The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 23, 1931, Page 6

\ SUBSCRIPTION RATIW: lorker By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs B usa of Manhattan and Bronx. New York Ctly, Foreign: one year. $8+ siz months. $4.50. except Sunday. at 50 Hast 7. Cable: “DAIWORK.” h Street, New York, N. ¥ Publishes by tne Comprogatiy Fublisning Co., Inc, Ga! 1ath Street, New York City. N. ¥. Telephone Algonqu! Address and mail all checks to tne Daily Worker, 50 East 1 Dail | court under its present government of white or a United Struggle to Save Nine Scottsboro Boys [ Bafa | innocent pe ° the HE fight to save boys from dea at Scottsboro. strength of all the. w be got nine equire the full ‘0 people and all of nd white, who can for this purpos of the frame- up, joined hands ] Labor Defense, and c: front for the one purpose—savi Many imme- onded. The Comnffnist Party was before the LSNR and ILD ip. ‘The League of Strug- ated a campaign which legro lodges and churches to to the united front when appealed to. The Trade Union Unity League (which, unlike the A. F. of L., is without any color line) and unions. under it, immediately threw their le strength to the defense. From the first r the Daily Worker; the centrol organ of put its full force into fight to save the boys. Considerable forces were thus mobilized; and many united front conferences in various cities have been and will be held, while 600,000 people marched in parades on May First behind ban- ners demanding the immediate release of t innocent Negro victims of the Scottsboro fram up. alled Y prison ‘ The National Association for the Advance- ment of Colored People (NAACP) for several weeks remained silent to all appeals. To them it was a “rape” case and newspapers under its influence spoke in headlines of the framed-up 14-year-old Negro boys as “rapists” (see Pitts- burgh Courier, April 16). The National Asso- ciation. for the Advancement of Colored People further ‘took the position of congratulation that this was not a lynching, but a legal trial in court. Both the League of Struggle for Negro Rights (LSNR), and the International Labor Defense (ILD) were compelled to criticize the NAACP and to, point out that failure to defend the innocent Scottsboro boys was nothing but treason to the Negro people. | an Only then, and under a flood of protest from | its own membership, did the NAACP even deign to mention to the Negro masses the fact that the nine Negro boys, three of them only 14 years of age, were condemned to death in Scotts- boro. But the NAACP then began to make attacks, not against those who are murdering the Negro boys, but only against the Communist Party, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the In- ternational Labor Defense, and the radical trade unions who were defending the boys. To quiet the complaints of its own member- ship the national office of the NAACP intimated a ymously through the press that it “would come into the case at the proper time.” Under the deluge of more criticism of its “in- activity,” the NAACP then published a claim that it’ had been in the case secretly “from the start,” and in order to'substantiate this, claimed | that Stephen R. Roddy had been employed as defense attorney in the first place by the N.A. A.C.P. Roddy is a police court lawyer, a drunk- | ard and a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who had helped to frame up the boys but who, by | cooperation with the lynching judge and pro: ecutors (but without the consent of the boys’ parents), had been palmed off as an official legal representative of the boys in court On May 1, the NAACP formally in a state- ment to the newspapers declared that it had, and would have, nothing to do with the Interna~ tional Labor Defense and the radical Negro and white’ workers’ organizations engaged in the Statement of the League of Struggle tor Negro Rights upon limiting the purpose to “but one object, and that is, a fair trial for them before the courts and exact justice to them regardless of race.” Why does the NAACP want td change the purpose from “saving the boys from prison or death,” to the purpose of what it calls “a fair trial?” Some persons might think that, since the boys are innocent (as they are, and as the NAACP knows, although it does not say so in its state- it is only necessary to ask the Alabama courts. to give them “a fair trial for them be- fore the courts and exact justice to them re- ment), gardless of race’—and then the Alabama courts ‘This way of talking will appeal only to persons who know nothing about Ala- “white su- will free them. bama courts or about capitalist premacy” courts generally. ‘There can be no such thing as a “fair trial” of Negro boys accused of rape in an Alabama struggle. ‘The