The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 13, 1931, Page 1

CODER AND HURST TORTURED AND DROWNED IN RIVER Two Thousand Workers Have Made Application to Join the Unemployed Council of Salt Are You Winning Members for Your Council? Lake Sity. ~Comr (Section of the Communist International) 4 orker unist Party U. S.A. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! _Vol. VIII, No. 63 Entered as second class matter at the Post Office <3p>21 at New York, N. ¥. ander the act of March 3, 1979 NEW YORK, FRIDAY MARCH 13, 1931 CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents NATION-WIDE MOBILIZATION FOR FIGHT ON LYNCHERS Murder-Fruits of the Fish Committee in Texas ALL WORKERS:— ' The program of the Fish Committee of the U. S. Congress is being put into operation in Dallas, Texas. Texas boys have been lynched Two young with the same hideous brutal- ity for which American capitalism is infamous in dealing with Negro workers and farmers. Their-“crime” in the eyes of their capitalist murderers was that they fought side by side with Negro and white workers, in.complete equality and fraternal solidarity, for unemployment relief and insurance, against starvation. Lewis Hurst, 19-year-old secretary of the Communist Party in Dallas, and Charles Coder, 30-year-old organizer of the Trade Union Unity League, were arrested by the Dallas police chief on a charge of “vagrancy,” in an effort to smash the Unemployment Demonstration of February 25th. The capitalist press carried on a vicious campaign of incitement against them, openly aided by the governor of the state, Sterling, on the typical “Southern” charge that they were “nigger lovers,” that is, that they were organizing Negro with white workers on a basis of complete equality. These Ku Kluxers tried to force our comrades to renounce their struggle for equality of the Negroes, and to abandon the un- employed movement. hesitation. They refused without the slightest The Texas capitalists and Ku Klux Klanners were en- raged. But they recognized that even their own laws pro- vided not the slightest excuse for holding them in prison. So they entered into a conspiracy; which included state and city officials, local police and a mob of businessmen and under- world thugs. They sent, first of all, thugs into the jail, and there mercilessly beat up Hurst and Coder, breaking their bones and leaving them lying unconscious in their own blood. Then the police chief “released” them in the night, into the hands of a waiting mob, which took them into the country, flogged and tortured them and threw their bodies into a river. This cold-blooded murder of two leading native workers is the logical and inevitable fruits of the work of the Fish Committee. It is the realization in life of its policy, which is the policy of the capitalist class. It represents the Fish Committee and capitalism in action. It is the answer of the capitalist class to the workers’ demand for unemployment relief and insurance. It is the answer of the white ruling class to the demand for equality and self-determination of the Negroes. Workers, white and Negro, employed and .unemployed! The death of our heroic comrades must be the occasion of a flaming protest that will sweep the nation! We must take up the work for which they gave their lives with a hundred- fold energy! workers, white and Negro, for lynching, for the death penalty to the lynchers! We must mobilize hundreds of thousands of a united mass struggle against Fight for complete equality of Negro and white workers! unemployment insurance and relief! corps to defeat the lynch-mobs! Fight for Build workers’ defense Build the Unemployment Councils and the revolutionary trade unions! Central Committee Communist Party of U.S. A. March 12, 1931. BOSSES IN ANOTHER INJUNCTION ATTACK ON N. Y. DRESS STRIKERS NEW YORK.—Continuing their ef- forts to crush the militant fighting spirit of the striking dressmakers in their struggle against unbearable con- ditions in the dress industry, the bosses’ courts yesterday issued an- other sweeping injunction against the strikers, This latest injunction was obliging- ly issued by Alfred H. Townley, judge of the Supreme Court of New York State. It was issued at the request. of the Jersey Dress Co., of 500 Sev- enth Avenue, one of the largest shops in the industry and the center of many sharp struggles and militant picket lines. Three strikers were given jail sen- tences by Magistrate Dwyer, and an- other held in the exorbitant bail of $2,500, as part of the boss attacks on the strikers’ right to picket the shops. Sarah Spewack, Rose Elkus and Pearl Kleinman were sentenced to the workhouse. May Feldman is the worker held in $2,500 bail. In hand- ing out these vicious sentences, Mag- ictrate Dwyer threatened the arrested strikers with even more brutal treat- ment in the future. Magistrate Dwyer is one of the many boss mag- istrates named for investigation on charges of corruption. ‘Tonight at 7 o'clock, there will be a general strike committee meeting to consider plans to smash the in- | junctions at the Jersey Dress Co. shop at 500 Seventh Avenue, and the Brown Dress Co. shop in