The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 7, 1931, Page 1

s atl Ht oo, aw ae The Unemployed Councils Are the Fighting Organizations for Immediate Relief and Unem- ployment Insurance for the Unemployed Workers. Or- ganize Them Everywhere Dail Central Ong Norker Rfounict Party U.S.A. (Section of the Communist veg Re WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Vol. VIII, No. 58 at New York, N. ¥., ander “Heart Trouble” Bi cscbed ord Sipe! a> do pe hei ids Saenger 22 Shack saond words of Charles McMillan, aged’76, who collapsed from hunger in & New Orleans soup kitchen’and died later at a hospital. “Welfare workers,” says the Associated Press, “attributed his death to starvation, although the death certificate read ‘heart trouble.” This detestable hypocrisy of capitalist government authority, which covers up thousands of deaths of workers from starvation under other names, is an example of the lengths the capitalists go to hide their murder of the workers behind the claim that their miserable “charities” are “adequately meeting the need” of the unemployed millions. Whn a worker falls dead from starvation, his heart undoubtedly stops. So he is listed as dying from “heart trouble.” It is a form of heart trouble from which the capitalists, still enjoying their steaks and salads, their comfortable houses and good clothing, are miraculously exempt. In fact so far as any evidence goes as to their being affected by the misery of the masses, the capitalist class as a whole has no heart to be troubled. An example of this cynical-indifference is right under our nose here in New York. Proposed primarily and noisily by the “socialists,” Rev. Norman Thomas and his gin-guzzling pal, Heywood Broun, as a “solution,” Mayor Walker finally took up the idea of a city “employment” agency and a number of Tammany henchmen were installed in fat jobs under a Mr. Rybicki. But the unemployed kept mounting by the hundreds of thousands. When the City Board of Estimate met last October to appropriate something like $700,000,000 for city expenses, a huge percentage of which goes for graft well-hidden under legal covers, there was not one cent proposed to be given to the unemployed, and Nesin, Lealess and Stone, representatives of the Unemployed Councils whose thousands were dem- onstrating outside, were savagely beaten when they called Mayor Walker's attention to the fact that he is a grafter. This mass demonstration and the revulsion to Walker’s wise-crack about “ice cream,” was the only thing which forced Tammany to set aside $1,000,000, supposedly for the destitute, to be “administered” by a “Mayor’s Committee,” which means that some more grafting is done. This “Mayor’s Committee,” incidentally, while obscurely announcing that the number of “heads of destitute families” runs up to 80,000, sends food— in adequate amounts—to only 38,000, Besides this, the so-called “Prosser Committee,” a sort of “coordinat- ing” committee of the countless “charity” swindles, collected a fund of $8,000,000 to “furnish employment” to/a handful of jobless doing odd jobs around parks—and for ‘private benefit. But this fund will soon be exhausted and unemployment keeps increasing. This committee, which is under the slick-fingered guidance of Al Smith, now asks the city to appropriate $10,009,000 to carry on “the work” of the Prosser Committee. And Corporation Counsel Hilly, whose legal decisions always accord with Mayor Walker's opinion, “has advised Mayor Walker that he knows of no provision in the city charter which would permit the city to make the appropriation.” This is probably a way of expressing ‘the factional hostility within Tammany Hall between Smith and Walker. These gentry and their swarm of henchmen can weep for the unemployed only at so much per tear and each seeks to “administer” the cash. The. heart.throbs of-the ‘‘socialist” * Norman Thomas are registered-at $100 a week paid him for getting out a Magazine on unemployment-earrying sob-sister and~ fascist Propaganda copies of which the unemployed are selling. This mess, stinking to -high heaven as it does, can be duplicated in every city of this country. It illustrates the bottomless hypocrisy of the capitalist class, just as does the numberless death certificates giving “heart trouble” as the excuse to cover the murder of thousands. Workers, none of you who are employed ‘are: secure, and all who are jobless, should understand that the only way to fight such capitalist starvation policy, such hypocrisy and thievery, is to unite your forces under the. banner of the Unemployed Council for a militant and persistent struggle for Unemployment Insurance! Entered as second class matter at the Post Office the a SOCIALISTS IN GERMANY AID WAR ON USSR of March 3, 1% Abramowitch’s Cohorts| Repudiate All His Vicious Lies (Special Cable to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, March 6.