NAACP meantime tried to disrupt the | growing mass movement for a defense of the boys, by sending the lawyer Roddy, together with | a police agent and two weak-kneed ministers, to try to persuade the boys to denounce those who are defending them. Mr. Walter White, secretary of the NAACP Jater attempted to do the same. On May 6th, the attorneys employed by the | LSNR, and ILD, appeared in the court as Scotts- boro at the hearing of the plea for a new trial for the boys, and these attorneys secured a postponement of the hearing to May 20 and transfer of the hearing to the court at Fort Payne, Alabama. No attorneys for the NAACP appeared in court. On May 20th the attorneys for the boys em- ployed by the. LSNR and ILD again were to appear to argue the plea for a new trial. The NAACP again was not represented. Under pressure of growing mass resentment the NAACP nov comes out with a press state- ment under date of May 19 (the day before that set for the hearing of the plea for a new trial) which apparently is intended to give the impression that the NAACP is responding at last favorably to the appeal of the LSNR and for a united front of all forces willing to fight to save the boys, the demand which the NAACP has heretofore opposed. It is so extremely important to utilize all fozces for a task which will tax the best strength of all together that any seeming will- ingnéss to join forces to defend the framed up boys must be examined carefully. Any offer in accord with our proposal for a united front | to save the “boys must be accepted if it has any genuine character whatsoever, But the carefully worded statement of the leaders of the NAACP, made under pressure of its. own membership, shows that the NAACP still refuses to join the united front to save the Negro boys from prison and death. It mere- ly offers a certain limited cooperation of its ettorneys for a certain object. It describes that | object as “,.. but one object, that is, a fair trial for them before the courts and siact justice to them regardless of race.” There is no lodge of the Ku Klux Klan that would not’ pags.a resolution for “a fair trial for them before-the courts (of Alabama!) and ex- act justice to them regardless of race.” The' NAACP statement continues: ‘er th's purpose, the NAACP stands ready to cooperate in their legal defense and it hereby pleads for such united effort and ex- presses its.graye fear lest without such effort these victims be executed through dissention among these very persons and organizations who are trying to defend them.” The NAACP. feels it necessary to reject the proposal of the LSNR and ILD, which 4s a united front “for the single purpose of sav- ing the bev from nrison or death.” and insist gn You're getting to look like me more and more, brother, now that Green and Woll have been fighting wage-cuts! Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. 8. A. Section-Functionaries Must Participate in Every-Day Activities of the Units By LIL. (National Training School) In an article by Comrade Flaiani, published in the Party Life column of May 19, we read: “Thése tendencies lead toward the develop- ment of the worst form of bureaucratism, which does not serve as an example to the membership and does not encourage the rank and file to work. The Sections must analyze this situation at once and guard against the development of such a kind of leadership in the Units, The Unit Buros must participate in the every-day routine work of the Unit and must also guard against functionaries whose tendencies are that of only giving in- structions to others.” While it is correct that such a situation exists in some of our units in New York, one must not stop there, however, but must goa little further. The unit functionaries develop such an air of “superiority” and merely give instruc- tions to the membership, without themselves participating in the every-day routine work of the units, because they receive instructions from the sections in the very same manner. Our section reps come to the units and give direc-- tions from above (of which I was guilty myself) without themselves participating actively in the life of their own units. They are therefore de- tached from the practical carrying out of the decisions made by the section committee and therefore do not know problems and difficulties involved, thus tending to be formal in their approach. The unit buros follow the example of the section leadership creating an unhealthy situation in the units. ‘The section functionaries must not be de- tached from the every day work of the units and should devote at least one night to unit work. The most experienced comrades in the sections must give guidance to the membership not only by word of mouth, but in the direct