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

I ANCE! IPLOYED THE F O R M OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN SMASH THE TERROR REIGN AGAINST FOREIGN-BORN AND NEGRO WORKE RS! MAY 1, RALLY AGAINST HUNGER, WAGE CUTS; FOR JOBLESS RELIEF: DEFEND ie. SOVIET UNION! SMASH THE WAR PLOTS OF THE BOSSES! = WAR FUNDS TO THE UN Rann Wacitere Vol. VIII, No. 82 “Tremendous Accomplish- ments” Demonstrate Against Them On May First! ERE is a new peacefulness passing over the land—the lulling noise of the reawakened tools of industry and construction”—from News Release No. 36 sent out by the Republican National Committee, Washington, D. C. Workers, what is this “new peacefulness?” ‘The answer is given in the. thousands of cases of suicide, in the millions of workers’ homes where the cry of children for bread is answered by the word “hush.” It is a “peacefulness” which should be and must be destroyed. And how does it come that the tools of industry have, for the Re- publican National Committee, a “lulling noise”? It is the effort, workers, to lull you into satisfaction with reduced wages on the excuse that “they are better than none.” You do not need to be told that this means that you must also “lull” the voice of hunger of your families. But you do need to be told that only by resistance to wage cuts, that only by’ or- ganizing and striking against wage cuts can you and your family win back the standard of liying—which was already below decency—that you endured before. The brass-faced gall of the Republican Party National Committee in the face of the continued growth of unemployment, the increasing misery of the masses, would be surprising if we were not already aware that capitalism relies for retaining its control upon hypocrisy. The National Committee of the Republican Party in this same news letter has the audacity to say that the program of Mr. Hoover has, “borne fruit in such practical things as jobs for workers” and “a wage scale maintained despite depression.” It does maintain, with some truth, that it has “prevented labor dis- putes.” But this has only been done with the enthusiastic assistance of the official bureaucracy of the American Federation of Labor. But let us look to some of the positive fulfillments of the Hoover program: 1, “Reduction of taxes by $160,000,000.” ‘This is-a boast of the Re- publican National Committee which-is fully justified, in fact it does not mention the tax refund of billions of dollars given back by the Republican Party to the capitalists. But, workers, these were fayors to the capitalist class at the time their government refused even to hear the demarids of ten million jobless workers for unemployment insurance. 2. “Reduction of the public debt by more than a billion dollars.” This, too, workers is a real accomplishment.. Instead of devoting, this billion dollars to unemployment insurance, }t was/paid over to the Wall Street, bankers into whose hands the public debt, in the’ form of govern- ment bonds, is concentrated. It was @ program for Wall Streot and against the working class which Hoover carried out: *** 3. “Enactment of a tariff law which in the first year of its existence demonstrated its value by preserving American commodity prices from twenty to thirty per cent above world levels.” This is another ‘‘tremen- dous accomplishment.” For you must understand, workers, that this meant that your cost of living was held twenty or'thirty per cent above what it otherwise would haye been and that your bellies were robbed to this extent for the benefit of big capital. It is against these “tremendous accomplishments” of wage cuts, un- employment and starvation of the workers, while the capi its are being guaranteed their billions of profits, that the entire working class must mobilize to demonstrate on May the first! Organize in your shops, workers, and hurl back the lies of the Re- publican National Committee! Organize to strike against wage cuts! Organize to demonstrate May the first! Steal? Starve?--Or Organize and Fight? (ORKERS who have had experience in the class struggle are not sur- prised to hear from the President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Mr. Daniel Willard, the suggestion that workers solve their unemployment. problem by—stealing. Of course we understand that it comes quite natural to the President of a big Railroad corporation to think of stealing as a remedy for any- thing. It is in line with the profession of all big corporation heads in appropriating everything within reach for the building up of the wealth of the American parasite class’ But we will pass over that, to go to the more important point, the particular nature of Mr. Willard’s advice of stealing as a remedy to be resorted to by-each individual worker in the effort to solve his problem of unemployment. It is typical of bourgeois advisors, in a situation where millions of our class are starving—to offer individualistic solutions for our problems. At a time when the only possibilty of the working class to find any way out, or even the slightest immediate partial relief, from mass starva- tion, is by a mass movement of organized millions of workers to compel relief at the cost of the capitalist class and the capitalist government— it is quite logical for