—Towards the close of the evening session in the trial of the 14 Menshevik, self-con- fessed counter-revolutionists, the So- viet prosecutor, Krylenko, announced that he had received telegraphically two Berlin statements published in the socialist newspaper “Vorwarts” by Abramowitch and Kurk Gross. Ab- ramowitch published a sworn affi- davit denying that he visited Moscow in 1928, stating he was in a Mecklen- burg resort. Gross states that he heard from the, Menshevik Schwartz that in the summer of 1928 Abram- owitch was there. Schwartz met Workers to Defend Yokinen; March 28 Solidarity Day NEW YORK. — In a manifesto issued last night, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights calls upon the Negro and white workers to rally to the defense of August Yokinen and other foreign born militants sche- duled for deportation by the boss gov- ernment and names March 28 as Na- tional Solidarity Day, a day of strug- gle against the persecution of the foreign born and Negro workers: The National Committee. of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights fully. endorses the uncompromising stand of the Communist Party in fighting against: discrimination and race prejudice as shown at the mass trial of August Yokinen.. We em- phatiesily declere that August Yoki- nen, the defendant in this trial, was arrested and held for deportation by the U. S. government and immigra- tion authorities precisely because ; he had admitted his error in harboring prejudices against Negroes and pledged himself to correct error by participating in the front ranks’ of the struggles for Negro rights. Had Yokinen denounced the revolutionary movement, had he failed to admit his guilt, had he attacked the oppressed Negro masses, the government author- ities would have never arrested him. The government knew of the ap- proaching trial, it knew of the charges against Yokinen, but it took no steps against him until he unre- servedly denounced his previous posi- tion and pledged to fight all forms of race discrimination. This clearly ex- Mooney Serial Begins Monday Read how Paul Scharrenberg ordered the A. F. L. local uni- ons in California not to donate any money to the Tom Mooney Defense. Tom Mooney in his book “Labor Leaders Betray Tom Mooney” tells how Schar- renberg, political supporter of Gov. Young of California, de- feated every attack on Young |} in every A. F. L. Central Body meeting, selling Tom Mooney for state positions for. himself ond others. Order extra bund- -s for this serial which begins Mont poses the role of the United States government as the chief persecutor of the Negro masses, The arrest of Yokinen is an attack on the Negro toilers Lee the working Class as a whole, Race prejudice (white chauvinism) is'a weapon of the bosses to split up and divide the workers to keep them from joint struggle against’ unem- ployment, starvation, lynching, and oppression. » The Negro misleaders of the. type of Moton, DePriest, Garvey, DuBois, ete. actively support the white ruling class by their vicious attack upon the foreign born’ workers and the revolu- tionary labor movement. Against these splitting. tactics of the bosses, the .A. F. of L., the so- cialists and the, Negro reformists, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights calls upon the masses of Negro and white workers to raise a mighty pro- test in joint struggle. against dis- crimination and lynching of the Ne- groes, against the attacks upon the foreign born © workers, and . against capitalist oppression in general. We call upon all League of Strug- gle for Negro Rights groups and af- filiated organizations, and especially ‘Negro workers’ organizations to rally to the’ support and active participa- tion in the preparations’ for the na- tion-wide Solidarity Day being held on March 28 under the joint aus- Pices of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense, and the Council for the Pro- tection of the Foreign Born. Fight for full equality for the Ne- and the right of self-dete:mina- Union will be held Sunday, March 8, 1931, 11 a. m. at 122 Osborn’ Street, » N.Y, (60,000 circulation news on page 5.) Abramowitch daily. Krylenko stressed the fact that Abramowitch’s and Gross’s state- ments were juridically unimportant, but that he wished the defendants to make statements whether the evi- dence given by Abromowitch regard- ing his visit was true. Groman an- swered that he personally saw and spoke to Abramowitch regarding the fundamental questions of the Union Bureau of the Mensheviks and their (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) FORCE SHARKS 10 REFUND WORKER NEW YORK.