Brooklyn. William Z. Foster addressed the dress strikers yesterday at a large and enthusiastic meeting and called on all needle trades workers and on the workers generally to support the dress strike and smash the injunc- tions. The strikers cheered Foster for several minutes after he had fin- ished speaking. They pledged them- selves to fight against the frantic at- tempts being made by the bosses and their courts to defeat their struggle for better conditions by the use of the injunction weapon. These attempts of the bosses clearly indicate their cessful spreading of the strike and the militant spirit of the strikers... The Trade Union Unity, League is mobilizing all its unions and leagues for the creation of a Smash the In- junction Committee and for the most aggressive support of the strike. This afternoon. at 2 o'clock, Jack Johnstone, secretary of the Trade | Union Unity Council of New York | City, will speak at a mass meetine of strikers at Bryant Hall, Sixth Ave. and 42nd St. The hearing on the injunction at the Jersey Dress Co. shop is set fo: this morning at 10 o'clock at Laf fayette and Center Street court, desperation in the face. of, the .suc;, T0 HIT DEPORTATIONS AND LYNCHING, MAR. 28 DEMAND THE DEATH PENALTY FOR THE LYNCHERS! | THROUGHOUT COUNTRY Plan Huge Demonstrations Against Special Persecutions of Forei March 28 will be a day o1 born workers. International Labor Defense ; and the Conference for the Pro- tection of Foreign Born have named March 28 as National Day of Struggle against the persecution of the Negro and foreign born workers. Throughout the country demonstra- tions are being prepared for this day. As part of the preparations street meetings are being held in numerous cities, as well as a number of indoor mass meetings, all aiming at mob- ilizing the workers for the March 28 demonstrations. In New York City, the LSNR is holding a mass meeting this coming Sunday at Harlem Casino, 116th Streetand Lenox Avenue, at which Richard B. Moore, national Negro director of the I. L. D.; Herbert New- ton, national secretary of the LSNR; J, Louis Engdahl, national secretary of the ILD; H. Gellert, of the Con- ference for Protection of the Foreign Born, and Sadie Van Veen—all prom- inent in the revolutionary working class movement and in the struggle for Negro rights. | In ‘New York City, the ILD is also holding a big mass meeting on Sun- day, March 22, The Renaissance Ca- sino, 137th Street and Seventh Ave- nue, has been donated free for this meeting, which will be under the aus- pices of the Nat Turner, Santiago Brooks and Gonzalez branches of the ILD in Harlem. In Newark, N. J., open atr meet- ings under auspices of the ILD and the LSNR will be held every day during the week of March 15 to mob- ilize for the March 28 demonstrations. | Four open air meetings will be held Saturday, March 21. A huge dem- onstration against Jim Crowism 1s {also being prepared for Friday, March | 27, in front of the Court Theatre. A joint committee of representatives from the ILD, LSNR, Council for | Protection of Foreign Born and Young Liberators has been organized to push the work, gn Born and Negroes By Bosses and Their Government f national struggle and demon- strations against boss terrorization of the Negro and foreign- In a joint movement to mobilize the masses against lynch- | ing and deportations, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, FIGHT AGAINST ATTACK ON USSR Mass Meeting Wed. in Central Opera House To protest against the damnable conspiracy of the socialists all over the world against the Soviet Union, the Communist Party is calling a mass demonstration in Central Opera House on Wednesday, March 18th. The recent trial of the Menshe- sabotage the 5 year plan and cause the wreckage of the Soviet Union, brought out that the Second Inter- national, at whose head are Abram- ovich and Hillquit, has declared it- self in back of any move against the Soviet Union. Funds for the sabo- tage campaign were supplied by the Socialist International, through Abra- movich, when he toured the Soviet Union last. Celebrate Paris Commune. March 18th is also the anniversary of the Paris Commune of 1871, where the workers of Paris took over the city and declared a “Commune” of the workers and for the workers. This reyolt of the workers, the revo- lution of 1905, and 1917 have taught the workers many lessons. The heroes and martyrs of these revolts will be honored by the demonstration. The Communist Party calls on all workers to come to the demonstration and to bring thelr shop mates. It vieks in Moscow, who attempted to! JOBLESS LEADERS WHO WERE KILLED. | | Reproduced from local Dallas paper LEWIS HURST CHARLES CODER Coder’s Last Report to TUUL Praises Negro Worker Heroism iTells of Struggle Under Difficulties and De-! termination to Carry On, With Masses Organizing and Ready to Fight Charles J. Coder was acting organizer of the Trade Union | Unity League in Dallas. His last letter to the Trade Union Unity League national office in New York was dated March 4. His previous report was made Feb. 25, after the demonstration. These letters indicate that he was not (as previous reports | from other sources state) ar-*cciainiy thank you for the informa- | rested right at the demonstra-, tion, tion with Hurst and the others,| As to the leaflets— but was evidently picked up (1) I agree’ as to more immediate | jafterward and held on a |vagrancy charge. The letter gives| | vital information about the situation (CONTINUED 0” PAGE THREE) | Texas Authorities Shield the Murderers; Terrorize Workers Capitalist Reporter Testifies Assistant to the District Attorney Told Him the Details of the Lynching of Coder and Hurst Employers’ Revenge Because of Solidarity of Negro, Mexican, and White Unemployed Armed Gang of 12, lucluding Prize Fighter Previously Planted in Jail to Slug the Victims, Took Them Out and Killed Them DALLAS, Texas, March 12.