The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 15, 1931, Page 1

wR, Workers! Demonstrate Today at 11 a m., Battery Pari / Daily, W Central “WE HAVE No MEANS OF: KNOWING WHEN of How We Stati ‘ Emerge From the VAUE1 WE ARE Mi Me LLon TRAVELING (Sectio unist the Communist Interna n of orker Party U.S.A. tional) gé nst Depor = =a WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Vol. VII, No. 117 Entered an second-class matter at the Post Office <ap>21 at New York, N. ¥., ander the t of March 3, 1879 NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1931 CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents STRIKE WAVE SWEEPS ON; FIGHT AGAINST WAGE CUTS Organize -- And Strike Against Wage Cuts ‘HE Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor has made announcement about wage cuts. It is not the first announcement these fascist betrayers of the interests of the workers have made. In November, 1929, the A. F, of L. leadership participated in and approved of the Hoover “Conference to Maintain Prosperity,” in which the A. F. of L, leadership pledged “No Strikes,” supposedly in exchange of a “pledge” of the employers not to cut wages. ‘However, wage cuts began at once and went on until today, and today the employers are engaged in a wide and intensive drive against wages. The A. F. of L. leadership from the time of the 1929 conference have aided the employers to cut wages by three especial policies: 1, They have suppressed and broken strikes against wage cuts, trying ta Justify this by the falsehood that strikes cannot be won in times of unemloyment. They have pointed to the unemployed, as do the bosses, as a “reason” why the employed workers should accept a wage cut, but they have fought tooth and nail against the movement for Un- employment Insurance that would take this weapon of mass hunger away from the employers. The Danville, Elizabethtown strikes, broken and betrayed by the A. F. of L., testify to the dishonesty of their pretensions. 2. They have not only accepted, but. actively pushed the wage cuts against the workers initiated by Hoover with his “stagger” plan of em- ployment, whereby the burden of the crisis is unloaded onto the employed workers of “sharing” employment with the unemployed, thus immediately cutting the wages of those employed, while the unemployed who are sup- posed to benefit are also put on a starvation standard and each set against cach other, instead of the employers and the government being forced to pay Unemployment Insurance at full wages. By this means the general average wage of the working class has been cut sometimes: in half—yet these scoundrels of the A. F. of L. now pretend to be “against wage cuts.” 3. The A. F. of L. has aided the employers in every possible way to speed up the workers, to drive them to a speed that is wrecking their very life force, with no increase but rather a decrease of wages, under the pretense that “helping the employer helps the worker.” This is a fixed policy of these fascist leaders of the A. F. of L., though they know that increased production per worker without a wage raise of like propor- tion—is a wage cut in disguise; and even then the speed-up is killing the ‘workers. si “She result, of the wage cuts already put over, but ignored by these fascist trade union bureaucrats, amounted to somie $12,000,000,000 during 1930. ‘That is, the working class got that much less wages in 1930 than it got in 1929. Why, then, does the A. F. of L. now, today, in the tmhiddle of May, 1931, suddenly make an ‘‘announcement” that: “Certain banking interests and certain employers are making an attempt to bring about a general reduction in wages.” ‘Why only now does the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. discover “an attempt” at wage cutting? The answer is that these scoundrels are observing an attempt of the workers to fight back, to strike against wage cuts! It is this attempt that Green, Woll and the rest of the A. F. of L. bureaucrats want to stop. Everywhere, the American wage workers are beginning to fight back. 5 strike wave is rising—but it is rising in spite of everything the A. F. of 4. has done to stop it. Only Wednesday the miners of Melrose, Pennsylvania, won a strike against the wage cut! Today, the textile workers of the Lex- ington Mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, won their strike 100 per cent against wage cuts! The Lawrence textile workers recently won a strike against wage cuts! These prove that strikes can be won in spite of unemployment—providing the workers follow the leader- ship and militant strike policies of the revolutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League. But it is the purpose of the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. to defeat this rising strike wave. It therefore comes out, when the workers no longer follow their advice not to strike and not to resist wage cuts, by calling on them “to resist’—but it consciously avoids telling them how to resist; it does not tell them to strike! And, moreover, it discourages striking by harping continually on unemployment and laying down a line of no strike, but rather an “appeal to employers” (the very idea!) that wages should not be cut because it will “hurt the employers.” This