—When 2 jobless worker was gypped by a shark agency at 1229 Sixth Avenue he appealed to the Unemployed Council nearby and the Council members after a short sortie forced the job shark to give the worker back his fee plus $1 extra. The worker had paid $4 for a job as a restaurant helper and Was fired after 4 hours. He went to the agency and demanded his money and in their usual manner the sharks refused. When the Unemployed Council members trooped into the agency the solent refusal to refund the workers. The unemployed workers got into ac- tion and trimmed the three buzzards in good working class fashion. At the conclusion of which the chief shark was only too glad to give the worker $5. The worker donated the $1 to the Daily Worker. boss and two clerks repeated their in- | | walked out. DENVER JOBLESS HEAR INSURANCE DEMANDS Fisher Body of Cleveland Cuts Wages of Workers Again 40% CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 6.—The shrout metal finish- ecg hle NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1931 800 Now On Strike at, Shelton and Bridgeport Textile Mills Women Walk Out Too;| - Shelton Loom Fixers Join the Weavers BRIDGEPORT, Conn., On Wednesday night the night- -shitt | | of weavers in the South shed of the | | Saltex Mill walked out on «trike in| | North shed who are on strike and | in sympathy with the Shelton weav- | | ers strike at the Blumenthal mill.| | The Saltex is also owned by Blum- j enthal. Yesterday morning the day | shift followed suit in the south shed | | of the Saltex mill, so that at present | the entire weaving department in| Bridgeport as well as in Shelton is shut down tight. Floor men and warpers also went out in Bridgeport, and the loom-fix- ers are out in Shelton. For the first time; women weavers joined the strike yesterday. The strike com- mittee for both cities has been en- larged to 29. The total number of strikers has increased to nearly 800. |in Albany, is still alive. CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents HEIT IS STILL ALIVE, BADLY HURT; BRUTAL ATTACK AROUSES JOBLESS March 1-|Legislature’s Gloating loan Ovex Attack On the Jobless Shows Willingness to Kill Them Jail; BULL SCHENECTADY, N. Y., March | support of the 400 weavers in the| #X-Serviceman First Reported Dead, Found in Has Been Delirious; Condition Is Uncertain; I-L.D. Works On Case TIN. 6.—Latest information on Charles 4 Haight (this is the correct spelling) is that he was handcuffed in jail, with the police issuing statement after statement to the press purport- ing to come from him, and accusing the “Reds” of doping Haight, kid- napping him, promising him money to march to Albany, holding him for $500 ransom, and robbing him of $14. The Knickerbocker Press of Albany ‘yésterday stated that Haight had become insane. It is possible the policeman’s club Tuesday has in that the head injury received from deed caused this worker to go insane. ae Charles Heit, who was reported killed by the state troopers He is confined in the cotnty jail in | Schenectady in a very delirious condition, according to the most ers, working on the third floor in the Fisher Body plant in this city, a section of the General Motors Co., suffered another 40 Will Spread. It was decided to send a commit- “recent report. The information in the D: weavers’ demands per cent wage cut Wednesday. This is the second wage cut within a brief period of three weeks. The first one took-place three weeks ago when the metal pol- ishers received a cut ‘from 40 cents a piece to 25 cents, a 37% per cent cut. A portion of the men working in. this department The bosses then, in- creased the price per piece to 21 cents, but still 11 cents less than the previous price. But the seeing that the men still able to stand on their legs decided that it is time for some more cutting —so here it goes, another 12 cent slice. This itme somewhat over 40 pereent. The total cut to-date, within three weeks, is about 60 percent. Twenty-five men- immediately walked out, of a total of 80 men in this department. Those who re- mained are inagitation, and it is very likely they will decide to make it a 100 percent walkout. | The significance of this cut is that | it is only the first step that the Fisher body slave drivers have taken in a general wage-cutting campaign. The workers from the other departments know that they come next; it is only a question of time. The workers of the Fisher Body must realize that there is only one way of stopping the mad rush of the company — to organize and strike against wage- cuts and speed-up. workers in the strike of the New York