The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 1, 1931, Page 4

Publ Page Four , head by the Comprodaily h Street, New York City. Adéress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Publishing Co., N. ¥. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7 Inc, daily except Sunday. at 50 Ea: Cable; DAIWOR. Daily, qMorker SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs ot Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy. Foreign; one year, $8+ six months, $4.50. Police Clubs and Chicago By NAT ROSS. tions are taking place at momic crisis is getting the effects of the crisis among more thousands of workers big factory of Chicago the is are hitting the workers with Wage cuts from 10 per e taken place in the past Western Elections, Stockyards, ete. em is enforced. The hours of lengthened; for example in Sel- m an 8 to 11-hour day. Lay- ace in practically every plant. Jarvester plant, as an outstanding ¢éx- yout two thousand are working now, with about 10,000 a year ago. the unemployed is be- Charity offici: “disaster ba: “ot work. 1 end on s of the heavier cr blows. Over One hundred fifty the dwindling their means of subsistence. out hirty thousand homes, ging to unemployed work- been sold for unpaid taxes. Thirteen four hundred twenty-eight meals were > in the Chicago soup lines in the The whole picture is one increase. The big bankers are laying the basis for fas- the apparatus, in order to have a cisizin more “efficient” method of suppressing the rev- olutior movement and slashing the living standard of the workers. The city government is in © financial crisis. ‘The city debt is $675,- 00,000. The tax rate is 20 per cent higher than last year. The taxes to be collected this year total over $50,000,000, which is almost double last year's collection. However, this situation does not prevent the Thompson administration from asting” $: 0,000 last year, acord- ing to ene, Herald Examiner and spending money like a inken sailor,” letting out contracts on-which profit is 200 to 500 per cent. The Thompson administration is one of unity with Insull,, 0 of 4.000 utility companies, valued > billion dollars which exploit 72,800 work- with the fascist leaders of the Chicago tion of Labor, notably Fitzpatrick and e the most vicious enemies of the bitterly opposed to immediate re- nent insurance; as well as itted fact that Capone svent two weekly out of the six million dol- neome for graft, for keeping 6,000 officials on his pay roll, for brib- milli £0 ing th? e1 out of the s nd on the force, do one or tivo 1 's on the job (when they are not clubbing or murdering workers er out for grait) —eitt they sleep or ‘hey get drunk, as ad- mitted by one of the City Citizen’s Committee. The real f of police is Capone himself. , head of the Chicago crime commission, reported how Capone told him on pri- ry day he would keep his thugs off the north but volunteered his aid (?) on the west side. Cap further said ‘I will have the cops send over the squad cars the night before elec- tion and iug all the hoodiums and keep them in the cocler until the the polls close.” Such is £ picture of the Thompson city admin- tion does not prevent Thompson from appeal- ro and white workers as their ny the treacherous support of the leaders and Negro misleaders (De- , ete.). “There never was a my administration which did not y ase of pay for labor.” Thompson S the nerve to say this despite the fact that 2 open tool of the wage cutting, open breaking Chicago capitalists. > oustanding social demagogue in the mpaign is Tony Cermak, democratic politician, who has overwhelm- rt of finance capital. He is supported by the head of the Chamber of Commerce; by side, o the Negn Colone. Sprague, who says as “a business man T am ini sted” in electing Cermak; by Treylor ‘of the First National Bank, who openly came out for wage cuts, as a way to “solve” the crisis; ‘by McCormick of the Harvester Co. and the war -rying “Chicago Tribune”; by Sargent, pres- ident cf the NWRR, where 40 per cent c* the workers in the yards are awaiting a permanent lay Off on April 1. Cermak also has the sup- port of about 100 scab—gangster officials in the Chicago Federation, headed by Martin *\ Durkin, who came out last March 6th for the In most of the plants | Fine Promises Elections clubbing of unemployed workers. Cermak is flirt- | ing for the support of Capone with quite some success ,and also with Insull. Already Cermak has received the endorsement of Tabor and cKehoe, Insull “yes” men in the street car men’s union. | | | Now Cermak comes before the masses with | the slogan of elect Cermak and re-establish | prosperity and bring back employment. This | s social demagogy is necessary because the hun- gry masses can’t be fooled with the usual elec- tion talk of the bosses’ candidates. Despite the fact that Cermak openly attacked the Negro masses in his county report in 1929, he now calls on them to vote for him to end misery, | evictions and hunger among the Negroes. He | is trying to hide the fact that as president of the county board, he has done nothing for the unemployed, except recently, supported the two million dollar relief bill before the legisla- ture, which according to attorney Struckman, will not be passed, since the supreme