such a parasite as Mr. Daniel Willard to attempt to '{ nfluence the workers in exactly the opposite direction. Comfortable para- siftes could very well afford to have desperate individual unemployed work- ei*s resort to stealing a few cheap trifles. (In fact the jails are already {vill of unemployed workers who have done just this), / To be consistent, Mr. Willard might as well go one step further and advise desperate unemployed workers to commit suicide—as so many hun- dreds have already done—another very individualistic method of solving the unemployed problem, and one even cheaper for Mr. Willard’s parasite class, than the method of stealing. The “beauty” of the individualistic acts which Mr, Willard so kindly gives us the free use of his high-salaried judgment, is that such methods leave not only the capitalist system but. also the present catastrophic mass starvation unchanged, In their own political struggles the bourgeois class resorts always to individualistic solutions. At certain sharp stages, it is even typical of the bourgeoisie to resort to individualistic acts of terror. Political murders are typical instruments, for instance, of capitalist class politicians; but, like other individualistic acts, are not a part of any tactics that can be em- ployed to the benefit of the revolutionary working class. Stealing is an idividual act—not a collective act. Individualistic methods are bourgeois methods. The capitalist class can forgive an Emma Goldman, but never a Foster or a Ruthenberg. It is possible that M.. Willard may find some support for his.program mong the racketeer-officials of the International Association of Machin- ists who helped him swindle the railroaé shopmen with the infamous “B & O Plan.” But for our part—we, the Communist Party, call upon the masses of workers to organize in a mass movement to compel the capitalist class and its government immediately to bear the ‘cost of maintaining the mil- lions of its starving victims. “The organization of both unemployed and employed workers in the unemployed councils under the leadership of the Trade Union Unity League, and the building to a mass character of the revolutionary trade unions under the same leadership, to fight as a solid militant mass to compel the payment of full wages to the ten million workers now uhemployed because of the thieving capitalist system—this is our advice to the workers to meet the problem of unemployment. Zo hell with the insolent adviée Ot the’ parasite Daniel Willard ‘és. Dail Central Orga (Sec tion of Entered as second-class matter at the. Post Office at New York, N, ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879 oF the UE gaia Pes NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1931 Shelten Weavers Scorn | Latest Government Strike Breaker SHELTON, Conn., April breaker, a certain Brown, called a| “conciliator” of the U. S. Depart- | ment of Labor, to stop it. Previously Anna Weinstock, also a “conciliator” | of the same Department of Labor had tried in vain to drive the strikers | back. They wouldn't even let her into their meetings, her record as a rayon strike having been well ex- ers Union. vited Brown to come, and Brown got the same rejection from the strikers, and they should surrender and take the 45 per cent wage cut and work two looms instead of one. Bridgeport Mass Meeting ‘The 300 Bridgeport weavers, in the same company’s mill there, have been back at work for two weeks. They came out in sympathy with the Shelton weavers, but suffer from the same evils and made much the same demands. However, there is every possibility»that the Bridgeport weay- ers will walk out again soon, because there is much discontent in Bridge- port. A mass meeting of Bridgeport textile workers is called for the early part of next week. ‘The Shelton weavers, led by the National Textile Workers Union, are planning now to extend the strike quickly to other departments in the mill. The strikers, who have been out now ‘since March 2, are much in need of relief. Their splendid strug- gle should be supported by all work- ers. Send donations for relief as soon as possible to The National Textile Workers Union, care of the Shelton Weavers Club, Coram Ave., Shelton. JOBLESS WORKER ATTEMPTS SUICIDE NEW YORK, April 3.—After he and his half-starved family were evicted from their poverty stricken home, an unemployed Negro worker attempted suicide and is now in a local hos- pital in a serious condition. He was unable any longer to stand the sight of his family slowly starving to death. The BostonRoad and Bathgate Un- employed Councils immediately mob- ilized their forces on hearing of the eviction and suicide attempt and car- ried the worker’s meagre furniture back into the house despite police interference. The children of the worker could not be located by members of the two councils, and workers in the neighborhood declared that they had “run away from fright.” strike breaker in the Elizabethton | posed by the National Textile Work- | The mayor of Shelton himself in- | 600 WOMEN STRIKE IN NEEDLE SHOP 3.