process of carrying out decisions must show the less experienced comrades how best to do it. In order for the Unit Buros to overcome the disease of “superiority” it is necessary for the section functionaries to get rid of the same malady, thus assuring correct guidance and lead- ership. ‘This active participation of leading Party committees in the lower Party organs must, also avply to ‘district functionaries in regard to sec- tion committees, and central committee mem- bers in relation to district committees, wherever conditions permit this direct contact. The Party membership must carefully watch such bureaucratic tendencies and in a frank, self-critical manner bring up and correct any buch manifestations of bureaucracy. npr aay anne LIFE | | Il, on June 12th to 14th. What the II]. Miners Will March for, on June 12-14 By PHIL FRANKFELD. (Se are proceeding apace for the | State Wide Hunger March to Spvringtield, In the So. Illinois coal fields a series of mass meetings are being organized, workers’ organizations visited and Un- employed Branches being built. A number of organizations having already endorsed the Hun- ger March, and elected delegates to the State Convention to be held in Springfield, on June 14. Amongst the miners, the question of unem- ployment is a burning one. The problem of un- employment is nothing new amongst the coal miners. Tens of thousands of miners have been thrown out of the industry—permanently— as a result of mechanization of the mines. Mr. John L. Lewis once declared: “That there were 250,000 coal miners too many”’—and together with the coal operators, proceeded to get rid of the “surplus” miners. The mining industry has been in a chronic state of crisis. But now the situation is intensified greatly. The present crisis has hit the mining industry with particular fury. The crisis continues to deepen and grow, especially in the soft coal fields (as well as in the anthracite). The St. Louis Post Dispatch stated that “for the first 92 working days in 1931, production declined by 6.9 per cent as compared with 1930. This is the lowest production figure for the past ten years.” Today, whole mining towns are unemployed. In others, the vast majority of miners are job- less. Sonfe mines have been down for 2 years, others for 13-18 months, and others for a period of 3 to 9 months. Starvation, misery, poverty have tremendously {| increased in the past period. Until now, a cer- tain amount of “relief” work was carried on by the United Sharities, Red Cross, and Salvation Army. This relief work was simply a question of handing out crumbs to the miners—to keep body and soul together, It was the substitution of a process of slow starvation for either militant action on the part of the miners to get the necessities of life for themselves and family— or to die as a result of starvation. This gentle, “Christian,” capitalist country prefers to be “del- icate” about the manned of its wege slaves dy- ing amidst plenty! So—when two miners’ chil- dren were found dead last winter in Johnson City—it was found that they had died from “malnutrition”—meaning plain starvation. Whole mining communities are in a stage of becoming pauperized! No work} car be found anywhere— or even bought. The miners come to look at the $2 or $1.50 “relief’—as they are getting in Christopher from the Salvation Army as a means of getting by. Demoralization and passivity reigns supreme. A little fishing, a little truck farming, come in to help along. But capitalism today, is tending to dévelop a mass of paupers—iniserably destitute and impoverish- ed workers, without any possible means of sell- ing their labor-power, and dependent upon the lousy handouts of charity as a means of ex- istence. This can be clearly seen in the coal fields. ‘The capitalist newspapers report that even the fake charities are closing down, and cutting _ Christopher, Ill, off “relief.” From Pana; Ill, the report for May 6th states that “Pana Food Distribution Ends.” Chairman Brown of the local United Charities, announces that food and ‘clothes dis- tributions has ended in Pana. From Harris- burg, Ill., where fully two-thirds of the miners are jobless, the newspapers of May 8th an- nounce: “Relief Funds Exhausted. Charity of- fice at Harrisburg closed.” The Red Cross in has stopped ‘its “rélief” to the ‘miners there. This town is also hard hit by unemployment. An appeal appears in the St. Louis Post-Dis- patch as follows: “Asks fot Food and Garden seed for needy farmers. Mrs. Franciscus an- nounces that other aid is lessening in district southwest of city (St. Louis).” Further on, this same néws item states: “Many families of miners have been unable to plant gardens and have been living on greens gathered in the woods.” (May 10 issue