The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 18, 1931, Page 1

Ww Tate Sabbics ABe our PANHANDLING AGAI~ Four Prease Pom WoTiCe Rath (Section of Vol. VIII, No: 119 Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office <@p=21 at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879 the Communist NEW YORK, MONDAY, MAY 18, 1931 International) Interventionists - —(See Article On Page Five) WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Price 3 Cents CITY EDITION THREE STRIKES WON BECAUSE T.U.U.L. BLOCKS SELLOUT Shortcomings in Saturday’s Demonstration GAtusDexs demonstration in New York. against the Scottsboro legal lynching was a success in the main. It undoubtedly served to bring the issue of Scottsboro squarely before many thousands of Negro and white workers, and mobilized additional numbers of workers for the fight to save the lives of the nine innocent Negro boys. An excellent innovation, but one which was not sufficiently carried out, was the holding of street meetings along the line of march to mobilize the workers for the parade. Especially deserving of praise was the work of the Red Builders and other comrades engaged in selling the Daily Worker and other organs of the revolutionary movement and explaining the implications of the case to the thousands of workers who lined the sidewalks. However, there were many glaring evidences of impermissible under- estimation of the Scottsboro campaign and the Party's Negro work generally, The comparatively small number of Negro workers in the parade itself showed that little progress has been made in the work of building block and neighborhood committees for support of the Scotts- boro defense, and in mass agitational work in the Harlem section. The small number of organizations participating as a body shows that the Communist fractions in the mass organizations arc not yet alive to the importance of the Scottsboro case. The International Labor Defense, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights and the Workers Ex- Servicemen’s League were the only mass organizations marching in a body and behind their banners. Only one band was hired for a parade which stretched over 7 blocks, end had at least 3,000 in line. Where tens of thousands of leaflets should haye been distributed only a few hundred were in evidence. This impermissible underestimation was further emphasized by the absence of the party district leaders, vith the exception of Comrade Patterson, Negro work director, and savors of the old wrong attitude of leaving Negro work to the Negro comrades. This attitude deserves the sharpest condemnations. “Bring Me the Liar” E forget exactly which old world potentate it was, who, confronted with/the necessity of issuing a public statement, cried out: “Bring me my liar!” The example, however, seems to have proven useful to President Hoover. This is revealed by an Associated Press dispatch of May 16 from Washington, obviously bearing the ear-marks of Hoover's “official liar,” the effect of which is expressed in the following Knes: “The Administration believes that wage levels generally have not declined.” A pleasant fiction! Millions of workers have suffered wage cuts. The April bulletin of the National City Bank shows that while the cost of living index figures stands at 85, the payroll total of wages paid has fallen to 68 in comparison. @n the very day and\in the same paper in which Hoover's “official liar” denied wage cuts, the Chicago correspon- dent of the New York Post began an arttele from that city with the fol- lowing: “ines: “Whire metropolitan bankers and industrialists in conventions a‘ palatial hotels discuss wage reductions, the workers on Chicago’s ‘main stem’ find farm labor has already had its pay cut 33 to 50 per cent.” Why, it may be asked all this seemingly pointless lying on the part of “the Administration”? The answer is, that by denying the wage cuts already made, the “bankers and industrialists’ who are plannig further , wage cuts are given moral support on the fictitious grounds that prices of commodities “have declined” and that wages “must follow.” The index figures of the National City Bank (which no one will attack as Bolshevik propaganda) are a point blank refutation of this lie! It is, incidentally, an interesting observation that the statement of President Hoover follows that of the executive council of the A. F. of L. a which these labor lackeys of American capitalism pretended to “op- pose” wage cuts. It is now up to the A. F. of L. to agree with Mr. Hoover that there have been no wage cuts, or—painful alternative!