court says that poor relief is illegal and the masses must starve. Durkin calls on the workers to support Cermak and thus end unemployment for the 92,000 of the 115,000 building trades workers in Chicago, by reducing taxes and reviving build- ing. Both Cermak and Durkin explain the cause of the crisis as a loss of confidence in the city. In this situation the Communist Party is the | only Party that puts forward a program of class | struggle. The growing support of the masses | for the Communist Party lead big business to tule the C.P. off the ballot. This fascist attack in which the officials’ lawyers of the republic an and democratic united, takes place despite the fact that the C.P. was the only Party that filed | by mass petition (20,758 signatures) and not | by so-called caucus convention. The socialist party, which filed by caucus only | was also “ruled off” but this was just a trick and it is already quite probable that the bosses |.will put the socialist party on the ballot. And | why not? The S.P. in its munipical program | stands for no real relief or unemployment in- surance. Its mayoralty candidate, Collins is an | old labor bureaucrat, united with the fascist | labor officials, for more wage cuts and speed-up. The S.P. is part of the bosses’ war preparations | | against the Soviet Union. | of the bosses. | The Communist Party alone supports the struggle of the T.U.U.L. and the Unemployed | Council, which will force the bosses to give more and better food, clothing, etc. at their charities. It fights fer immediate city relief and for the Workers Social Ins' ce Bill, paid by the bosses and the government and 2dmin- istered by the workers. The C.P. supports the building of the revolutionary trade unions, con- centrating on the big shops in Chicago. The workers are beginning to organize against the bossés’ attack. / y some workers in Har- vester sp: of o inst lay-offs, be- ginnings are being in Western Electric. Stockyards, NWRR, etc. Under the slogan of organize and strike against wage cuts, speed-up and lay-cfls the struggle for immediate demands | must go on. The C.P. exposes the social demagogy of the bosses’ parties. The C.P. fights for the full equal- ity of the Negro masses, calls on all workers to defend the Negro masses against police bru- tality and lynching. It organizes the workers to fight against the vicious F'sh report and its deportation attack on the foreign-born workers, while Cermak has the nerve to speak of the U.S. as the land of opportunity for all foreign-born! The C.P. organizes the workers for the defense of the Soviet Union, against the war prepara- tions of the imperialists and the “socialists.” The Chicago capitalists are particularly active in' the war plans. In the coming international Congress of the Chamber of Commerce in Wash- ington, D. C., the war plans will be extended and Mr. Strawn, head of the American section, has already declared that the Soviet Union is a sword over the head of capitalism which must be removed. The bosses are trying to hide their hunger, wage cutting and imperialist war drive by the use of. wide-spread social demagogy by their candidates on the one hand, and by fascist’ at- tacks on the C. P. and the revolutionary working class on the other. This is the bosses’ “solution ” to the crisis. Workers of Chicago! Protest the fascist ruling | of the Communist Party off the ballot. For- | ward to greater struggles. Vote Communist on April 7th! Use Communist sticker or write on the ballot, Communist Party— | OTTO H. WANGERIN—For Mayor. | LYDIA BENNETT—For City Clerk. | AUGUST POANSJOE—For City Treasurer. Vagrancy and Chain Gang ¢ Se By WALTER WILSON big calamity as a flood or drouth makes the best investigator of peonage. In 1927 the Mis- sissippi River and its tributaries flooded a vast stretch” of country from Cairo, Ill, to New Or- leans, La.—the very heart of the peonage coun- _ try) Several hundred thousands white and colored workers’ were thrown on the doles of the Red _Cress. The planters refused at first to let their . Nozro croppers be taken to the “relief” camps. ’ The Red Cross then made a bargain with the planters to deliver, by force if necessary, the croppers back to the plantations from. whence they Some. grees ‘into pers tog force them to work without pay on levees a vate business enterprises. subsided, the Red Cross, id ‘the ‘plantation ‘overseers é ded them on boats and lantations, ae Tounded > Tearatd<t++9 Conditions during the Morida Hurricane which occurred in 1Y2e ‘were simfiar.’ A special ‘com- mittee was organized by the American Negro _ Lsbor Congress, now the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, to take care of Negroes_in this disaster. In its appeal for funds, this relief committee warned the working class to “remem- _ ber the record of relief organizations in the pi Flood in 1927 when virtual slave pens © established for workers who were forcibly edt to the pion jon owners,” and of the ere teyorized, whipped and reported hundreds ui cases of forced, An investigator tor the | labor and discrimination by the Red Cross and local Florida relief bodies. Cases of wholesale peonage as shown above can come out only infrequently. Individual cases | continuously crop up, though all do not get into the papers. Almost, every week, for example, cases of shooting scrapes between planters and croppers are reported in the press. A study of these shootings show them to be over division of the crop and that if the planter kills the crop- per all is well but that if the cropper kills the planter, he is lynched. In March 1930, James E. Piggott, prominent planter of Washington Parish, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to holding Negro farm hands in peonage. Piggott told Federal Judge Borah that “I han- | dled Negroes in the same way every one else in the South handles them.” He admitted that on | occasion his workers escaped into Mississippi and that he and Louisiana State officers went into ) Mississippi in violation of the law and brought them back. .-On January 31, 1931, Ardis Wadler, Bossier Parish, La., planter, was charged with’ violation of, the Federal Peonage Act, the third such case to be filled there recently. On January 22, 1931, J. M. McLemore, prominent planter of Coushat- ta, La. was charged with holding Negroes in Peonage. The investigation disclosed that Mc- Lemore habitually carried a pistol with which to shoot anyone attempting to escape. Another case for this year is that of Frank Young of El- dorado, Ark., who escaped from the farm of Bill Laring in 1930. This ese with affidavits been filed with the Department of Justice but has never been made public. 1O BE CONTINUED It is the third party | jp)|"LET ME IN; I WANT TO PROTECT YOU!” By BURCK GERMAN WORKER NEWS ITEM:—Hindenburg says ae to i>. pines Communists. PARTY LIFE | Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Communist Party, U.S.A. 2 at ae How It Was Done By BEN GERJOY. E the comment on my article “Living in the Past,” appearing in the Party Life column on March 14, we find the following. “We hope that Comrade B. G. will soon send us another article teJling us how the Cleveland District pro- noses to revitalize such sections and bring home the Plenum resolutions to the members there.” We wish to call attention to the editor of Party Life that the above mentioned article was | based on a trip South about six months ago. | Cincinnati the workers are The comment would therefore be more correct in saying “We hope comrade B. G. will tell us what the Cleveland District did to revitalize, ete.” The comrades of Cincinnati and Colum- bus will have a perfect right to be peeved, since the situation described in the above mentioned article speaks in the present, while the present situation in these cities is entirely changed. Since February 4, the actual date when T was last in Cincinnati, the comrades of that city organizéd a very good’ unemployed demonstra- tion on February 10, at which 5,000 workers participated. On February 25, Cincinnati wit- messed another uncmployed demonstration of 7.000 workers which turned into a Hunger March to the City Council at which immediate demands were presented. The march was very well organ- ized by the local comrades themselves without any other help from the District Center except advice. In addition to these demonstrations Cincinnati has now two functioning Unemployed Councils. The Cincinnati Party headquarters is areal “busy bee” where many workers are around most all the time. As a result of the good ac- tivities the Cincinnati unit is making an ex- cellent showing in the Lenin Recruitment. The Cincinnati comrades no longer tell us that in “different.” The broken typewriter is no longer a problem. Even the mimeograph, the “fragment of the Socialist empire” seems to turn out better leaflets. We can clearly see that the comrades in Cincinnati are optimistic and are well on their way to build up a Party there. But not everything is rosy in Cincinnati. The comrades still have not developed any shop work, which is the next big task facing the !comrades of that city. In Columbus, Ohio, we have a similar change since the last article was written. The com- rades oresnized a Itunger March on February 25, and presented "immediate derhands to the City Council. ‘They have organized a function- ing Unemployed Council, and they are now pro- ceeding with the organization of another Coun- cil. ‘They took in three additional members into the Party, all Americans. The unit now consis’; of seven instead of four when I passed there. Now, how did this change come about? It was not the result of miracles. It was merely the result of a correct application of the Twelfth Plenum resolutions. It was merely a question of clarifying the comrades, of taking them out from the abyss of “generality” and, placing them on a ground of “planfulness.” The first thing we did there was to explain to the leading comrades the signifance of the new turn towards concretization. This done, we proceeded to show the leading comrades -how to do things. They did not know how to organize a mass meeting; we showed them by example how to do it. They did not know what must be done to organize the February 10th demonstration; we showed them, step by step, how it should be done. We showed them -vhat sort of a leaflet should be gotten out, we plained out the march route, and we showed them how every detail myst be taken care of in advance The February 25th demon- stration the comrades organized themselves, not asking for our