The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 28, 1931, Page 4

Page Four Leth Street, Ne Address e ———==——= Workets’ Children and National | By MYRA PAGE. learer re: ion f its tasks and the revolutionary “the youthful guardsmen of e has been a neglect of this ‘k, especially among the childre: ied on were based and a narrow, secta: influence and or ‘or ities ca theory a result vast reserve of energy and enth' has in its boys ifficulties s ripe for a great adva Wall Street its government, s and press have long been active e children and youth, preachir ind its institutions, PS pproaching war. riousness of the present situat hown by these figures: while we have b: four thousand boys and girls organized on the Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. , Me., dally except Sunday, at 59 wast Cable: “DAIWORK.” to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Daily... Contra | f the working class, the Boy and Girl otal membership of more than the bulk of whom should be in our me, the general conditions of the working class, poor ed Negro masses are in- are constantly becoming worse. all the more ready for our nd organization. re: the kids, their response has liate. One example of this: is the have received their New Pioneer. The to appeal to their various in- i direct them into organized, revolu- Within four weeks from the mn the youngsters, with the of the movement, had sold out ion of fifteen thousand copies. gone into the subways and street- their paper. Many hundreds of e been turned in. Ten of the fif- have already been paid for, with full payment very good. This one which they intend to beat, for ly what the youngsters want Il do, once they see they've a Day must serve as a further of our Party and League for organ- nd directing the workers’ children and n must result in lasting Pioneer and W.LR. Scouts or- well as junior sections and clubs of ions, I. W O., ILD and other correct methods are being used | Graft and By Previous articles in this series after tracing rise of gangsterism in the early history of the United States, the development of racketeer- ing and gangsters in the A. F. of L. showed HARRY Gangsters GANNES how J. P. Morgan early made use of gunmen for profits. In Chicago the police department liged Al Capone by executing his gang rivals by the wholesale. c Gangsters, Unemployment and Wage Cuts HEN American capitalism entered the sever- est crisis in its history, beginning in 19: »ver 10,000,000 workers lost their jobs and ) thrown on the streets to starve. Unemploy- ment had been growing even di “prosperity” periods, with the de rationalization, speed-up, higher technique, proved machinery and more efficient methods of squeezing profits out of the workers. To combat the widespread starvation of € workers the Communist Party and Trade Union Unity League organized Unemployment Coun- cils, led the workers in demonstrations demand- ing immediate relief and unemployment insur- ance. On March 6, 1930, over 1,250,000 workers demonstrated throughout the United States for unemployment insurance and against starva- tion forced on the unemployed by capitalism. At these demonstrations a reign of terror was unleashed against the workers. gangster element and the same police who are aligned with the gangsters in every city slugged, beat and murdered workers. Factory gate meetings, attempting to rally the employed in truggle together with the unemployed, were set upon by company gang- sters and gunmen, by police and the usual run of sluggers that the employers mobilize to break strikes. Milwaukee Socialists In Milwaukee, the socialist police did the job, jailing dozens of workers for long terms—for the crime fo leading unemployed demonstrations. Speakeasies, dope dens and bawdy houses have free reign in Milwaukee, with the connivance of the socialist police, but an unemployment demonstration, of, course, is one of the worst crimes against capitalism. Al Capone took a hand in the unemployment situation, and his actions tended to mislead many workers as to the role of gangsters in the every day struggles of the workers. Capone, to prove his “benevolence” toward the workers ran his own bread line. He advertised himself as a “friend” of the unemployed. This is the role of the New York police department which has slugged thousands of unemployed, and at the same time makes a pretense of giving food to the unemployed through the police stations. Every charity organization of the capitalists has its gang of “bouncers,” recruited from the lower ranks of the gangster element to eject starving workers who become too insistent on demanding relief for their starving families. The Salvation Army in New York, started the novelty of a children’s bread line and hired thugs to bully the workers’ children. They carry clubs, and on more than one occasion have beaten young children. As