—commit the crime of lese majeste on even “sedition” by contradicting “the Admin- istration.” But this alternative, like the A. F. of L.'s policy of “opposing” wage cuts, “even to the point of striking,” is more apparent than real. What will happen, will doubtless be a flood of foggy demagogy in which the A. F. of L. will straddle the issue and continue the past policy of helping the employers cut wages while pretending yaliantly to “oppose” thom. Workers should understand all this stinking hypocrisy and the neces- sity of their own initiative in organizing and striking under the leade~. ship of the Trade Union Unity League against wage cuts that are being attempted everywhere on a wide scale. But more than ever, they should understand the contrast between the conditions which capitalism inflicts upon them and the conditions of the workers in the Soviet Union re- vealed in the following quoted from the New York World-Relegram of May, 16: “In 1930 real wages averaged 45 per cent above those of pre-' “Aneluding social insurance and other privileges the increase was fer cent above the pre-war level. The average earnings last year were per cent higher than in 1927-28. In the coal industry wages in- reased 24 per cent between December, 1929, and December, 1930. In February of this year the wages of underground miners were further increased by 20 per cent.” . In the light of this revelation of what it means for the working class o overthrow capitalism and establish a Workers’ and Farmers’ Govern- ment. the American workers should understand the danger of American ’ capitalism leading an armed attack against the Soviet Union and the flood of capitalist propaganda bitterly attacking the Soviet Union as a form of “moral preparation” of the American masses for that war. It is this vivid example which the Soviet Union furnishes to the workers of capitalist countries that is more dangerous to capitalism than any “dumping” possible to mention, And the American working class should understand that their employers can only be defeated in their program of wage cuts and war by militant action in striking against wage cuts ard a revolutionary defense of the Soviet Union! Yonkers Workers Hit Lynch Verdict YONKERS, May 17—Hundreds of Negro and white workers gathered at Larkin Plaza Saturday afternoon in mass protest against the while rul- ing-class of the South who are en- gaged in the attempt to snuff out} ‘The indoor meeting was addressed the lives of nine innocent Negro) py Mrs. Ada Wright, mother of two children. + " lor the boys, and F. BE. A. Welsh, of Speakers from the International the L.S.N.R. An appeal for funds Labor Defense unmasked the slimy | to finance the Scottsboro campaign manouvers))af the Southern bosses resulted in a collection of $23, and their agents, the white and Ne- gro “uplifters,” and called upon the workers to unite in struggle against the terrorism that now seeks to ter- rorize the millions of destitute Ne- gro workers by mass lynching. Many of the workers went after- ward to 252 Warburton Avenue, where a branch of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights was or- ganized, consisting pf many Negro and white workers, ;' 1,500 SEIZE PHILA. CITY RELIEFOFFICE \Jobless Find Orders to Discriminate PHILADELPHIA, Pa., May 17.— Fifteen hundred “Negro and white workers, invaded the headquarters of the City Emergency Relief Com- mittee, 303 S. Broad Street Friday. This committee, headed by Horatio G. Lloyd, president of Drexel and Company, member of the House of Morgan, has made itself notorious through its system of collecting a day’s pay from employed workers, and using the money to hire workers on “made” jobs for scab wages. This money which was supposed to go to unemployed workers, for ac- tual relief was being used by Lloyd and the clique of bankers. who head this relief committee , as a weapon of the wage cutting program of the bosses. Make Demands. But even so the last two weeks has seen the cutting off of the entire fourteen thousand who were working on these “made” jobs. also cutting of what little relief they have been giv- ing to others. The unemployed councils sent a committee headed by Leslie Copeland, secretary to de- mand from Lloyd that the thousands of needy cases, which were presen- ted to him be. taken care of, also that all money on hand be turned over to the unemployed, the $6,000.