is not feadership of workers to struggle, but leadership of work- ers into hopeless passivity and a betrayal of their interests to the em- BPaoyers, who will, of course, pay no attention to such stupid “tactics.” Workers, you have no other way out but’ struggle! Employed and unemployed alike should rally to the revolutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League to strike against wage cuts! Expose the fascist treachery of the A. F. of L. leaders! Unite all forces ‘under T. U. U. L. leadership to defeat the wage cuts with strikes! Organize and strike peainst wage cuts! What About It? HE MOVEMENT of the unemployed, of which there are at least ten million in the United States, and something near 1,000,000 in New York City, is in too many places anything but satisfactory organiza- tionally—and this, of course, has political results. In New York City, where there are so many hundreds of thousands of unemployed, concentrated in a relatively small area, it would seem that any leadership, however inert or inept, could hardly avoid having ‘a far greater. organization than at present exists in the Unemployed Council. : We might suppose, that even considering the inertia of the leader- ship, there would have to be some special bar set up to prevent the masses of unemployed from flocking to the Unemployed Branches—which are affiliated to and send delegates to, the Unemployed Council. Rumors have reached the Daily Worker that something of the kind actually exists. We hear that the delegates, from the Unemployed Branches to the Unemployed Council, delegates who are supposed to be elected by the rank and file of the branches, are not so elected; but on the contrary are, in fact, selected by the Secretaty of the Unemployed Council. If this is true, it may account for the weakness—or better said—the weaknesses, of the Unemployed Council in the City of New York. Cor- tainly these weaknesses are evident enough to dentand a search for the causes, and their remoyal. It may account for the sceming total lack of initiative of the rank and file. Perhaps the Secretary of the Unemployed Council of New York would favor the Daily Worker with an explanation about this reported denial of elementary working class democracy in the election of delegates by the Unemployed Branches, and anything else that may be said to ex- plain the of the work and how to oyercome them, RO Gor Ale jarm the mine company gunmen, TO CONSCRIPT 4,000,000 IN COMING WAR Spend $3,000,000 for Air War Maneuvers in Dayton, Ohio WASHINGTON, May 14. — Plans are completed for conscripting 4,- 000,000 American workers for the next war in the interest of Wall Street. These facts were brought out in the testimony of General Douglas Mac- Arthur, Chief of Staff, testifying be- fore the War Policies Commission yesterday. The War Policies Commission headed by Secretary Hurley, and com- | Posed of cabinet members, senators and congressmen, is planning for the | | Coming imperialist war under the pre- text of studying the question of “pro- | fits in war.” General McArthur outlined a plan for immediate mobilization of 11,000,- 000 men out of which 4,000 would be put under arms for the imperial- ists and other millions would be driy- en into the factories as slave labor to produce munitions of war. In making public this conscription plan, General MacArthur said it had heretofore been secret but since war preparations are becoming a matter of more importance every day he wanted the ‘‘public confidence” in} getting ready for the. coming war At the same time Hoover who Yells about economy provides for the ex- penditures of $3,000,000 for an air war show. Over 600 planes are con- centrating in Dayton, Ohio, for Fri- day to participate in the largest air war maneuvers €yer held in any coun- try in or out of war) On the eve of thi§egigantic war move, Rear Admiral Moffett, chief of the naval buréat of aeronautics. said that more airplanes should be built for the approaching war. Hoover can find mil'ions for air maneuvers, jairplane building, army and navy ex-! penditures, but not one cent for the 10,000,000 unemployed facing starva- tion. The N. Y. Times reveals “According to informed officials, there is no intention on President Hoover's part to take any steps which will impair adequate pre- Pparedness for war or the national N.Y. Workers in Big Demonstrati To-morrow To Save Nin Rallv to Detend Life ot T. Li!| Faces Sure Death It Deported J.S. Government Refuses Voluntary Departure to Soviet Union; Hopes to Kill Him BULLETIN. NEW YORK.—The Tsing Hua Alumni Association, composed of 300 students in American Universities, all Boxer Indemnity’ Scholarship Students and graduates of Tsing Hua College in Peking, has sent the following telegram to the department of labor in Washington: “We demand voluntary departure for Mr. T. H. Li.” This news was telephoned to Li yesterday by C. C. Yu, president of the association, who stated that the whole association membership would be mobilized to protest the deportation of Li to his death. The Social Problems Club of New York University, Washington Square College has also sent a telegram of protest and appealed to the students and faculty to do the same. NEW YORK.