of Dispatch). Yes, many miners haye been gathering greens in the woods to live. Summer will soon be here, production will decline further, many more mines will close, more miners will be unemployed—greater mis- ery and starvation for a greater number of miners. ‘The unemployed workers of Illinois will march to Springfield. The miners, too, will march! They have lots to march for. The miners of Eldorado, Harrisburgh, ‘Marion, Johnson City, W. Frankfort, Zeigler, Christopher, | Buckner, Benton, Pana, ctc. will march’ against unemployment and hunger on June 12th to 14th! The miners will march against the seer of becoming paupers! , The miners of Illinois will march against the miserable handouts called “relief” given to them by the Salvation Army, Red Cross, United Char- ities! Against the $1 or $1.50 a week to live on for themselves and their families! The miners of Illinois will. march against the “meals” of “greens gathered in the woods!” Against unemployment and the system that breeds unemployment! Against being forced to set up committees that go begging from store to store, and house to house! ‘The Ilinois miners will march against the yagrancy laws that are responsibls for, their being jailed on the roads! Against the sys:¢m that forces them to break into’stores and steal afew cans of beans and a few pounds of pork for themselves and their families! ‘The miners of Tlinojs will march on June 12th to 14th for immediate relief and unemployment insurance at the expense of the coal operators and the appropriations of the county,. state, and feccral governments! And while marching, we must build up strong Branches of the Unemployed; gain new recruits for the NMU. get the best and most conscious fiehters into the ranks of the Communist Party! We must get the miners to understand ‘that they are marching against the whole system of present-day society which produces untold mis- ery, suffering, amongst the masses of workers; and on the other hand, produces a parasitical leisured class that enjoy all the good. ee in life! On to Springfield! “supremacy.” Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. Any intelligent person who says other- wise is trying to deceive. The attitude of the NAACP is: “Let the Alabama, courts decide after ‘a fair trial.’ Then, if they are innocent, they will be freed.” The NAACP wants us to consent to stake the lives of the boys upon a supposed “exact justice,” which it asks the Negro people to believe can be gotten from an Alabama court by Negro boys c:cused of rape of white women. The NAACP does not want any disrespect of courts, any disrespect of the capitalist system, which all of its leaders support, as the first considera- tion. That is why Mr. Walter White in a re- cent letter to Negro editors (marked “not’ for publication”) described our criticism of the courts which have framed up the Negro boys as being “the most intemperate sort of mis- statements, vituperation and villification,” and complained that “Governor Miller of Alabama has received 94 telegrams demanding that the boys be immediately freed—a manifestly ab- surd and impossible demand.” But it is impossible for the LSNR to agree with the NAACP that the first thing to do is to respect the courts of Alabama that have framed up the boys, and that the second con- sideration is to save the boys. We must Handle this case in the Alabama courts, where our boys have been dragged by force to be tried on the frame-up; and we must. give them the benefit of the very best legal skill that can be found, taking advantage of the fact that the capitalist courts succeed in de- luding the masses only by going through certain forms of pretenses of a “fair trial;” we must fight every inch of the way, within the court, utilizing every rule of law and procedure that can possibly be used to obstruct the legal murder which the capitalist court seeks to perpetrate upon these Negro boys. But is any fool so naive as really to think that the court will not condenm ‘them again to death or prison if the masses of péople are not aroused to see the foul trap of perjury and race hate which is being passed off for a “fair trial” of a Negro in an Alabama court? The NAACP wants, more than anything else, to stop the mass movement which is the only thing that has brought a hope for the con- demned boys, and the only thing that can save them. It is clear that the boys were taken into court only as a legal cover for the lynching. But all’ of the lynchers, the lynching court, the prosecutors, the white capitalist mewspapers— | and the NAACP—are screaming against one thing—against the exposure of the frame-up, which exposure the secretary of the NAACP calls “vituperation and villification.” What the LSNR and I. L. D. have asked the Negro