- 000 Joan which the city is getting from the state also be turned over. There Are 300,000 Jobless Here. Lloyd told the committee that he could do nothing for them, as he had no funds. Copeland jointed out that | Lioya and his committee had never ; tried to do anything for the unem- ployed. What had been done was be- cause of the pressure of unemployed workers, and their fear that these workers would take things in their own hands. This committee came back to the headquarters of the Lloyd commit- tee and reported Lioyd’s attitude. pointing out that only by struggle would they be able to get any kind of relief. Members of the unemployed coun- cils simply took possession of the (CONTINUED ON PAG FIVE) REVOKE BAIL OF PATERSON FIVE Feared Demonstration PATERSON, N. J.—On the ground that the International Labor Defense and the National Textile Workers’ , Union had issued a leaflet calling on ; the workers of Paterson to demon- | strate in front of the jail in Paterson to greet the five workers framed for murder who were to be released on bail on Saturday, the judge revoked the bail. The judge is also said to ‘have objected to a cartoon in the | Daily Worker.. The prosecutor's of- ! fice has informed the LL.D. attorney ‘ that they intend to treat the case as an ordinary criminal case, and will make this another Sacco and Van- zetti-case in the true spirit of Ameri- | can italist democracy. ( The Patersori Eagle of Sunday, ; May 17, in reporting the demonstra- tion of the workers on Saturday, states that the jail was guarded by city police and county deputies. On Monday, today, another at- tempt will be made to argue the mo- tion of bail before the same Judge } Harlan who previously fixed the bail “of $3,500 for each of the four men. comrades and $1,000 for the woman , comrade. The official reasons for re- voking the bail and keeping the workers behind the bars will then be aired. The inside story written by the comrades themselves: Lieb, Hart, Harris, Gershonowitz and Kalzen- buch, will appear in the Daily to- morrow. That the textile bosses and their tools are determined to take vengeance on the comrades whom they have framed for murder, is clear. Mass pressure of the workers organized through the LL.D. and the National Textile Workers Union must and can smasb this bosses frame-up, 2,000 Steel Strikers Chase AFL Organizer Out; End Cut Albany Foundry Workers Threatened by A. F. of L. With Expulsion and Told Strike Is Lost, Cheer T. U. U. L. Speakers, Carry On and Win MANSFIELD, Ohio, May 17.—The two thou- sand Mansfield strikers in the plant of the Em- pire Steel Corporation have won. The grip of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers (A F L) by which this gang hoped to smash the Empire Steel strike as they did the great steel strike of 1919, was broken by the agitation for rank and file control of the strike started by the Metal Workers Industrial League of the T. U. U. L. The Amalgamated organizers came early in the strike, and TU.U.L. HITS SELL OUT PLANNED BY AFL. IN ST. LOUIS Carmen Vote Strike Against Wage Cut ST. LOUIS, Mo., May 17.—-The stree car men in St. Louis have voted for a strike against a 10 per cent ‘wage cut served on them by the Pub- lie Service Company to take effect, on June 1, The agreement expires on May 19 and the men have voted to go on strike when the agreement ex- pires. Acting Mayor Neun has already is- sued a statement that “there must be no strike,” and the machinery is being prepared to break the strike. Since the beginning of the contro- versy the Trade Union Unity League has issued two leafiets to the street car men calling upon them to organ- ize committees in the bars, and not to permit Mahon, and the local pres- ident Nelson of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway employes (A.F.L.) to sell out the strike. The A. F. of L. leadership as usual is on hand making the workers be- lieve that they are fighting for them while at the same time carrying on negotiations and calling upon every strike breaking agency of the bosses from the mayor to the Chamber of Commerce to come into the situation. The Trade Union Unity League has constantly warned the street car men to watch out for these “friends” of labor, and take steps to stop the sell out that is being prepared by their officials. The street car men must not forget the strike breaking activity of Mahon in the strike of the New