assistance The next thing we did was to hold a mem- ‘ bership meeting at which a thorough discussion took place on the questions dealt with in the Twelfth Plenum resolutions—concretization, un- employment, Negro work,.ete The result of this meeting was that it broadened out the unit leadership, ‘The comrades felt that the Party is actually beginning to do mass work, and they pledged themselves to get into «tion, At this very mertir: the tit bvro was ree “nized, retaining the best of Cio pro. /ots buro and replacing the dead ones by fresh pro- | firmed the “indisputable evidence submitted dur- | A. F. of L. Leaders Betray Tom Mooney ; In his last installment of his exposure of the treachery of the officials of the A. F. L., Mooney told how Scharrenberg and Woll jockeyed through the 1927 convention of the A, F, L. in Los Angeles a resolution which did not demand the release of Mooney and Billings, but left all future action to the discretion of the executive council of the A. F. L. and to President William Green. Green and the executive council did nothing for Mooney and Billings, and, discouraged others from doing anything. w Mooney goes on. INSTALLMENT 17. + * iar recent Boston A. F. of L. Convention clearly demonstrated the potency of the Los Angeles resolution, when used by the intriguing A. F. of L. leaders. A militant wofdéd resolu- tion on behalf of Mooney and Billings was in- troduced by Thomas Slavens of the Newport, R. L, Central Labor Union. The resolution af- ing the last year to prove the innocence of these | two noble labor patriots,” and directed that a telegram be sent Governor Young urging im- mediate pardon, and notifying the two impris- oned labor men ¢f the convention’s action. Mat- thew Woll as Chairman of the Resolutions Com- mittee slashed and cut this resolution until noth- | ing remained but’a simple statement, that the A. F. of L. reaffirms action taken at the Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Toronto Conventions, namely, the safe burial of the entire question in the “grave-yard” of the A. F. of L.—the Execu- tive Council. Matthew Woll, who mutilated Slaven's resolu- tion, is not only Chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the A. F. of L. but its Vice-Presi- dent as well. He is also acting President of the | National Civic Federation, a notorious anti-labor i organization whose specific function is to fight for the Open Shop. What is Matthew Woll doing among bankers and large industriglists? Is he there in the ‘interests of Labor? Or does he merely act as a representative of the open- shop employers “just for the fun of it”? Can Matthew Woll*be expected to lead workers when they are locked out by employers, and they are compelled to strike? Can this friend of the bankers, brokers: and large employers be ex- pected to lead the unionists who pay him to pro- tect their interests? Of course not! What does Matthew Woll care about the workers? Can Matthew Woll be expected to protect and de- fend militant trade unionists when they are framed? Of course not! What does Matthew Woll care about innocent imprisoned workers such as Mooney and Billings? His task is to de- ceive the workers, do the bidding of the bankers and open shoppers, and at all’ times safe-guard the interests of the National Civic Federation. No wonder the 25 Scripps-Howard newspapers, letarian elements. membership now felt that they have a lead ip. Before leaving we held a meeting with the newly elected buro at which the buro organized itself and ‘appointed the various department heads Some kind of Plan of Work was adopted. Not a complete Plan of Work, but enough to give the comrades a lead as to what their immediate tasks are. In Columbus we did the same thing, only on a smaller scale, as the number of comrades is much smalled than in Cincinnati. The comrades were made clear on how we are to proceed to build our movement by coming out as the leaders of the unemployed workers, helping the unemployed’ to work out their immediate de- mands and leading them in an organized strug- gle for securing them. It was necessary to knock out of the comrades’ heads the idea of “dem- onstrations for demonstrations’ sake,” and this we did, The comrades of these cities are now carrying on their work with a little less splash. but leaving some organizational, results behind. COMMENT:—We regret that the previous article which was obviously intended to play a role in re-vitalizing these sections was print- ed too late to be of ‘service, but the problem * of sections that are “living in the past” is not only the problem of the Ohio District. There are many such sections scattered throughout our Party We welcome Comrade Gerjoy’s quick come-back answering ea ques- bi “How?” and shall be * ears feg in veos in re-vitalizing socgcons are “living in the past.” disgusted with the futility, the impotence, the poisonous influence of the leadership of the A. F. of L., wrote the following editorial before the Toronto Convention of the Federation, October 9, 1929: “To anyone interested in the rights and wel- fare of workers the American Federation of Labor . . . is a somewhat tion. ciable gains in membership, being now below 3,000,000 compared with its 5,000,000 and more in 1920, It has to report a labor