employers rich they must have food now themselves—they will be out Wednesday, Feb. 25, International Fighting Day, at 4 p. m., on Union Square, to demonstrate for immediate relief, for food and lodging and clothing, and against evictions, and for all the provisions of the Workers” Unemployment Insurance Bill. The Communist Party, the Trade Union Unity League, the Councils of the Unemployed, have increased their efforts over the week-end to mobilize all jobless and employed workers for this demonstration. » . As International Fighting Day, Wednesday, Feb. 25, draws near, and the workers and jobless workers of the world pre- pare to demonstrate in every city for the right to live, evidence multiplies that these starving millions are being driven abso- lutely to desperation, and that they refuse to starve any longer mercilessly | in the midst of full warehouses‘ and a ruling class of business men wallowing in luxury. Three thousand jobless at Mexicali, just over the bound- ary in Mexico from California, have served notice on the city officials that they will take all the food in town themselves if something is not done for them at once. The city has been besieged by hundreds of starving women from the rural dis- tricts, demanding and getting food from the groceries. The local gov- ernment is trying to raise a little food to quiet the masses and mean- EVICT MOTHER AND (NEW BORN BABY Family Of Six Put On The Streets NEW YORK.—A _ working class mother who gave birth to a baby yesterday was evicted from her flat shortly after her. child-birth labors. New born infant, weakened mother, |and her family of 3 other children together with her unemployed hus- band were thrown with their furni- ture into the street to catch pneu- monia or freeze, The Bronx Boro Hall Unemployed Council learning of the case while they were holding a meeting imme- diately sent a committee to investi- gate. Upon the committee reporting back, the meeting was adjourned and the Council proceeded to,the scene of the outrage. There, however, they found that the landlord upon learn- ing that the Council was investigat- ing the case had called a van and removed the furniture to a storage | house. ‘The evicted mother is Mary Colan- dra of 3985 Third Ave. The landlord had been trying to force this family to pay 3 months rent when they only owed for one month. Tenants in the house reported that he never gave receipts. worker, had his hunger ration card taken from him by the police because he ha dreported his eviction to the Council. The police told him he “might just as well starve for get- ting help from the Reds.” The Unemployed Council in pre- paring for the stern struggles ahead John Smith, a Negro unemployed) while is calling out troops to kill them. In Boston, where the first snow, Feb. 20, made jobs for about 600 shovelers, 2,500 stormed the muni- cipal employment bureau, took pos- session of the place, and yelling, “We want work!” milled in and around the offices. Six hundred got Jobe, and police reserves were called out to shove the rest back into starva- tion. “His Last 3600,000,000.” Meanwhile the Hearst evening papers syndicated, Saturday, a special article by Cornelius Vanderbilt. a younger son of the great millionaire family, on the worries of the rich who are flocking into Miami, Flor- ida, buying up land at fabulous sums on which to rear palaces, and filling the harbor with a billion dollar fleet of private yachts. Vanderbilt states frankly that they have come there to live lives of ease and to “get away from the sight of the breadlines in the North.” ‘The rich, too, have suffered from the depression, Vanderbilt explains, telling of friends of his who lost $100,000,000 during the last year or so, and are “down to their last 5600,- 000,000 now.” It is here in this millionaire play- ground that Mayor Walker of New York plans to take a little rest soon, he says. It is from this garden city of opulence that the mayor of Phila- delphia has recently returned, to tell the thousands of jobless demanding relief from him that “the law for- (CONTINUED OF PA THREN) Order Now for 2 Special Issues A Ruthenberg edition of the Daily Worker will be issued February 28 containing an 8- page tabloid size supplement in memory of the former Sec- retary of the Communist Party who died March % 1927. Ar- ticles will show Ruthenberg’s role in the struggle against the Communist Party. imperialist war and in building On March the Daily Worker will carry a special supplement celebrating Inter- national Women’s Day. Stor- ies on women in industry, ar- ticles from Lenin on women in the revolutionary movement, pictures and photographs will be included, Send orders for extra bundles now. (60,000 circulation campaign ning at 4041 Third Ave. is giving a dance this Saturday eve- tips on page 3.) INTO THE STRUGGLE ON FEB. 25 F OR: ; Immediate Unemployment Relief! Demand a two months lump sum for all unemployed from the city, state and federal governments. Against evic- tions; for lower rents! For Unemployment Insurance! <6 nae adn lide ANG. - a