the struggle for unemployment relief grows sharper, more gangsters will be employed against the jobless. The state police, the official gun- men of the big industrialists, slugged unemployed hunger marchers in the state capitols at Albany, New York and Annapolis, Maryland. Wages and Gunmen Many workers are inclined to make heroes of the gangsters, especially the more successful ones whose boodle reaches the million, The tabloid sheets of the capitalist press, especially gloat over Capone, Rothstein, “Legs” Diamond, as well as the trade union gangsters, such as Vacarelli, Broach of New York; Nelson, “Umbrella” Mike, and the thousands of others of Chicago. They look upon them as successful “business men” who have made a comfortable fortune and are entitled to it. In the local trade unions of the American Federation of Labor, the gangsters, who are in- timately connected with the bosses, try to justify themselves and win the workers’ approval. The basis for it is that the gangsters give the im- pression that their methods are used, not only for personal graft, but to keep the workers’ wages up. This idea had the greatest prevalence in the building and allied trades, where the gangsters got the firmest hold. Controlling the A. F, of L. Unions In the highly skilled trades the gangsters ob- tained control of the unions where the special position of the skilled workers for a while during the building boom got them a scale of wages above the great mass of unskilled and factory workers. In this field, the gangsters played a 1 role. They tightened the ranks of the iNed unions, preventing organization of all e workers in the trade, and they guaranteed the bosses against strikes. For this they received a double graft—from the union members and from the employers. The usual game is to keep the books of the union “closed” and force p pe candidates for membership to pay sums as high as $500 for the privilege of re- ceiving a union working card. Many of the misleaders who rule through gangsters are silent partners in construction companies in whose favor they operate their union powers. Others receive a regular salary from the bosses as “strike ‘The labor bureaucrat who held perhaps the record for corruption and betrayal was Robert P. Brindell, one time president of the New York Building Trades Council. In 1921, Brindell, to- gether with a number of his gunmen in the building trades unions, was indicted by the grand jury on evidence arising out of the so- called “Lockwood” investigations. It was es- timated that Brindell's graft ranged between $300,000 and $500,000 per year. His Spectacular Rise Brindell had a spectacular rise from an un- known dock worker to the position of the most powerful labor bureaucrat in New York State. In the course of his eventful climb to the heights of his corruption, he organized the dock workers of New York. Securing a small increase in their the forced some 4,000 of these workers to him the life long president of their local union. Each of them, moreover, was compelled to vote him a personal contribution of fifty cents per month as his salary. This levy brought Brindell between $18,000 and $30,000 yearly. Gompers Helps Along Brindell’s next act was to make friends with the national labor bureaucracy. In 1914, he formed a strong friendship with Samuel Gom- pers, and his dock workers were given a federal charter by the American Federation of Labor in spite of their irregular form of procedure. Brindell immediately became active in the New York City Central Federation Union (now the Central Trades and Labor Couneil), the joint body representing all the unions of the city. In 1916, he helped William B. Hutcheson, Pres- ident of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, another Labor Faker, break the famous 1916 carpenters’ strike in the city by sending in as scabs the members of his dock builders local. In 1919, he again united with Hutcheson to break a carpenters’ strike in the east. In this year he became president of the New York Build- ing Trades Council. So great was his power that he succeeded in having himself elected as rep- resentative to the A. F. of &. conventions in which he forced support of his methods. Dur- ing this year, he outlawed 12,000 New York painters who had insisted on democratic man- agement of the Building Trades Council. It was first, disclosed that Brindell, like most other labor fakers in New York City, had worked hand in hand with Tammany Hall, the demo- cratic machine. In particular, he had joined forces with one William Kennally, vice chair- man of the Board of Aldermen and the right hand tool of the Tammany Boss, Charles Mur- phy. Among other things, Brindell entered into agreements for large considerations with in- dividual employers and associations to supply labor to them uninterruptedly. A builder by the name of Levy paid him $25,000 to