Orleans street car men. . Need Rank and File Leadership. The street car men can not rely upon the present leaders to carry through th strike successfully. ——®began to swindle strikers into their organization. When the strikers, who were unorganized, realized ful- ly what was up, they forced the Amalgamated organizer to return ini- tiation fees to the men who had paid them, and they ran the Amal- gamated organizer out of town. The local authorities, police, ag- ents of the Mansfield A. F. L. or- ganization and American Legion- naires kidnapped Meldon and Cush organizers of the Metal Workers In- dustrial League, and took them in automobiles to the adjoining coun- ty. But by that time, the strike- oreaking trick had failed. and the company capitulated’ an hour after the militant organizers were seized. ‘The strikers have forced the com- pany to give up the announced 15 per cent wage cut. The wages of common labor have been raised four per cent. restoring the wage scale of April 30 the corporation expects to profit by a higher degree of efficiency from the men.” This means, the T. U. U. L. points out, that the company will try to get more work for the same pay, and thus put over an indirect ‘wage cut, with speed up and increased accident rate, etc, The men have no union yet, and one is needed to fight this new attack of the com- pany. They are urged to join the Metal Workers Industrial League of the T. U.U. L. and build their shop committee organization. hr Smash Sell-Out znd Win. TROY, N. Y., May 16. — Quick ac- tion by the Trade Union Unity Lea~ gue and hearty response by the work- ers on strike blocked at. the very last moment a sell-out all fixed up by the A. FL, leaders, and turned a des- perate situation into a complete vic- tory here. Seventy foundry laborers were on strike at Ludlow Steel and Valve Works against a wage cut from 66 cents an hour to 50 cents. The Moulders’ Local was out in sympathy At the strike meeting Thursday (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) HOOVER’S LIES ON WAGE CUTS BLASTED BY DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FIGURES; WAGES OF 3 Hoover Spouts Lies About “Wages Staying Up” Follows Usual Stunt Aims to Keep Back Resistance WASHINGTON, May 17.—Follow- ing usual policy of deliberate lying Hoover declared yesterday that wages have not been cut. . The s' was given after the repo! om all over the country of wage slashes and on the very day that the United States Department of Labor an- nounced that wages had been cut heavily. Hoover's statement decla. “The administration believes that wage levels gencrally haye not de- clined, although hours of work have been shortened in some indust: The occasion for this utterance was the statement of Wm. Green, presi- dent of the American Federation of Labor, admitting that wages have been cut and that the work strike, despite the wishes of Gi and the other fakers in the A. F. of L, Greon has persiston!Jy supported Hoover's ties about there being no wage cuts. However, wi have come down recently in such a heavy flood that Green could no longer fool the” workers and began The company announces through : talking “militancy” in order to main- |C. H. Henkel, its president, that “In! tain leadership. Hoover took the whole brunt o fthe lying on the very day when every capitalist newspaper in the country reports a heavy in- crease in wage cuttin, DEVINE HEARING IN US COURT MON. NEW YORK.—Pat Devine, acting secretary of the National Textile Workers Union, was released from Federal Detention Headquarters Sat- urday on bond of $2,000 provided by the New York District of the In- ternational Labor Defense. He is scheduled to appear for a hearing Monday in the U. S. District Court, Post Office building, Eighth Avenue and 31st Street. Devine was arrested in Boston about a weck ago on a trumped-up charge of obtaining a passport under false pretenses. He was brought to New York and kept in the Federal Detention Headquarters until Satur- day, The charge against Devine is part of the efforts of the govern- ment to deport him to Scotland be~ cause of the part he played in the successful Lawrence textile strike 3,000 Parade in Scottsboro Protest As Throngs Cheer the Line of March NEW YORK.