and Philadelphia dressmakers is approaching something in the nature of a mass movement. Workers’ or- ganizations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston—all over the country in fact—are sending in a steady stream of contributions to the ($15,000 Dress Strike Fund. None of the contributions are very International Workers Order, but the solidarity that they indicate, especial- ly those by \A. F. of L. locals and “so- Cialist”-contfolled fraternal organiza- tions, are worth more than the sums contributed. Picketing has been intensified in the last few days with the result that clashes with scabs have been a fre- quent occurrence. There will be an- other mass picketing demonstration on Monday. All unemployed workers and: all employed who find it possi- ble, are urged to meet in Bryant Hall, Sixth Ave. near 42nd St., on Monday morning at 7 a. m., from where they will march to the picket line. Hundreds Joined Union Yesterday. Hundreds of unemployed dressmak- ers joined the Needle Trades Work- ers’ Industrial Union yesterday at the conclusion of a meeting of unem- ployed dreSsmakers held in Bryant Hall. The initiation fee for unem- ployed dressmakers has been reduced .| to 35 cents. Louis Hyman, chairman of the rank and file strike ccmmit- tee, addressed the meeting. The continued militancy of the All Needle Workers Attention! ‘There will be a general fraction large, except, perhaps, those of the| Dressmakers in Mass Picketing Demonstration Mon.;. All Out! NEW YORK. — The interest of strikers and the winning of improved conditions by almost 2,000 of them is beginning to gall the needle trade employers and their aides, the I, L. G. W. and the police, Joseph Schnei- der, an organizer of the N.T.W.LU., who was arrested recently on a framed up charge and held in $5,000 bail, was rearrested yesterday when he came up for trial in Jefferson Market Court and held in $19,000 bail. Children cf all tne striking dress- makers in New York will be given a dinner today at 2 in the Harlem strike headquarters, 2011 Third Ave., by the Workers International Relief. The W. I. R. scouts will provide an entertainment that will include sing- ing, dancing, sport contests and the staging of a play. McMAHON ORDERS STRIKE SMASHED IUTW Will Exnel 2,000 Unless They Yield PHILADELPHIA, . Pa., March6.— Open, flagrant and. official strike breaking and wage cutting was re- sorted to by the officials of the United ro an se ROSTER SPEAKS TO 28 mills here. Yesterday, Presidéint. Me Mahon president of the United Textile Work- ers issued a flat ultimatum that if the | 2,000’ weavers do not go back to work and swallow their wage cut, he will swash the organization there, revoke the charter, and form a new local that | will “obey ‘arbitration wards.” strikers meet tomorrow to decide. The strike started Feb. 2 by unan- imous vote of the weavers, against a fake arbitration which gave the work- ers a cut of wages of over 14 per cent. The. U.T.W. chiefs, including McMa- hon, urged the upholstery weavers not to strike, but were voted down by overwhelming majority. The strike started, and by its success,’ precipi- tated or at least inspired strikes in other branches of the textile industry here. But Mahon has been continually | pressing to call off the upholstery strike which has got out of his hands, ! and is a militant struggle. 0,000 Nanking Troops Revolt at Sinyang, Join Reds NEW YORK. — An Associated Press dispatch received in New York yesterday reports that 10,000 Chinese soldiers of the bloody Ku- omintang have mutinied at Sin- yang, 100 miles north of Hankow, and joined forces with the Red Army. The soldiers tore up tracks of the Peiping-Hankow Railway and cut telegraph wires. The | tee to place the before the mill management onSatur- day, and if the demands were re- fused, the strike is to be extended to the other departments. An attempt will be made to call out the entire force in both mills, and to appeal to the workers in the Blumenthal mills at South River, N. J., and Un- casville, Conn. The help of ti> Na- tional Textile Workers Union was | asked in this task, as well as in 2- ganizing a: relief campaign for the| strikers, | Although the Blumenthal mills | claim they are running at a loss,/| the Saltex Looms, Inc., of Bridgeport | reported a net shinies apart oes of $26,332.00, STUDENTS TONITE NEW YORK.