have a strike called off. Another firm by the name of Todd, Irons and Robertson agreed to pay Brindell $50,000 for “strike insurance” and delivered the first installment of the total during an auto- mobile ride. Max Aronson, a cloak and suit manufacturer paid $5,000 to have work resumed on his building after Brindell hal called a strike. After the money had been paid, the same non-union men went back to work who had been previously employed. The function of these misleaders and their gunmen in the skilled unions, as is clearly evi- dent, was not to struggle for increased wages or to maintain even the wage scales of the “ay "' 4 orker ? Porty USA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy, Foreign: one year, 88+ six months. $4.50 By BURCK = Bure, ™% = 7 =. ~ Smash the Calitornia Bosses’ _ New Frame - Up! Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St., New York, N. Y. Dear Comrades: Smash the frame-up! The Imperial Valley prisoners call upon all workers to crush the at- tempt of the lumber barons to frame up Com- ‘ rade Arne Thompson. The California boss class again resorted to the use of its courts in a lly attempt to frame up a militant worker, just as it did in the Mooney-Billings case. The present attempt is in a small lumber. town of Fort Bragg, on the northern coast of California, where about the third of May a disastrous fire occurred in the lumber yard of the Union Lum- ber Co., in Fort Bragg. The fire-fighting ap- paratus had been put out of order in dyna- miting lumber piles out of the way to check the spread of the fire. The company officials had this done at an unnecessarily great distance from the fire, evidently to let the flames devour more of the over-production. The lumber, of course, was insured. It is clearly a case where the company offi- cials themselves are responsible for the fire. About a week later, Comrade Arne Thompson, secretary-organizer of the Communist Party for District 13, was arrested at San Francisco, charged with having started the fire (or having something to do with the starting of the fire). Workers, crush this attempt of the California boss class to put through this murderous frame- up against this young, militant worker, whose only crime is that he has joined the ranks of the militant revolutionary workers, fighting for the interests of the working class. This frame-up is a further attack by the ruling class of California against the Communist Party, the International Labor Defense and the Trade Union Unity League, in the attempt to outlaw them. This case has a direct bearing on the Imperial Valley case. The Imperial Valley com- tocracy of labor,” but to graft on every occasion and to act as the labor lieutenants of the bosses. With the growth of the economic crisis, of course, their role became clearer as the attacks against the wage standards of all workers as- sumed drastic forms.. During 1930, wages of the American workers were cut nine billion dollars, according to the Standard Statistics Company. In every instance the gangsters and bureaucrats in the trade unions worked with the bosses to prevent strikes against cuts in pay. The foremost action, however, was the meeting of the leading misleaders of the A. F. of L., including the gangsters of the building trades, with President Hoover and the leading bosses and financiers of the United States in the latter part of No- vember, 1929. At this conference an agree- ment was reached whereby wages were supposed to be “maintained,” and the union bureaucrats agreed to prevent strikes. Not a single industry escaped the wage-cut campaign of the bosses. That a nation-wide organized drive against wages was on was ad- mitted by Hoover in an interview which took place with Washington newspaper correspond- ents on April 2, 1931. In the building trades and other highly skilled unions, where the gang- sters’ control is tightest, the bosses, with the connivance of the misleaders, forced the work- ers to work at rates 10 to 35 per cent below union scales, Whenever strikes were attempted, the gangsters were called in to smash them. In short, the American Federation of Labor bu- reaucrats lived up to the strike breaking agree- ment with Hoover, using their whole gangster machine effectively, while the bosses carried on their wage-cutting drive. The fight against wage cuts was led by the revolutionary unions, under the leadership of the Trade Union Unity League. Against this organization, not only the capitalist state, but the A. F, of L. gunmen and misleaders were mobilized in the interest of helping the ex- ploiters put over their wage cuts. “As the battle grows sharper, as wages are slashed daily, the gangsters will be used more and more against the workers who resist, and especially against the revolutionary trade unions affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League. Against the