—The/ fight to save the lives of the nine innocent Negro boys railroaded through the boss courts of Alabama to the shadow of the electric chair reached a new high point Saturday afternoon as a paradé of 3,000 white and Negro workers through the streets of Harlem brought home to tens of thousands of workers of Harlem the vicious injustice of the frame up against these boys and the necessity of a united front to save their lives and secure their freedom. ‘Thousands of sympathetic workers lined the sidewalks as the parade got under way from 128th Street, and Lenox Avenue. Cheers and ap- Plause grected it all along the line of march up Lenox Avenue to 145th reet, through 145th Street to 7th venue to 116tth Street, where it turned east to be enthusiastically welcomed by thousands of Latin- American workers on its way to Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, where a demonstration was held with over 6,000 workers taking part. Thousands March Along Sidewalks ‘Time and again the crowds on the witlewalks and in tthe windows of 6,000 Give Huge Ova- tion to Mother of 2 Boys at 110th St. the houses along Lenov and ‘th Avenue, and along 116th Street, broke into applause and cheers as the banners and placards with their militant slogans against boss lynch Jaw and for the demands of the Ne- gro masses came into view. At several points along the line of march red flags were waved from windows and roof tops. Many Negro and Latin-American workers joined the ranks of the pa- rade. Other thousands marched on the sidewalks all the way to 110tth Street, where they took part in the demonstration, Workers Cheer Protest — Against Frame-up Some of the slogans which brought cheers to tthe lips of the tthousands of sympathetic on-lookers were “Death to Lynchers,” “Free 9 Scotts- boro Boys,” “They Shall.Not Die!” “Hungarian Workers in Fight to Save 9 Negro Boys,” “Stop the Lega? 7. Sik SEED TCE Lynching of Negro Working Class Boys!” “Fight Lynching and De- Pportations!” “Smash Scottsboro and Paterson Frame-ups!" Give Mrs. Wright Ovation Mrs. Ada Wright, mother of two of two of the Scottsboro boys, was one of the many speakers at the dem- onstration at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue. She was lustily cheered for five minutes, Mrs. Wright told the pathetic story of how her two young sons, Andy 17, and Roy 14, left home to seek work after pointing out to her that the family could not) exist on the $6 a week she was able to earn, and of their arrest and trame- up the very next day. She’ praised the International La- bor Defense for rushing tg the help of the nine boys, and appealed to the workers of all races to join the fight to save the lives of the nine boys by rallying behind tthe united front defense campaign of tthe I, L.D, and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. le declared that she and all the other parents of the boys would stick with the LL.D. “through life and death,” {Additional News on Page 5) OVIET UNION WORKERS RISE - Aaah, >| Labor Dept. Figures Beet Worker’s Home Show Heavy Wage cae ig tiem A UObl, Reductions Farm Pay Cut 30-50% Slash Women’s Pay in Every Industry {| WASHINGTON, May 17. — Hoo- , Ver’s lies about “no wage cuts” was | | Yammed down his throat by a report emene| § This shack belongs to the Columbia Sugar Co, In such shacks as these, | central Michigan beet field workers’ families are allowed to live when they are fortunate enough to get a job. ‘They receive 25 cents an hour for a 12-hour day. Conditions in the Colo- ' rado fields are similar. i SOVIET WAGES | RAISED 15 P. C. j | Nuniber of Workers Grows by Millions Wages in the Soviet Union in- creased 24 per cent for all workers over the 1927-8 level. It was precisely during this period when the wages of all the workers in the capitalist | countries were cut from 10 to 50] per cent. “Business Week” says ages of American workers during is period was cut 20 per cent. ‘ The number of workers in the; Soviet Union, also, is constantly in-| creasing. In 1930 there were 14,269,000. The number of workers in 1929 was‘ 12,394,000 a growth of the working class of nearly 2,000,000. In 1931 there were 16,300,000 workers in So- : viet Industry. In the United States in the same period nearly 10,000,000. ; workers were thrown aut of work. Those left on the job had their pay cut, with certainty that their pay | will be slashed still further. j The current number of the Eco- nomic Review of the Soviet Union published the Amtorg Trading ; agriculture, transport, construction and social and cul- tural work, industries in the Soviet Union employed an average of 3,761,000 workers in 1929. In 1930 the number increased to 4,511,000, and