—The | strike of the 300 Shelton Wearers | in the Blumenthal Co. here stands | fast, despite an additional attempt | of still another government strike | F L Mayor Tries to Break Strike ST. LOUIS, Mo., April 3—Six hun- | dred women workers, most of them young girls, of the Forest City Manu- | facturing Co., a dress shop, in Col- | linsville, Illinois went on strike, Mon- | day, March 30. | The workers struck in spite of the attempts of the mayor of the town, | and the A. F. of L. fakers in the last four or five weeks to keep the work- ers from striking for better condi- tions. At 2 meeting on March 26th, the | A. F. of L. misleaders were forced when, after trying to “conciliate” he | told the strikers their cause was lost | to allow the workers to elect a com- mittee of their own to present de- |mands to the boss. This came as a | result of a leaflet issued by the Needle Trades Workers Industrial | Union stating the demands, and call- ing upon the workers to take the situation in their own hands and | strike for these demands. The demands issued by the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union : Were as follows: 1—Minimum wage of $9 for all girls —increase of 25 per cent for those making $9 and over now! 2—Eight- hour day—forty-four hour week! 3— Pay for repairs! 4—One-hour for lunch! 5—Oil-guards and safety guards on the machines! 6—Better sanitary conditions! These demands were presented by the committee to the boss Monday morning and were refused. When this took place the workers walked out. The A. F. of L., together with the Mayor and the police are carrying on a campaign of terror in order to sell out the strike. Militant workers in the field were arrested, M. Manes and Earl Galli. At present the mayor and the A. F. L, fakers suc- ceeded through these means to get control of the situation, and are al- ready selling out the strike. In spite of the terror the influence of the N.T.W.L.U. among the work- ers is growing, and the N.T.W.LU. is active in exposing the role of the mayor and the misleaders, Mulrooney Now Cuts Out Apple-Selling The “solution” of unemployment by selling apples having become out. of date because of protest from reg- ular merchants, Police commissioner Mulrooney of New York, has decided an order forbidding apple selling on the streets in the silk stocking dis- irict. The Welfare Committee offi- cially admits 750,000 unemployed in the five city boroughs. No more than 8,000 apple sellers ever tried the game. There are now only 2,000. it has become a recket and is issuing | ' Solution? Mass Starvation, Swindling, Wage Cuts, Terror, for the Coal Miners Needle and Textile ee ee Carry a on Fight Against Cuts lBenaes Committee Told of “Tin Money” and Virtual Serfdom WASHINGTON, D. ©., April 3.— Evidence of horribe starvation, of virtual serfdom of West Virginia miners, of @ policy of deliberate, in- tensification of the misery of these workers in which the courts and the Red Cross played a part, of swindling when there was work by paying in company money instead of legal cur- rency, was unfolded by witnesses be- fore the Senate Committee “inves- tigating unemployment insurance” here yesterday. B, A. Scott of West Virginia testi- fied on unemployment, in spite of the declaration of Senator Hebert of Rhode Island that the committee was “not interested in unemploy- ment but in insurance plans.” Scott said that the miners live un- der a state of company terror, be- ing forced to deal in company stores and pay the overcharge for what they bought, with discharge the pen- alty for trading elsewhere. Company Stores, Scott testified: “All the workers live in company houses and are treated by company doctors. Most companies force the workers to sign ‘yellow-dag con- tracts.” Anyone speaking of unionism is fired and dispossessed. They re- ceive no money, only company scrip called ‘tin money.’ This is good at the company store only and prices at the company store are exorbitant. For, instance, a sack of. the best flour that costs 75. cents in Charles- ton. costs $1.30 at the company store (CONTINUED “ON PAGR FIVE) SLIPPER WORKERS FIGHT WAGE CUT 100 at Feifer Bros On} Strike; Join Union NEW*¢ YORK.—One hundred un- derpaid workers of the Feifer Bros. Slipper Co., 41 E. 1ith St., New York, went on strike Thursday morning against a 10 per c ent wage-cut. For the past three years this has been one of the very low pay shops of New York, and the strikers are now determined to not only stop the wage-cut, but also to have organiza- tion and recognition of their Shop Committee. F. G. Biedenkapp, general organ- izer of the Shoe and Leather Work- ers’ Industrial Union, stated that the strikers had all joined the union and that the demands of the work- ers had been presented to the firm by the strike committee, The work- ers are now picketing the shop and will continue to do so until the firm comes to terms. In putting the wage-cut to the workers last Thursday, the boss said: “Boys, I want you to do me a little favor—just a small 10 per cent wage reduction. You know we are a happy family and must help one another.” The workers’ answer was STRIKE. Already the boss has offered a 5 per cent wage-cut, instead of the 10, but the workers’ answer is “NO WAGE-CUT—WE WANT A. WAGE INCREASE.” «Worker Rfaumict Party U.S.A. tional) — WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents ORGANIZE JOBLESS IN Hoover Hides Against (Special to the and factory manager. “The largest cuts will be made rate is 65 cents an hour. paring