—All out today to defend the life of T. H. Li, Chinese student who took part in the anti-imperialist move- ment! The U. S. government refuses to let him leave the coun- try voluntarily and insists on sending him to his death at the hands of*the bloody Chiang Kai Shek government of China! All workers and unemployed® defense.” workers assemble today at 11 a.m. at. Ellis Island Ferry, Battery Park, and protest this ruthless murder! U. S. An Execution. The United States Department of Labor under personal direction of Wm. Doak, member of Ku Klux Klan, high official of the Railroad Train- men and lobbyist for the railroad brotherhoods, has become the official executioner for the fascist murder governments throughout the world One of the latest outrages of the De- partment of Labor is the order to de- port T. H. Li, Chinese student and fighter against imperialism, to meet with torture and certain death at the hands of the bloody Nanking goy- ernment Li was ordered to surrender at Ellis Island before noon today, reaty to, be deported on the steamer Creole, | direct into the hands of Chiang Kai- shek, in spite of the protests of many prominent professors such as John Dewey of Columbia University and N. Peffer, authority on China, and the demands of thousands of workers that (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) HARLAN, Ky., May 14—“If we can’t get help from anyone we are goi gnto help ourselves,” declared the starving miners of Harlan County yesterday, as they held meetings un- der the guns of the state militia and the armed mine guards. ‘There are 20,000 miners nere. Thou- sands are locke dout or striking be- cause of the determination of the, mine operators to enforce the yellow j dog contract on them, to swindle them with short weight at the tipple, to allow them only two or three days’ work a week, and to cut wages and speed up the men at work and to lengthen the hours. The explicit declaration that the miners would refuse ot starve came from William Hjghtower, president, of the Evarts Local of the United Mine Workers. The distdict officials and Lewis’ office have done nothing for’ the miners here, and district Officials agreed with Governor Samp- son to send in troops, telling the = that the troops would dis- with whom the miners have fought pitched battles with a loss of five lives during the last month. Hightower, and other local officers have to voice the resentment of the men or they will be ousted. “Goy. Flem D. Sampson has vio- lated his promises in every respect, the national guard has sided with the eperators in this fight and des- titute men have received no aid Jrom the Red Cro: Hightower declared. are not zoing to let our fam- iies starve,” he s: “We love our wives and children just as mnch as the operators love theirs, We cer- tainly are not going to stand idly by and see them suffer. We don’t like to take this attitude, but we feel we have been driven to it by the impossible conditions imposed ay “Going To Help Ourselves” Say Starving Harlan Miners upon our men in this fight. “Our backs are to the wall,” le declared. “The Governor is against us. The money power is against us. We have got to live. Somebody will have to belp us, or we will help ourselves, and we mean just that.” Hightower pointed out that even when working a miner is lucky to get 25 tons in six days, which at 42 cents a ton will give him $10.92. The men work yith poor air in the mines, no safety provisions, with armed guards standing over them, and when they are paid, have to spend the money in company stores with prices double what they are in other stores. BANKERS URGE CUT IN WAGES Missouri Session Mas Report on Wide Slash EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo., May “The comunittee on stabilization *! the Missouri Bankers Association 1 session here today reported that 1 moyement looking toward the re- uction of the hourly wages paid in \adustry” is “becoming widespread” ind is justified because “it stands to eason that industry can not con- tinue to pay the old scale of wages if it cannot sell its products in volume and at the old prices.” The bankers never for a moment ‘considered the possibility that the owners of industry, including bank- ers, might take a little less profit in- stead of trying to make workers stand the whole burden of the crisis. “Some appearance of justifica- tion for the charge that bankers are fostering the movement is found in the expressions of several leading bankers that wage reduc- tions offer the only way out of the present difficult situation,” the re- Port states. “These expressed views, however, are the personal views of individuals.” All Scotts Run Mines to Strike: 5,000 to Foin; 8 Mines Out Now MORGANTOWN, W. Va., May 14.-- Right on the heels of the attempt of the United Mine Workers officials to get government help in selling out the strike of eight mines here, the rank and file forced a call for gen- eral strike, and 5,000 more miners are coming out, The strike is against wage cuts. The men of the Osage mine of the Osage Mining Co.; of the Bunker Mine of the Davis-Wilson Coal Co.; of the Shriver mine of the Bierer Coal Co. struck yesterday. Five other mines were already on strike. e Negro Boys United Front Defense Endorsed by Many Organizations |All Out to Harlem! Smash Lynch Terror! Defend Negro Workers! BULLETIN (By Telegraph to Daily Worker) CHATTANOOGA, May 14.