—Coder and Hurst were flogged into insensibility and thrown into a river and drowned. This infor- mation came out in the criminal court hearing this morning before Judge Adams, in the case of Edward Barr, reporter of the Dallas |Dispatch, who yesterday was sentenced for contempt of court when he refused to give information to the grand. jury. Today Barr gave more information than the authorities were bargaining for. District Attorney Involved. He stated that Norman Registar, assistant in the District Attorney’s office, had told him that at 8 p. m. on the night of the murder a gang of armed men had taken Coder, Hurst and Edwards, their attorney, from the steps of the jail from which they had just been “released,” and PROSECUTOR IN [stem sn ene DALLAS SNEERS | Edwards out unharmed, with the ‘NIGGER LOVERS’ | warning that he should “not take any more Communist cascs.” ress Admits Nothing | Is Being Done to Then the gang took Coder and nineteen year old Lewis Hurst near Catch Lynchers DALLAS, .Texas, .March .1 to Hutchins, 18 miles out inte the “If they catch the nigger-lover's | ccuntry. They tied the workers up, | and flogged them into insensibility, | While they were still unconscious, | they threw Coder and Hurst into | the river to drown. Barr also disclosed, information meeting a show of solidarity with the | the militancy of the Negro workers. calls on the workers to make this|in Dallas, and speaks particularly ot Down Town Joblesss floggers, Pl be happy to let a cood Dallas county jury pass on their from the same source, that the prize fighter Holland who beat up the two struggling workers all over the world and to thrust a fist in the faces of the socialist traitors and their mas- Stop Two Evictions |It is plain that the fight waged \the T. U. U. L. and the Unemployed | Councils in Dallas against discrimin- | | NEW YORK—The Down Town} crime!” | Workers in jail on Thursday before This is the satirical jibe of William fists nates deme was planted in McGraw, district attorney at Dallas,|‘° 4 y the police for the very | Purpose. Holland was himself out to destroy the Soviet Union. ters, the world capitalists, who want ation of the Negro workers and un- | Council of the Unemployed blocked quoted in the Dallas Gazette o! ft} STEUBENVILLE, Ohio, March 12. ~The frail body of little Doris Janet Gibbons was prepared tonight for a pauper’s burial while the story of the tragic, hopeless trek of the child’s parents across 37 miles of blizzard-swept country in search of medical attention, shelter and food for their baby was being covered up by the boss press behind a lot of sentimental bunk. Clem Gibbons, the child's father, lived in North Alexandria, Ohio, and | was able up to a few months ago to hold on to a laborer’s job at starva- tion wages. When he lost this job, he could find no other work. In company with tens of thousands of other job less workers, he was refused relief by the boss racketeer relief organ- izations. The boss class which had thrown ‘him out of employment soon evicted‘ him from his home. ) A few days ago his 17-month baby, Doris ‘Janet, caught pneumonia from exposure and hunger. Gibbons and his wife then decided to try the long trek to Wheeling, W. Va., where they used to live and knew a doctor, They wrapped a ragged blanket about the sick child’s body and set out. Penniless, they had to travel on foot. A snowstorm made the journey more difficult and the baby’s cough grew worse. Finally, less than ‘5 miles from Wheeling, the baby's oody grew cold. She died in her nother’s arms, another of countless working-class victims of the vicious | cruisers, airplane carriers, bombing Se i Baby Dies As Jobless Father | Is Evicted and Denied Relief capitalist system which has sentenced 10,000,000 workers and their families to starvation in the richest country in the world. employed workers was one of the main reasons for the lynching of Coder and Hurst. Coder’s letter of March 4 is as fol- lows: Dallas, Texas, March 4, 1931, the eviction of workers’ families at) two places yesterday, and though at this writing details are lacking, the furniture is apparently back in the flats. ‘One was the case of Anna March 7. It is clear indication that | '" “me to take part in the lynching, Hurley, at 32 Avenue B, and the| fact, ever arrested by the police in| | other instance was at 96 Orchard St. | who: the district attorney’s office has aj pleasant little