masses and the working class, black and white, to unite upon is the object of securing the release of the nine Scottsboro boys. The NAACP, after being defeated in their first ef- forts to disrupt the united front, are now try- ing again to disrupt it by trying to spread the illusion that it is not necessary to arouse the masses against this-frame-up, but only to de- pend upon’ an. Alabama court for a “fair trial . . . regardless of race.” ‘The LSNR and ILD will proceed more vig- orously than ever to call for a united front of millions of black and white men and women and youths for the unconditional release of the innocent Negro boys, which demand Mr. Walter ‘White describes as “an absurd and imvossible demand,” and not to depend upon a “fair trial” by an Alabama Jim Crow court which the NAACP says is its ‘one object.” The statement of the NAACP says: “The NAACP has already instructed its law- yers and cooperated as far as possible-i1 legal defense with all other lawyers working in be- half of the nine boys.” The LSNR and ILD haye been entrusted by the nine Negro boys, all their parents and by the masses of Negro people and the working class, to secure for these boys the best pos- sible legal defense that can be obtained. We will therefore accept any and all effective lezal assistance that can be gotten to add to the present forces to aid ih the fight in the courts along the lines already laid down by the ILD in common with the parents of the boys, and provided this assistance is genuine and does not disrupt the defense by trying to divert it to.channels which would mean the loss of the lives or liberty of the boys. The sole test for this must be one objective—to secure the re- lease of the boys, to save them not only from death but also from prison. Although the “NAACP” says under date of May 19th that it’ has “already instructed its lawyers to ccoperate,” we must say that up until the present time not one single lawyer claiming to represent the NAACP has presented himself to either the ILD or the LSNR as will- ing to cooperate, and none appeared to coope ate with our lawyers in the hearing in court. The only lawyer whom the NAACP has ever declared publicly to be employed by the NAACP for this case is Stephen R. Roddy. This lawyer on the day before the case came up in court gave an interview to the. Chattanooga Times, not defending the boys, but viciously and pub- liely attacking General George W. Chamlee, the ILD. attorney’ who, together with, Joseph R. | Brodsky was to present the cass for the boys in the court the next day. Mr. Roddy, for whose actions the NAACP takes responsibility. added: “|. and IT intend to denounce General Chamiee in open court at Scottsboro tomor- row.” Mr. Roddy is*the only-attorney whose name the NAACP has announced as being employed by, them’ for the Seotichoro case. Mr, Roddy, who ‘appeared in the offitiel records of the trials as “atterney for the defence,” conducted the “defense” in the following manner: (D , Consented willingly to take the boys to trial for their lives on April 6th, not even ask- ing for a postponement, seven days after their arreignnient, without having conferred with the boys before the trial opened, neither know- ing nor earing what the facts were end only asking 10 or 15 minutes to see the defendants before they were put on the stand. »() Openly in court he promised to cooper- ate with the proseculors who were framing up ths 14 year old Negro boys for “reping” tre notorious white prostitut: and he kept his promise. ’ f (3) His first and only’ speech in court was a long harangue on the subject of who would get whatever fees might be paid for acting as official attorney for the boys. (He did not ask for separate trials for the boys, although knowing that not to do so 2 f By JORGE Whistling In the Dark The Norfolk “Ledger-Dispatch” of May 18 tries to make believe that the Negro masses are highly satisfied with. their conditions, one con= dition it notes (without saying how it happens) being “the great majority is still without educa tion, especially in the Southern states.” From this, the wise editor concludes that the Negro masses are too ignorant to become revolue tionary: “Most of them would laugh at the idea of a revolutionary movement directed against the exe isting order.” Uh, huh! They would laugh—but with joy! The editor goes on to argue himself out of any anxiety: “How much rebellion was manie fested by the fathers and grandfathers of the men who compose the Negro masses, when all the white men of the South were in the armies of the Confederacy?” This capitalist editor is the victim of his own class propaganda. There were plenty of slave rebellions, but even their history has been sup- pressed, by the slave masters primarily, with