to organize for struggle. wage outs. refused to answer directly, but to make the workers believe that} wage levels are being “maintained.” | This idea is smashed by the gov-| ernment’s latest report for February. | Though this report covers a limited amount of industries it says that| there were wage cuts in thousands of plants affecting 40,000 workers and} amounting to over 10 per cent. On the very day that Hoover made his statement that he was highly| pleased with the situation a flood of | reports of wage cuts came to the| Daily Worker. Among them are the| following: In Camden, N. J., 4,037 workers in the New York Shipbuilding Corpora- tion beginning next Monday will have their wages, slashed 10 per cent. In Newark, N. J., 500 painters went on strike Thursday against a 25 per cent wage cut. The wage cut was ordered by the Metropolitan Chapter of the Master Painters of New Jer- sey, to effect 1,400 painters. It is part of the national drive of the bosses against the wages of all workers. A wage cut of ten per cent was given the workers of the Standard (CONTINUED ON PAGE: FIVE) 5 Workers in Patterson Framed Up; Face Sacco-Vanzetti Fate; Mobilize on May First By GRACE HUTCHINS. (Prepared by Labor Research Assn.) PATERSON, N. J., April 3—Thru iron bars and wire netting, Benjamin Lieb talked to the visitors about the case in which he and four other silk workers, members of the National Textile Workers Union, are held in connection with the death of a boot- legger silk boss. From his few words and from the clippings and reports at union head- quarters it was possible to piece to- yether the story of what happened. ‘deb, Lewis Bart, Helen Gershono- 2, Louis Harris and Albert Katzen- uch were arrested on Feb. 18, fol- owing an altercation on the picket ‘ine in front of Max Urban’s silk mill. \ strike at this plant had continued sor eight weeks and daily picketing was maintained by the strikers who Vay“ at demanded a pay increase of one-half cent a yard for weavers on the two- day shifts and one cent a yard on the night shift, with the 40-hour week for all workers. Wages in the Paterson silk industry had been pre- viously cut by about 50 per cent and the strikers were trying to win back a small fraction of the loss. Max Urban, the silk boss, also a bootlegger, drove up to the picket line in a car with his wife, who got out | and ctruck Helen Gershanowitz, a striker, over the head with aa um- brella, A second car drove up and ® Smash the Boss Terror Against Workers Fight- ing Wage Cuts and Starvation. All Out On May Day! out jumped several men, armed with revolvers. The picket line was, bipken up as the strikers saw they were out- numbered by thugs and gangsters, One of the thugs attacked Max Urban, According to one report Ur- ban had enemies in the underworld of gangsters and bootleggers to which he belonged. He had been known for many years as a bootlegger and had ben convicted in a court for bootlegging. According to another report the thug mistook him for a sv iker. Urban fell to the ground and was taken to the hospital, Of the five silk. workers arrested that day, two were not even present on the picket line that morning. Harris was already at work in his father’s silk shop, and Bart was two blocks away, walking toward the mill. But all were. active members of the National ‘Textile Workers Union. Three were also active in the Work- ers’ Cooperative, especially hated by the bosses and small business men for its success in supplying workers with food at moderate prices. Lieb, as a leader in the union, was held at first for bail of $2,500 and the others for lesser accounts, but all were fin- aly released on bail of $1,000 each. When Urban died on March 20, the five workers were routed out of bed and out of their homes at three Wage Cut Drive of Big Bosses May Day Demonstrations Must Solidify Ranks of Workers to Smash Drastic Pay Cuts and Fight BULLETIN. AKRON, Ohio, April 3.—The Akron-Times press carries a statement of the Goodyear Rubber Co. stating “wage cuts ranging from five to twenty per cent affecting 13,000 workmen will result from a reclassifi- cation system being worked out at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co,” “The first announcements of the new system with gradings based on skill the aim of which is to reduce ‘labor costs’ was made at a re- cent meeting of the industrial assembly by Cliff Slusser, vice president. The smallest will be on the more skilled jobs where the rate is 90 to 92 cents an hour. “The average wage cut will be 12 per cent.” The statement is composed of a bunch of up the real meaning of the wage cut. 70 cents an hour. The wage cut will affect the young workers first, cut- ting their wages 25 to 30 cents. The Trade Union Unity League is pre- The Goodrich and Firestone plants aré expected to follow with ‘This is part of the suo one pecinty all workers’ wages, WASHINGTON, April 3—Wage cutting has become an organized attack by the leading bosses of the United States, it was revealed to- day when capitalist newspaper correspondents |attempted to question Hoover about it. Hoover | dent had become aware of an organized effort in certain quar- | ters to force a reduction in wages,” While wages are being slashed right and left, Hoover an- nounced himself as being “highly pleased with the situation.” The capitalist newspapers are tryings | ized longshoremen are conducting a | cent cut at Christmas time and then pre | (CONTINUED 0 ON PAGH BIVE) Nation Wide Hunger Daily Worker) on unskilled labor where the base , attempting to cover Only « few get even as high as such statements as “the presi- came from the White House. STRIKE OVER CUT 100 MEET at Another Dock; Hear Speakers NEW YORK.