whitewashing stunt | ready for any of the murderers of | Coder and Hurst, if these are, in police station they met while | According to this information, there were twelve in the lynch gang, Norman Registar was sent to the court room to deny that he told Barr about the lynching, but got in deeper by | f the Down Town| Council held their regular daily meet- | ing at Leonard and Church St. (59) | Leonard St.) before the city fake | 1I| employment agency. | eo Ue de, 2 W. 15th St., N. Y. C. Dear Comrade :— Yours of the 28th Feb. received. The speakers Money They WASHINGTON, March 12. — War | and how to conduct the next war is the leading topic concerning the cap- italist government at the present time. Millions of workers starve, and there is no relief, but the capital- ists, through the war policies com-! mission, which is now meeting here,| talks about how much money the} bosses should make out of the next wart how they will conscript the) workers for the slaughter, and what the price of the bullets should be to kill workers. In 1917, the workers! were told that it was the last war.) | Now it is different. The Wall St. | war makers expect the workers to take it for granted that a new war is approaching in which they will be called on to fight again. | Congress spent over one bittton| dollars for the actual war Prepara- | tions, that is, for the army, ‘for the navy and for greater athiairients’—' Bosses Talk Openly On How Much | it, | time. That is, the capitalists who are| to the capitalists who | called in to run the business end of! profits to plunge Will Make Rapidly Preparing for War; Millions Are Being Spent in Next War | tempt should be made to fix the | profits of the capitalists now. Baker said “conditions change too rapidly.” When asked if he thought there | should be a capital levy, that is,| whether capital should be drafted for | planes, etc. Money was plentiful for| war, Baker replied: “I think if we this purpose, Now they are going a] ever went so far as that, it might step further. They have the factor-, be productive of revolutionary dis- ies classified for war. But they are; turbances in the country.” He did now discussing making money out! not explain what he meant, but the | of the slaughter. | implication is that the capitalists in? Bernard M. Baruch, who did the| sist on their hefty profit in war. | buying for the government in the| Baker was against any form of | last war, and made millions out of! referendiim for+war. He said the testified before the war policies! people shouldn't be allowed to vote | cominissi 's should) for or against war. They get too be fixed by the government in war) excited he said. It should be up| make the the workers into} they desire, said the war, would say what prices they| war at any time would get. Other capitalists, such| Baker. as ‘Newton D. Baker, secretary of| The bossés are rushing to war war ‘under the’ Wilson regime, and! fast and are already talking about Leonard’ P. Ayres, Cleveland banker,| dividing the spoils while they said prices should be “free”. No at-| slaughter millions of workers, admitting to reporters that he waiting for Coder and Hurst to be| rents a building to the Ku Klux turned over to them. | Klan. Barr's original story said that It is plain from McGraw’s atti- tude toward those who fought for the right of social, industrial and political equality for Negro and white workers, and from McGraw’s reference to “a good jury” that he does not intend to convict anybody of this brutal murder, The Dallas Dispatch admits in its (CONTINUED OF PAGE THRERY Pe EAS BORO HALL MEET DEFEND YOKINEN BROOKLYN, N. Y.—A mass meet- ing in the defense of August Yokinen | Who is facing deportation for his | stand in the defense of the rights of | the Negro workers will be held Fri- | day, March 20, at 8 p, m. at the Boro | Hall Workers’ Center, 73 Myrthle Avenue, (OONTING D ON PAGE THREE) WorcorrsWritein Saturday Edition "Philadelphia Jobless Foil Eviction of Sick Woman” is a story of the organization of jobless workers to stop the constable from throwing an old sick woman out on the street to starve. A widowed woman of Comp- fon, Cal. tells of her great struggle to provide food for her little son and save her home from being foreclosed. A new wave of wage cuts and lay-offs is revealed in letters from oil refinery, lumber and railroad centres, included in the Worker Correspondence section of next Saturday's edition. Or- der extra bundles before Fri- day, 6 p.m. 60,000 circulation Jottings ps In a leaflet issued by the League of Struggle for Negro Rights whick is calling this meeting states “Yow kinen admitted his mistake (race prejudice) and pledged to do every~ thing to prove his solidarity with the Negroes by fighting against race dis~ crimination and Jim-crowism. For stich a statement he has been ar- rested by the immigration authorities and held for deportation to Finland, where he will face death by the fas= | cist government.” | In the leaflet the appeal is mado to Negro and white workers, native and foreign-born to carry on the struggle to “Smash all discrimination against Negroes” and to'“Prevent the eportation of Yokineny’