the obliging aid of Negro bourgeois intellectuals, However, the “Ledger-Dispatch” editor comforts ‘4 himself with a contradiction. The masses are “too ignorant” to be revolutionary—and the Ne= gro intellectuals are “too educated.” So the game's off. The Nero masses are “without educafion” and “would laugh” at revolution— then he proceeds: “That's for the masses. And the leaders, the educated men, such inspired and towering fige ures as Dr. Moton, know that hope and justice. and help and kindliness and forbearance and tolerance for the Negroes lie along the path they are now treading.” Oh, yeah! To be “without education” because of Jim Crow, discrimination, and to go “along the path they are now treading” to forced iabor as share croppers enslaved by “contracts,” to be abused and oppressed at the whim of the white “master,” and to be lynched offhand or sent to the electric chair by such legal lynching “bees” as Scottsboro—all this for the Negro masses may be approved by the “inspired and towering” Dr. Moton, but the masses who “enjoy” such “Justice, help, kindliness, forbearance and tolers ance” are tired of “treading that path.” That's why the capitalist editor is whistling to keep up his spunk. * A New One ‘We happened to run across it, the “Louisville American,” when the sixth of a series of articles appeared. We haven't seen the first five, but we guess we didn’t miss*much. Not if the fol- lowing analysis of and remedy for the economic crisis of capitalism is.taken as a criterion: “Over-industrialization’ in America at the expense of agriculture has put us in a position wrehe work must be supplied for approxi- mately six million men. ... A hundred and one remedies are proposed, emanating from different angles and interests of our people; but the real remedy is REFORESTATION!” Are you hungry? Go ‘way and reforest! Do you want a job? Shucks, no! What you need is a hickory tree. You can climb it and talk matters over with the squirrels! Are you home- Jess? You don’t need any home. What you need is a hedge fence! We nominate the editor of the Leuisville American forthe Pulitzer prize for monwmental jackasses. would mean to insure the death of every one af them. (5) He agreed to let Charlie Weems and Clarence Norris go to trial together, thereby sealing the death warrant of both; he placed Norris on the stand as a witness for the de- fense although it was already obvious that this boy had been brutally beaten and terrorized into the idea of saving himself by “lying out of it” and had been promised by the prosecutor that his life would be saved if he would per- jure himself against the others. By this means Reddy cooperated with the prosscutor by guar- anteeing death sentences" for both Weems and Norris. (6) He did not call or even investigate, nor even ask for time to ‘ihvestigate, the many known eye- witnesses; did not even investigate the evidence. (D He shamelessly cooperated (as he had promised in. open court he would) with the prosecution by abstaining from cuestioning the State's wthesses in any + :fficient way, who were clearly (8) did rot onve court procecdines, any dese ter an acquittal, nor any thought thatthe boys were innccent, although he has sinté publicly admittéd his be-/ lief in their innecence. } (9) Ie refused thrée “times, in the thrée cases, t6 speak to the” jury; he refused to atk for an acquittal, and When asked by the court whether he would do~so, ‘he replied in the ence of the jury im such a way as to in- dicate that the evidence given by the prostitutes wes sufficient and that\ there was nothing to say eapress Giving ‘the Peer LAN The LSNR and ILD, being interested only in saving the lives and liberty of the boys, could not permit the Ku Klux Klan lawyer, who ia the only one the NAACP has as yet publicly claimed as its attorney in the case, to have anything to do with the defense of the nine innocent Negro boys. The LSNR calls again, as tt has from the first dev, for a united front of all forces whe are willing to fight for the unconditional re- bag of the nine inmovent Negro boys framed at Ecottsboro, We call upon the masses ¢> Hake it possible for the-boys to have the best possible legal defense, but at the same time call ‘upon the masses to realize’ that the only means of saving the boys is through the mass protest of millions, The LSNR and the ILD will not refuse any sincere offer of any group of pere sons to help bear the burden of legal counsel and of expenses for Jezal counsel to cooperate in the fight in the courts for the one object of sceuring the ‘release of fhe nine’ Negro boys cond2mned to death at fcottstoro. LEAGUE OF STRUGGLE FOR NEGRO RIGHTS, = B. D, AMIS, President. CYRIL BRIGGS, ROBERT MINOR, WM. L. PATTERSON, oe ae the Executive Committe, _