—Fran- tie with worry over the attempts of prison authorities, Ku Klux lawyers, local preachers and the N.A.A.C.P. leaders to trick and coerce their boys into signing statements detri- mental to their defense, the parents of the Scottsboro boys left this eve- ning for Kilby prison to see their sons. Before leaying they issued a state- ment denouncing the efforts of “in- termeddlers who have heretofore been interfering and sending out false reports about. this case.” any again endorsed the united front de- } fense policy of the International La- | bor Defense, (Full details in tomor- row’s Daily Worker.) NEW YORK.—With the hearing on the motions made by the Interna- tional Labor Defense for new trial for all of the nine Scotisboro Ne: boys only a few days off, the work ers of New York will their protest in a huge parade anc demonstration this Saturday again the attempts of the Alabama boss to legally lynch these innocent chil- dren, among whom are three 14-; year-old boys. The oldest boy is only 20 years. demonstra The parade will be held in Harlem and will be supported by hundreds of working-class and other organiza- tions which have joined the united front movem to save the lives of these nine It will be partici- pated in by thousands of workers from all over New York City. Mob- ilization meetings for the parade have been held in every section of the city, including the Bronx, Long Island, etc. Among the organiza- tions participating will be a number of Negro fraternal organizations ahd churches, which have endorsed the united front defense policy of the International Labor Defense and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. Parade Mobilization Begins at 2 P.M. Mobilization for the parade will begin at 2 o'clock, with numerous street corner meetings in the area from 140th St. to 1113th St. and be- (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) —- $ on WIN FULL VICTORY IN LEXINGTON MILL; YOUTH LEAD AT GENERAL FABRIC Mass Picketing Five Times A Day Forced Co. to Surrender; Solidarity By Other Workers 1,000 Picket at Allentown; Smash Scabs and Refuse to Let Arrests Be Made PAWTUCKET, R. I., May 14. — Under the leadership of the National Textile Workers’ Union, a complete victory has been won in the Lexington worsted mill strike. The ten per cent wage cut has been stopped, and other demands are won. Daily mass picket lines by the Lexington workers, some- nee “times as often as five times a ‘day, and the powerful support of the workers from the Bay State and General Fabrics mills was what gained the victory. The workers of the Bay State, 100 per cent organized in the N. T. W., picketed with the Lexington strikers. The General Fabrics is solidly on PICKET EMPIRE STEEL; ‘REJECT COMPANY OFFER, | AFL Misleaders Come 2.000 Fight Wage Cut; BULLETIN. T. LOUIS, Mo., May 14.—A yote 83 against 34 of the employes of the St, Louis Public Service | Company, which runs the street cars here, called a strike to start ut midnight next Tuesday, unless the company yields on a proposed ten per cent wage cut. MANSFIELD, Ohio, May 14.—With | 150 pickets posted in front of the! Empire Steel Corporation mills here, | the 2,000 who walked out on spon- taneous strike against a 20 per. cent wage cut entered the second day of | their struggle. The strikers met last night and re jected the proposal of the manage- ment to stop the latest 5 per cent cut, but to put through the 1¢ per cent cut announced a few days be- | fore The president of Empire Steel, | Carl W. Hankel, announced that the mills face “certain destruction and a permanent shut down” if the men do not come back. The men say that if this is so, the company can afford the old wages. The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, an ex- tremely reactionary union chiefly in- strumental to take over contro] of the Empire Steel strike “rhe Trade Union Unity League urges the strikers to keep control of the strike in their own hands, and to organize a broad strike committee. PATERSON, N. J.—Mass pressure of the working class, organized through the International Labor De- fense has begun to shake the con- spiracy of the textile bosses of Pater- son and their courts when the five workers framed for murder won the fight yesterday through the ILD at- torney to have bail fixed for their re- Score Green’s Fake Attack On Wage Cuts! Show A.F.of L. Role in Drive ‘Exposing the part of the A. F. of L. officialdom in, the present wage- cutting drive, the National Execu- tive Board of the Trade nion Unity League has issued the following state- ment attacking Green's fake call for resistance to wage-cutting: “The employers, in their determin- ation to throw the burden of the economic crisis upon the workers, are intensifying their onslaughts against wages and living standards. are trying to push workers into the abyss of starvation, in which millions of unemployed workers now find themselves. ‘The wage-cut movement, stimulated and organized by the financial barons of Wall Street, is spreading and deep- ening in every industry. “Now comes William Green, presi- dent of the A. F. of L,, with a call ‘They | the employed | ip U UL Shows Only) Way to Smash Pay Cuts upon the workers to resist these