—Comrade Foster will address the students of the National Training School at the banquet and dance tonight at 8 o'clock at the} Workers’ Center, 25 E. 12th St. This | banquet is being arranged by the} students of the Workers’ School to welcome the students of the National Training School. Many of the stu- dents have arrived from various parts of the country for their three- month intensive and extensive train- ing. The Food Workers’ Industrial Union will prepare food for the ban- | quet. Good music will be furnished for the dance following the banquet. It is going to be a rare occasion. All workers in New York should attend the banquet and give the comrades | from other fronts of our battlefield | a monstrous reception. LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA PLANS TO OUST PARTY “Anarchy” Law Called) “Not Severe Enough;” BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 6.—It is announced here today that tomor- | row the Alabama state legislature will | to supplement the present “Criminal | Anarchy” law. The backers of the |new law term the present law “not | severe enough for the situation.” The new law will be modeled on the Michigan criminal. syndicalism law, under which the famous Bridge- man raid and trials of Ruthenberg and Foster were conducted, The employers and landlords of Alabama hope to smash the Commu- nist Party and keep it from organiz- ing Negro croppers in the Black Belt, The law is intended to be used against | organization of Negro tenants and to| smash the growing struggle of the | poor farmers throughout the state. The farmers, under the leadership | of the Communist Party, are prepar- | ing to fight back. Tom Johnson, district organizer of the Communist Party, Jackson and Burns are on trial here today. Johnson, Jackson and Burns were arrested June 28, 1930, in Birming- ham, and charged with ‘‘vagrancy,” a ridiculqus frame-up. “Vagrancy” in Alabama will get a sentence of a year on ‘the chain gang. It is the regular Tickets for the banquet and dance ; are limited in number. scheme by which Negroes are en- slaved. Wide Campai NEW YORK.—A nation-wide cam- , paign for the immediate release of al! political prisoners, the repeal of the criminal sedition laws now ex- | istant in 35 states and utilized for the suppression of working-class ac- tivities and the release of all for- eign-born workers held for deporta- tion because of their militant activi- ties as well as the right of political War Dep’t, Legion Officials Agree On Conscription for Coming War ‘There isa Aanaor 4 for war preparations in the United States. While the ca- pitalists prepare their factories for war, the War Department is already perfecting details for mobilizing the workers for the next slaughter. Right after Secretary of War Hurley an- nounced Thursday that the Congres- sional Committee had completed its conscription scheme, the leading boss- controlled war veteran organization officials stated ‘ »y were in full agree- ment with his scheme. Commander Ralph T. O'Neal of the American Legion, appeared before Secretary of War Hurley on Friday and said he is ready to mobilize for war. He said the system of mobil- izing for the next war “should pro- vide for immediate mobilization of men, money, materials and food, fix- ing of prices, including wages and gulation and distribution of pro- duction.” While the profits of the bosses will be guaranteeed and in- Greased by, this “control,” the workers! been -moblliged -to ke turned juumge | tallgm 484 Detroit. Factories) Ready to Produce War Planes will not only be shoved to war, but those in industry will have their “wages regulated.” How widespread are these definite war preparations can be seen from the fact that all the capitalists who made fortunes out of the last war are being called in by Hurley to give theirexperiences for the mobilization for the next war. Among these are Bernard Baruch, Wall Street banker, who made millions through the last slaughter and was head of the War Industries Board, and Newton D, Baker, Secretary of War under Wilson. From Detroit comes the news that 484 factories in the Detyoit area have diately into factories for the manu- facutre of equipment and supplies for war. The Detroit News of Tuesday, February 17, 1931, states: “In the event of another war, the United States government would turn out at once nearly $300,000,000 worth of aircraft equipment (with a good profit to the bosses)—one- half of this to be planes and one- quarter to be engines.” All the leading bosses present at a dinner of Detroit industrials on Mon- day at the Hotel Statler, called by Maj. William H. Crom, chief of the industrial war plans section of the materials division of tHe Army Air Corps, pledged their full cooperation. Among them are the most vicious abet Defense Opens Nation gn for Amnesty asylum, has been inaugurated by the International Labor Defense. ~ Peti- tions are being circulated by the hundreds of thousands throughout the United States and will be pre- sented to President Hoover by a delegation of workers about June 28, the end of the amnesty ‘drive, and coinciding with the sixth anniver- sary of the I.