bosses, their wage cut drives, their gangsters, the workers will have to or- ganize in solid ranks and under revolutionary leadership. : (TO BE CONTINUED.) rades are due to appear before the Prison Board, for det ing the definite lengths of sentences they are to serve. It is part of the raging fas- cist terror campaign of the employing class against the ing class in its attempt to de- stroy the workers’ militant organizations, Communist Party, the T. U. U. L., the lynch- ings of t Negrces, the deportation of the for- eign-born workers, Fort Bragg is a town of about 3,000 popula- tion, built around the sawmill of the Union Lumber Co., which operates also logging camps in the redwood forest in the vicini’ The Union Lumber Co. is the virtual ruler of Mendocino County, the company owns the railroad that connects Fort gg with the North Western Pacific Railroad at Willets. It owns the steam- ships which carry lumber by water from there and bring ocean freight in. To prevent compe- tition, with its transportation s: pany has effectively blocked the attempts to put a good paved highway through; it has like- wise blocked the attempts to establish a good harbor in the vicinity of Fort Bragg, other than its own. It has its own detectives who work with the sheriff's office. Several years ago, Deputy Sheriff Rees arrested Oscar Erickson for I. W. W. organizational activities. At the trial on the witness stand Reese ad- mitted being in the pay of the Union Lumber Co., at $150 per month, and received mileage from the county for use of his automobile. The company maintains a store which carries quite a complete stock of groceries, wares, cattlefeed, etc. Thi: til recently at least, the company has not declared it obligatory for the workers to purchase from its store, but particularly more recently it is actually obligatory, because the Wages are not sufficient for sustenance, the ma- jority have to buy from the company on credit and they have no money with which to buy elsewhere. The lumber industry'is one of th> industries worst hit by the present economic crisis. The smaller lumber companies on this part of the coast have shut down completely; some mills have been running with but a fraction of their usual force, while the only logging woods run- ning recently have been those of the Union Lumber Co., and those only by part of the usual force. The Union Lumber Co. is one of the most vicious labor baiters. It has driven out by mob force the labor organizers who have ventured within its domain. It is a most relentless slave- driver and wage-cutter. Since the world war the average production per worker has about doubled, while wages have been continually Scaled down. The wages and employment is about a part of the usual level. The workers are faced with starvation. In the face of the growing militancy of the workers, the Union Lumber Co. is attempting to frame-up this mili- tant worker on a charge of arson, to put out of the way the workers’ leaders and to destroy their organizations and to terrorize the rest of the workers into submission. The lumber berons are again using their courts—these vicious institutions of capitalist class justice—in the attempt to put over this frame-up, just as in the Mooney-Billings case, the Imperial Valley case, Centralia, Scottsboro, Sacco-Venzetti, the pending Patterson, Atlanta cases. We call upon the American working class to shatter this frame-up with its mighty force. Expose this dastardly frame-up, circulate and distribute literature, newspapers, magazines, circulars, leaflets, etc. Develop a mighty cam- paign of telegrams of protest to the governor of California at Sacramento and Judge Preston at Ukiah, California. Join the T. U. U. L, the only union fighting for the lumber workers. Fight with the I. L. D. on the amnesty cam- paign! Fight for the release of all class war prisoners! Comradely. LAURENCE EMERY. San Quentin. FIGHT STEADILY FOR RELIEF! Visit the homes of the unemployed workers. List all cases of starvation, undernourishment, inade- quate relief. Carry on a sustained and steady struggle for unemployment relief for the starving families from the city government, the large corporations and employers. Have large di ti od workers present at cvery meeting cf the city council to fight for adequate re- lief for all cases of starving and undernourished workers’ families, | | | | Persecutes Chinese Workers Chinese workers here tion hands Kuomintang hangmen because May First demonstrations. Stop. Launch campaign solidarity protest. Stop. Proletarian Labor Congress. 