kening in the South in which it has little share. . It has to report increased technological unemployment | caused by machines doing the work of men, and its own inability to obtain government un- employment and olf age pension systems to pro- tect scrapped labor. It has to report basic in- dustries such as coal and textiles in which pathetic organiza- | It has to report a failure to make appre- | Closing Out Well, boys and girls, we suppose that those of you who got in a bit late with contributions for the Daily Worker radio, have been thinking that Jorge had absconded with your donations. We have to impart the bitter truth—that writ- ing Red Sparks is only a part of our daily tasks, and we were both pressed for time and of the opinion that we would lay off till all stragglers showed up before closing out, so to speak. Comrade L, George, for example, writes us in sad reproof, of failure to acknowledge the $1 sent in by him for Nucleus 305, Chicago. We had not forgotten, comrades! But he adds: “Some time ago Nucleus 305, through a special enterprise, raised $55 and 36 subscriptions for the Daily Worker. This money and subs were turned in to our D. W. agent, who was asked to send some notice to the D. W. But until the present not a word appeared, in spite of the. fact that many other Party units and organiza- tions with much smaller contributions were printed in our organ.” This is a justified kick. Such a nucleus should be highly praised. But comrades, it seems to be your D. W. agent’s fault. Suppose you start by inquiring of him? However, let’s deal with other contributors. M. L, from Nitgedaiget, came in tardy with a tale of woe, but with $3. Comrade Levitova of Chicago actually sent in another $1. W. T. Con- row of Black Hall, Conn., also waltzed in with One Bone. A “Milwaukee sympathizer” demonstrated that there is more to that burg than social-fascism and beer with $1 and a nice letter. Nebraska, where we used to live, rather surprised us; W. W. Labbo of Henry, Nebr., and Clyde McCarty of Nebraska City, both landed with $1 each. J. H. L. and J. M., both of Los Angeles, came under the wire, the first with $2 and the latter with $1. Then, Martin D. of Paterson, came in with a second dollar and stated that this was for that, farmers’ leaflet we had been agitating for. About that leaflet, Comrade V. Woodman of By JORGE Brooklyn, who sent $1 that we didn’t get. our- selves but the Central Committee did get, wrote: “I sincerely hope that other worker comrades would be awake to the necessity of showing their solidarity with our farmer allies, which judging by the miserable pittance so far received, clearly demonstrates their apathy.” That's putting it caustic like, and properly so, as there is an appalling lag in actually making contact with the farm wage workers and poor and middle farmers. So we are going to take all that $13 noted above (besides the $10.50 we pledged previously) and $1 some New York com- rade left at our office last week, and turn.it over to the Party for the leaflets to go to the South- ern farmers. Because a lot more leaflets are printed than we figured on at first, they tell us, and our contributions will about half the bill, Incidentally, a comrade farmer from New Jere sey sent us in three five pound cans. of honey, | and while we can’t-send them out of town, we will, while they last, give one to any New York | comrade who wants to bring into our office, per- | sonally, a dollar donation to that farmer leaflet. chaotic conditicns drift from bad to worse with | the Federation having no constructive program | to prevent increasing suffering in these trades. It has to report a growth of anti-labor injunc- tions and helplessness to protect the ‘constitu- tional civil rights of the workers. . What is the American Federation of Labor for? Unions are organized in trades and federated in a na- | As to that radio, it is going strong—sometimes too strong, and last Friday we listened to Eugene Lyons of the United Press talking about how he interviewed Stalin. He wasn’t so bad, but like | all capitalist journalists, simply will not reveal, tional body for the specific purpose of protect- | ing the interests of labor. If the A. F. of L. cannot get justice for labor in Congress, ia the courts, in industry, who can? The truth is the A. F. of L. is failing miserably in its stewardship. Every year its weakness is more apparent. The Southern Textile situation is a vivid example of that tailure but it is only one of the many exam- | ples. For thirty years the A, F. of L. has ig- nored this field, except for easy resolutions and a handful of organizers. to the Communists. While hungry southern mill hands are facing alone the organized employers and hostile authorities, are beaten by mobs and | shot down by sheriffs the sleek A. F. of L. of- | ficials sit twiddling their thumbs at mahogany desks in Washington or are making patrioteer- ing speechés at West Point. The A. F. of L. is described accurately as the aristocracy of Labor, All aristocracies are subject to dry rot.” WHO ARE*THE FRIENDS OF TOM MOONEY? ‘The enmity, the malice, of the labor leaders would be disheartening were it not for a few militant A. F. of L. leaders, a few clear-sighted ‘sympathizers of labor, and the great bulk of the