—About 50 unorgan- strike here at the green coffee ware- house. These workers got a 10 per recently another cut. Now they are all out, striking against the cut, and the U. S. employment agency is al- ready supplying scabs. The company is also trying to break the strike by having part of the cargoes handled by the New York Dock Co, ‘The strikers are fooled by the idea that it is impossible to fill their places because green men “will not know how to do the work.” ‘The Marine Workers’ _ Industrial Union has pledged these strikers full support, but calls on them to forget this craft notion about the company not being able to use scabs, and to resort to organizations and militant mass picketing, The M. W. I. U. urges them to immediately elect a rank and file strike committee. The beginnings of picketing have already started. At the Morgan Line Pier, 12th and West Sts., Thursday, over 100 Negro and white longshoremen at- tended an open-air mass meeting and listened for an hour to speakers Herbert Newton, Stalloff,, Shaw and Miller. The speakers explained the NEIGHBORHOODS AND SMALL FACTORY TOWNS! DAILY STRUGGLE TO WIN RELIEF Illinois Plans to Cut It Off If Unemployed Will Starve Quietly More organization of the councils of the unemployed, am@ more coun- cils, taking root in the’ small neigh+ borhoods of the citiés; ‘spreading into the small towns, fighting every step of the way against evictions and continually exposing the starvation of the jobless, continually Torcing the hand of the local governments with demands for relief, is indicated as necessary by all recent'news. The usefulness of these tactics is shown by the attempt of the governments in many places to fight back. Recent jailing of jobless workers in Chicago for blocking an eviction, attempts by police terror to break up the unem- ployed council in Hamrhond, Indiana; attempts in New York to prosecute (CONTINUED OD ON PAGE Five) THREE CONVICTED IN CHATTANOOGA Only On “Incitement’ Other Charges Fail CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., April 3— After a two hour déliberation, the fundamentalist jury in the case of the three jobless leaders Mary Dal- ton, Harry Gordon, and Elizabeth Lawson brought in a verdict of guilty on the incitement to riot charge. The case of “lewdness” brought against Dalton and Gordon to prejidice the chureh-going jury could not stand, and, a not guilty verdict was rendered on that charge. The charge of , vagrancy originally placed against all three, was so ab- surd that the judge ruled jt out be- fore the case went to the jury. The court room was filled with workers and unemployed workers, who were very sympathetic to the defendants. Able Defense. The three -yorkers put up an ex- cellent propaganda throughout the trial, Lawson speaking’ at’ length on the Soviet Union, and its’accomplish- ments, and the fact that unemploy- ment has been ended there,» while Gordon scored the government and business men’s policy of mass starva- tion of the unemployed in the United States, and Dalton explained the re- volutionary program of the Com- munist Party, All three were more than a match for the police and tie prosecution and made their accusers look silly, RacePrejudice ‘The prosecution tried to make this case a “red baiting” spree, and par- ticularly harped on the “intermar- riage of Negroes and whites” as well as on the argument that “these criminals honor the Red Flag more than the stars and stripes.” Dalton told the workers and the court that the Red Plag is the: work- ers’ flag, and that the “Communist Party stands for full social, and poli- tical equality” of Negra: and white workers, Led Demonstration The judge sentenced Gordon and Lawson to a fine of $500 and Lawson need for mass demonstrations May 1 for unemployment insurance, and called on the longshoremen to or- ganize in the Marine Workers’ In- dustrial Union and fight the speed- up and work for an increase in wages, When this meeting was over many of these present told the speakers of the miserable conditions on the docks, “We have to come down here every morning early and stand in line for a job,” said one Negro worker, and added: “We are lucky if we get.a whole day's work in a woek. Most of us longshoremen on Piers 49 and 50 earn, from $5.to $8 a week, a eile hy to a fine of $100. They are out on bonds during the heating-of the mo- tion for a new trial. ‘The trial lasted four days, having started on March 7 after postponement , em March These three workers were arrested because 3,000 Negro and white job- Jess and militant employed. workers held a demonstration: here Feb. 10 and tried to march on the city hall to make demands for immediate re- lief. Some dozen were atrested whe: the police attacked, and these three’ were held for trial, because they were known as active organizers of the ‘Trad> Union Unity League and other organization@ Mi Sica