de- veloping wage-cuts, But intelligent workers will not make the mistake of thinking that Green is actually going to mobilize the forces of the A. F, of L. for a real struggle against wage- cuts. They know from bitter ex- perience that such a statement by Green is nothing more than a ges- ing his face as a labor leader, co- operate with the employers as he has in the past, to speed up the workers and to slash their wages, “Por the past year. and a half the bosses have been reducing wages in ture so that Green may, while keep- | ® every industry. Millions of workers have their wages cut from 15 to 60 per ecnt. Yet Green never raised a hand to organize the masses to pre- vent it. On the contrary, he did his best to demoralize the workers’ re- sistance, by denying the existence of wage-cuts, by assuring the workers tha the worst of the crisis was over, and by sabotaging and strike-break- ing every effort of the workers to unite and struggle under the banner of the T, U. U. L. unions, If Mr. Green now comes forward with his pseudo-radical calls for resistance this is only because he knows that the workers are going to fight any- Labor Defense Wins Bail Release for 5 in Paterson lease. For the four men comrades the capitalist class Judge Harley of the Court of Common Pleas fixed bail at $3,500 each. For the one woman comrade, the bail was set at $1,000. Despite the hardship inyolyed in raising this exorbitant sum of money especially at a time when the ILD is straining every nerve to free the nine Scottsboro boys framed up and facing death at the hands of the southern lynchers, the ILD local of- fice today declared that “the work- ing class will rally to the appeal of the International Labor Defense and raise the bail to release the five Paterson Textile fighters within 24 hours, Forward with the fight for strike, and the strikers have been holding powerful picket demonstra- tions not only before their own mill, but also before the Lexington The General Fabrics strike com- | mittee is one half young textile work- ers. A Youth Committee of the N, T. W. is active, avd the young strik- ers-are taking the leadership in pick- jeting and organizing Perry, youth organizer of the N. T. W. in this district has arranged a Youth meeting for tonig! with | young workers from: General Fabrics, Royal Weave, Bay State, Piles Fab- ric, Hamlet, Lexington, and Tvorsted ‘Textile. There are youth commitices in all these mills and membei is growing in other mills of the Black stone Valley The youth committee has arra>zed a solidarity dance for Saturday nigit Caper iret Stop Mill Seabs. ALLENTOWN, Pa., May night over one thousand ¢ mpathizers picketed the Mogg 0 Mill, Sixteen scabs ond pick: feared to show themselves and wait- ed for hours, then finally came out. The pickets attacked the scabs and the police tried to arrest the Pickets, but failed. As a result there were no scabs in Moggio Mill this morning, where more mass picketing took place The strikers are very enthusiastte and determined. Under pressure of the rank and file a schedule is being worked out for twisters also. They are now call- ing a meeting for Friday to mobilize support of all workers. The Ameri- can Beauty Company informec the committee that as punishment for strike, they will be cut half a cent As a result of this the committee and workers are more determined. GIRLS GET $4 WK. HUNGER WAGE Crisis Hits the Young Workers Hard While Col. Woods of Hoover's so- called “Employment Committee goes off to Europe because in the opinion of the government the unemploy- ment crisis has been solved, a report has just been issued by a charity or- ganization known as the Girl's Ser- vice Friendly League which gives the lie to the bosses government, and their fraudulent statements that un- unconditional release of these revo- lutionary workers, Lieb, Hart, Harris, and Helen Gershonowitz, * ig 8 The election campaign in New Jersey conducted by the Communist Party which brought to the forefront the issue of the recent textile strike in which these comrades were active and jailed on ‘the false murder charge. also registers exceptional re- turns in the yotes cast as in Passaic for example where, the vote was double that of last year. The Com- munist candidate Smelkinson “won 306 votes while the capitalist class representative. polled only 459 yotes. how against the growing wage-cuts. The strike wave is mounting all over the country. He merely wants to {CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) Fight lynching. Fight deporta- tion of foreign born. Elect dele- gates to your city employment is no longer an issue, The report discloses that “a family of seven living on the income of one wage earner getting $3.50 a day, and another family of four trying to ex- ist on $10 a week, as typical cases of starving workers, Young workers taken on in pref- erence to men and women because the employers can squeeze the maxi- mum production out of young and swift brains and bodies, while at the same time reducing the pay to the minimum are holding on to such jobs as they have because entire families are dependent on them. The report points out that “a survey made last week revealed that the average in- come had fallen to $4 a week,” also that the latest three curveys had “in- os