rank and file workers. The vital impor- tance to Labor of the Mooney-Billings case has been correctly understood by intelligent people everywhere. Especially by the workers. When Tom Mooney was sentenced to death and Warren Billings to life imprisonment in 1917, a spontaneous wave of militant protest spread around the world, and-workers number- ing hundreds of thousands poured into the streets of every large city of the earth cemand- ing their immediate pardon. Huge demonstra- tions of thoroughly aroused workers marched upon the American embassies and made the ruling class know that they would not stand for this outrage. When the United States en- tered the war, huge throngs of workers before the American embassy in Petrograd demanded the freedom of Mooney and Billings. This demonstration attracted world-wide attention to the frame-up, and the great majority of Americans first heard about “Tom Muni” as a result of;the protest of the workers in far-off Russia, In a flurry of excitement President Wilson, anxious to secure the continued co- operation of Russia in the war, found it ad- visable to politely but none the less emphatical- ly instruct the Governor of California to com- mute Mooney’s death sentence “until he can be tried upon one of the other indictments” in order to appease the anger of the Russian workers. oughout the United States union men Seah such loud protests that many labor bodies passe resoluticns demanding a general strike to force the releace of Mooney and Bill- ings. A deluge or resolutions fell upon the labor misleaders of California, and to each ot these militant resolutions, backed by the mailed fist of labor, the California underlings of Big Business turned a deaf ear. “California must lead.” The resolutions stated: “When it leads we pledge our honor as working men to follow.” California did not lead. Its labor leaders were too busy peddling Organized Labor's powerful inflzsnee and pre~'ies for. cold cash or its oil nt, political jobs, to bother about Mooney ane Killings. The California “leade:s” The job has been left | | | \ the fact that the dictatorship is not that of Stelin, or of the Communist Party, but of the proletariat. By dwelling upon the personality of Stalin, re- markable as it is, without bringing out that Stalin is a product of the Russian proletariat and its revolution, as well as its leader, baie pic- ture is distorted for the masses. The deep and true inter-relation of masses, class, party and party leaders, is either beyond their understanding, or they deliberately mis- represent. it in order to make the workers, who are familiar with the personal dictatorships of an Al Smith in Tammany Hall or a Hoover, into thinking that it ‘- “just the same” with Stalin in relation to the workers of the Soviet Union. had a chance to stir the nation in a display of militant action, and had they. seized this oppor- tunity, many working men walking the streets, jobless, hungry and ill-clad, might not be suf- fering today. ED NOCKELS—REAL LEADER OF LABOR. Unlike the California misleaders, Edward Nockels, Secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, early understood the larger import of the bomb case, and in Chicago,’ thousands of miles from the scene of the trial, followed the court proceedings with keen understanding. Nockels, who knows more about the labor move- ment than a dozen California “leaders,” soon became certain the case was an out and out. frame-up, and was in the forefront of the fight to help Mooney and Billings. It was Nockels, in April 1917, who secured the Oxman letters to Rigall, conclusively proving that Oxman had suborned perjury, and who in February, 1921, directed and paid for the efforts of the men who obtained McDonald’s original confession in Trenton, N. J. Again, it was Nockels who first got in touch with the Baltimore author- ities when McDonald (the key witness), was again located on July 11, 1930, and who accom- panied him across the continent in order to have him appear before the Baorenss Court to repeat his confession, Finally, it was Nockels that sat ‘through all the hearings of the court, the only labor leader who was watching to see that the interests of the adsent prisoners were protected. The-Call- fornia leaders were conspicuous by their ab- sence, but Nockels stayed on the job, alone, watching, listening, and actively representing ‘Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. Well can ‘Tom Mooney say: “Ed. Nockels is the foremost and most fearless leader of organized labor in America. If he were President of the A. F. of L., Mooney and Billings would not be in prison today.” TO BE CONTINUED * Wo a NOCKELS NOW A REACTIONARZ, Ed. Nockels, in spite of the praise that Mooney pays him, hag shown while secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, a savage re- actionary attitude towards all militants in the Federation or any of its affiliated bodies. It was Nockels who led the crusade against the left wing needle trades delegates and had them driven from the Federation at the orders of the I. L. G. W., when these’ same left wingers were regularly elected by the local I. L, G. W. organization. Noskels is now the professional red beltes of the Federation, whenever Nelson is busy elsewhere.—EDITOR, DAILY