28 Hasan, Manila. Shanghai. To the Trade Union Unity League, U. S. A Dear Comrades: in danger deporta- We wish to call your most serious and urgent atteittion to ®he developments taking place in the revolutionary labor movement in the Philip- Pines. The class struggle of the workers and peasants against the combined forces cf? the native bourgeoisie and landlords and American imperialism, is taking on unprecedented pro- portions and depth. The recent armed Peasant. Uprising of the Colorums in Tayug, the recent strikes in Negros and Iloilo and in Manila, the huge demonstration of 30,000 workers and peas- ants in Manila recently (at Comrade Ora’s fun- eral), the use of the Red Flag despite prohibi- tion, the growing popularity of the Proletarian Labor Congress (affiliated to the Pan-Pacific TU Secretariat), the staging by the capitalist- landlord-imperialist courts of the first “Com- munist Trials” with 23 of our leading trade union and peasant comrades arrested and charged with “sedition” (according to the good old American formula)—all these are which no revolutionary trade union organiza- tion may view with indifference, especially any | section of the PPTUS, and particularly the TUUL which has special revolutionary duties in relation to the revolutionary labor movement of the Philippines (one of the most important colonial possessions of American imperialism). Briefly and concretely, the PPTUS proposes to its American Section the following measures: To start immediately a campaign of solidar- ity and defense with the object not only of passing resolutions of solidarity but to help our Filipino comrades in other more tangible and practical ways. They need funds to bail out our leading comrades, whose imprisonment at the present time—in view of the approaching general elections in which the CP is to come out for the first time as an independent poli- tical party of the workers and peasants—also in view of the approaching Congresses. of the Proletarian Labor Congress and of our revolu- tionary Peasants’ Confederation—means crip- pling our trade unions and our movement. gen- erally. They need people, experienced and re- liable comrades to go there, to the P. I. and help them for as long a period as possible in their organizational and ideological work. They need practical help with literature, the most elementary things, the most important resolu- tions and decisions of the RILU, the most ele- mentary pamphlets and booklets on trade union organization, etc.; they are completely isolated; they feel that the American revolu- tionary trade unions neglect them, are not in- terested in their struggles and activities. They are not even in touch and receive no help what- ever from the Anti-Imperialist. League of Amer- ica. Send them all possible literature; if only possible get some of the more important docu- ments, like the resolutions of the Fifth RILU Congress translated into Tagalog language (we understand there are several ‘Filipino com- rades at your end who could help achieve this); to our comrades in the P. I. this means a great deal. And—the most. important thing at the present moment—you must help them in every possible way against the ‘White Terror, persecu- tions, imprisonment. The situation is ripe for the widest possible campaign in the U. S. A, in support of the Filipino comrades and revolu- tionary trade union movement. From the vast experience of our American comrades in the matter of Communist trials, you can help them immensely with advice, with counsel on the conduct of these trials, with funds collected in their defense, end with a well-organized cam- paign against American imperialism: and its White Terror in the Pilippines. We also sug- gest that the Executive of the TUUL give ser- ious consideration to the problem and_possi- bilities of establishing some permanent contacts with the revolutionary trade unions in the P. I. (permanent mutual representation in the Executives of the two leading centers), Also the possibility of training groups of Philipino comrades undre the TUUL for cadres in the Philippines; of establishing permanent good events | U.S.A. Imperialism [ua | By JORGE ceecmenee: Don’t Get Mixed Up The “right to bear arms,” which, according to the Constitution, belongs to every citizen, is a duty, according to the Supreme Court, the nine kings of Washington, whose power seems to de. rive from the fact that they are guaranteed, aged-in-the-wood reactionaries Anyhow, from the decision that it is not enough for a woman to do nurse work in the coming war, but that she has to shoulder a rifle and go out where the bullets fly, and shrapnel tears lovely lips into unkissable fragments, we guess that the yarns about “forced labor” in the Soviet Union ought to sound tame hereafter. Even the Civil Liberties Union will probably be impressed if this keeps up, that there is something in the nature of a dictatorship run- ning this country. But they have a way out— they can say that the “silly Communists” have caused it, and then the New Republic can make that the theme for an attack on the Commu- nists, “the poor capitalists having no other choice, of course,” but to establish a dictator- ship. cial