-L. D., organized_in Chi- cago in 1925. ‘The petition demanding Hoover to act points out that it “was protests in 1917 that forced President Wilson to demand of the Governor of Cali- fornia that he commute the death sentence against Tom Mooney to life imprisonment. Mass protest must |now force President Hoover to call | for the release of all political pris- oners.” There are a tpresent almost 100 political prisoners in the United States serving sentences from six months to life. Eight Imperial Val- ley organizers are serving sentences of up to 28 and 42 years for organ- izing agricultural workers in Cali- fornia. McNamara has been in San Quentin since 1912, Tom Mooney and Billings are imprisoned for life and are now doing their fifteenth year. The Centralia prisoners in Walla Walla have been incarcarated for their working-class activities since 1919. Three workers are doing time at Blwanox in Pennsylvania un- der the Flynn antt-sedition act, hun- dreds of workers are being deported and some, like Guido Serio, will be enemies of the Soviet Union and the American workers demanding unem- ployment relief. Throughout the country the war mobilization schemes are going on at a fast pace, Capi- to war, put to death by the fascist govern- ments of their respective countries. The national office at 80 E. 11th St., Room 430, New York City, asks all sympathizers to write or call fr aily Worker to the effect that “he had died as a-result of a say- age blow inflicted upon him by a state trooper at the demon- stration at the state capitol in Albany reached the office of the Daily Worker through what was considered authentic channels, con- firmed by publication of the same news in an Albany paper dated | March 4th, 4 Subsequent, inquiries have proven | that although Heit received a blow | that caused concussion of the brain | and that he became. delirious, he has been .artested by the police of | pass @ bill aimed at the Communists | Schenectady, and is mow in jail | charged with vagrancy. The first in- | formation also. misstatedsome fur- | ther facts. Hgit is an ex-serviceman | and was. shell-shocked during the | world war, as stated yesterday, How- ever, he if not married -but ‘resides with his family in Poughkeepsie. At the time of this writing it can- not be stated whether Heit will re- cover from the blow or not. ‘The responsibility for his condition rests entirely upon the state legisla- | ture at whose orders the state troop- | ers made a vicious attack upon the | hunger marchers who’ went to Al- |bany from all parts of the state to | demand unemployment insurance and instead of being allowed to present their. demands. were. clubbed and slugged by the state troopers. The Daily Worker will furnish its readers with all information. A lawyer of the International Labor Defense is taking up the case of Heit which will be fought-to-a finish. Intent to Murder Though the Daily ‘Worker. regrets having printed misinformation about Eeit’s death, and is happy to an- nounce that this worker has at least not yet paid the extreme penalty which a capitalist government visits upon those who defend the cause of labor, itis necessary. to point out that the: intention to. murder the hunger marchers was shown not only by state police by also by the legis- lators.. The legislatots: shouted, “I-ill (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) “LABOR” GOVT HOLDS UP $500 —s NEW YORK, Mafch 6.—The Mac- Donald government in India has con- fiscated the sum of $500 sent over by the workers of ‘the United States through the International Labor De- fense for the support of the vietims of British imperialism who have been massacred at, the, behest of the “la- bor” government. ‘ ‘The money forwarded’ by the ILD te the Meerut Workers’ Defense committee was sent last June and when confiscated by the imperialist labor government was kept secret un- til strenuous demands were made by the--defensé organization here. The post master general ‘in Bombay re- plied to the Washington authorities. The letter follows: S “I have the honor,to return here- with your reclammatidn~ No. 832826 dated the 28th of August; 1930, issued in search of registered letter No. 663083 at Station D New York on lith June, 1930 and addressed to Meerut Workers Defense Committee, Indian Trade Union Congress, Bom- bay and to say that the registered cover and its contents were withheld under the orders of the Government of India who haye the power, under the law, to pass such orders.” ‘The International Labor Defense is vigorously protesting the action of the imperialist Prgrees government in withholding the funds from the Ser meme