this year a total of 5,159,000 are expected to be employed. In addition, more than 2,000,000 work- ers are curently employed on con- struction work, compared with 1,432,000 last year and 932,000 in 1929. “In 1930, the survey continues, “real wages averaged 41 per cent above those of pre-war. Including social insurance and other privi- leges the increase was 70 per cent | above the pre-war level, As shown by the table below, the average earnings last year were 24 per cent higher than 1927-28 In the coal industry wages increased 24 per cen thetween December, 19.9, and ; December, 0931, In February of : this year the wages of underground ; miners were further increased by 20 per cent.” ‘City Welfare Admits ust published by the U. 5. Depar’ j ment of Labor, stating that the past year showed a history of increasing wage cuts. ‘The Scripps-Howard Newspaper Al- liance in @ special release on wags cuts saying that “government figures made public today,” showed that the workers had “ample reason for be- ing alarmed at the situation of the workers” in the face of increased wage cuts. “A long record of wage cuts pro- posed or already effective is con- tained in the latest weekly report on the Labor Department's concili- ation service.” ‘Then a long list of immediate wage cuts is given — such as steel, rube ber, auto, coal, taxtileeic een» Farm Wages Cut 33 te 56 Ter Cent MEW YORK. — Farm wages hayo been cut 33 to 50 per cent, says a leading article in Saturday’s issue of the New York Post. Michael . W Strauss, Chicago staff corresponden’ of the Post, writes: “While metropolitan bankers ani industrialists in convention at pa- latdal hotels discuss wage reduc- tions, the workless on Chicago's ‘main stem’ find farm labor has al- ready had its pay cut 33 to 50 per cent.” Besides, he points out, jobs are scarcer than ever even at these greatly reduced wages. £18 re Teachers Face Pay Cut WASHINGTON, May 17. — Teach- ers are haying their pay cut, their hours increased, and their classes made larger — a regular process of speed-up and pay slashing — ac- cording to a report issued yesterday by the experts in the offics of Com- missioner of Education Wiliam Coo~ per, and reseafch workers of the Na- tional Education Association. Payrolls in April Down WASHINGTON. — More proof of pay cutting is contained in the re- port on unemployment release by the Department of Labor last Sai- urday. While employment was sup- Posed to have increased by two- tenths of one per cent,. payrolls de- creased by one and one-half per cent. This is clear evidence of wage cutting. . Women's Wages Slashed ‘The Women’s Bureat of the De~ partment of Labor, in’ its news re- lease Saturday reported a flood of wage cuts for women. Wages for ‘women on full time are now as low as three dollars and four dollars a week, says the Women’s Bureau. In Massachusetts textile firms’ wages average $5, $6, and $7'a week. ‘The same department goes on to report wholesale wage cutting. Tollowins are some details: “Clerks’ wages used to range be- tween $10 and 322 a week, now they are from $8 to $18, Stenog- raphers used to get $15 to $35 and now collect $9 to $20, Bookkeepers are being offered $15 a week instead of $23 and $25. Telephone opera- tors at private boards are getting iFew Playgrounds For Workers’ Children NEW YORK.—The Welfare Coun- cil’s “tity recreation committee” an- nounces that it finds at its meeting of May 14: “There are not half enough ath- Jetic fields for the boys and girls in the public schools of New York City, much of the heavy increase in fata] accidents to children on the city streets is undoubtedly due to the lack of sufficient or properly located play spaces, and that the city is proceed- ing more rapidly in its provision of playgrounds in outlying areas than in the highly congested districts where they are most needed.” $15 instead of $18 or $20. “A large chain of restaurants which formerly paid waitresses $10 a week is now paying $6. Laundry ffatwork operators who formerly re- ceived from $14 to $16 a week now get $10 and $12, “In factories, the report shows payment on a piece work basis is being adopted rapidly for unskilled workers, Thus beginners must learn at their own expense, and of- ten earn less than a dollar a day for months,” All these instances from the gow ernment bureaus—who hide as muct as possible the facts of pay cutting— give Hoover and the bosses a smash- ing answer to their lies about “wag: es being maintained.” _