Nin 3 Join the Marines and Get Bitten [? It seems that being a U. S. Marine has it advantages. Down in Nicaragua the native: who don’t appreciate bombs being dropped on their wives and children kill and otherwise mess up any Marine who wanders out of bounds, Mrs. Hoover has invented a new use for Ma- It seems that one part of the Marine Corp's duty is to guard Hoover from the affece tions of the American jrzople. One Marine so engaged at Camp Rapidan, while Hoover was fishing and “economizing,” found he had a competitor in the form of a big Irish wolfhound, a little playmate of Mrs. Hoo- ver. The wolfhound, according to accounts, per- formed a conto: mist trick. It “stands three feet high” and “sank its teeth into the marine’s | leg.” We gather that the marine’s leg was bit- ten somewhere near the neck, Anyhow, a new sign ought to go on the r cruiting posters: “Join the marines and ser your country as dog biscuit.” The Supreme Court decided Monday that you have to go to the dogs if yolt want to be a citizen, A Splendid Scrap “Comrade Jorge:—Sometime ago 1 wrote you whether it would be advisable for a Women’s Council and a branch of the I. W. O. to unite with different charitable organizations in a fight.) ageinst the high cost of living. You answered’ in_your column and we accepted your advice. (We advised them to make a united front from below—Jorge.) “We struck against the butchers and we won thereby reducing the cost of meat. Now we aré conducting a strike against the bakeries. ‘The Spirit of the population is with the Women’s Council, which is leading the strike.” The comrade should not term it a “strike,” but a boycott; though, as long as they fight, we will not quarrel much about what they call it. The main thing is that by a united front, from below, these workers are winning some- thing substantial—and working-class women who never before dreamed of maklpg a speech are right on the front line, speaking and bat- Uling the sluggers of the bakers’ association! “The Daily Star,” a local paper, is forced ta carry fairly favorable comment. It quotes one of the leaders, Mrs. Fagan, as saying: “Tkq hunger of our children is more important than the profits of the bakers.” Meat prices were forced down 14 to 22 cents @ pound, a clear victory. Now, against the bakers the demand is that rolls, which sell fo) 24 cents a dozen, and bread that sells for eigh. cents a pound, should come down to 15 cents - dozen and five cents a pound. For this demand, pickets are put around every bakery and gro- cery which sells their bread and rolls, One woman has been slugged and two ar- rested, but they are bravely keeping up the fight and have the whole population of Middle Vil- lage, a little town near New York, on their side It's a fight that could well be repeated in @ thousand and one different cities. The Councti of Working Class Women are rightfully prou¢ of leading this united front fight. Cer aa The Empire State Building Regarding the Empire State Building, whiel is getting a lot of advertising for Al Smith, ¢ worker corrects a previous statement of a con- tributor to this column, who said that 90 mer were killed on the job building this monstrosity The exact number of workers killed is 128 This is by actual count of who worke: on this building until the last girders were pu into place. He himself escaped death man: times only because he was working at the top So was not hit by falling objects and crashin. ceilings. “In one day 17 workers were killed by a ceilin| that fell because the speed-up caused its ya hazard construction. There was a one-da, Strike afterward.” f The gall of Al Smith and other owners of ti building, to show a photo exhibition of worke: who built it, workers who gave their lives put it up—who own not one brick in it, are no allowed to enter it except to scrub the floors and are now jobless and hungry! And the Pope says that private property { sacred! i ae anc The Poor Turn Black } We'll tell you a story, a true one, about on place in Dixie where there is no Jim Crow, | Comrade Ryan Walker, who does those strip on page 2 of the Daily Worker, was recentl. visiting down in Kentucky. ‘Talking with H native while they were passing by a poor-hous Walker said, in surprise: “What's that? White and Negro people livin together? How does that happen, when you’ got them separated everywhere else? Don't yo! have a poorhouse for whites and another f Negroes?” “Well,” said the Kentuckian, “you see when the whites get so poor that they are to the poorhouse then it.don’t make any diff ence any longer.” connections between the Agitprops of your ti respective organizations, ete. Please acknowledge receipt of this letter, let us know what action you have decided take on it; also the results of its discussion the Executive of the TUUL. With revolutionary greetings. PAN PACIFIC TRADE UNION SECRETARIAL