The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 1, 1931, Page 1

Dail Central Orga (Sec tio \ ~Comn se caartoe es had Pe ot ae'etl nm} Norker Funct Party U.S.A. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Vol. VIL, No, 131 Entered as second-class matter at the Post Orie <2 at New York, N. under the act of March 3, L _NEW YORK, ‘MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1931 Ne EDITION Price 3 Cents POLICE SHOOT WORKERS IN YOUTH DAY DEMONSTRATION Memorial Day Hypocrisy “The American people are going through another Valley Forge at this time. To each and every one of us it is an hour of unusual stress and trial. You have each one your special cause of anxiety. So, too, have I.” . . * EAVING the White House where he enj.,ed the choicest of foods cus- tomary to his capitalist palate, carefully dressed by his personal valet, and escorted by a huge show of military forces to Valley Forge, President Hoover on Saturday spoke as noted above in an effort to de- ceive the American working class. While the toilers of city and farm throughout America are truly suffering the privation and miseries endured by the rank and file of the Revolutionary Army under Washington at Valley Forge, neither President Hoover nor the capitalist class which he represents, show any signs of similarity to the “hungry patriots” of Valley Forge. Very likely Hoover has a “special cause of anxiety.” But what it was, he left his hearers to imagine. Certainly it is not the hell of anx- iety that pursues the 10,000,000 unemployed workérs of this country, the slow starvation of the additional millions who have suffered wage cuts—how to pay rent to the landlord, how to buy food for wife and babies, how to live through the dark discouragement of endless poverty! No! Hoover's “anxiety” is not that! Nor is that the anxiety of any of the capitalists whom he serves as mouthpiece. Their anxiety and his is that the “hungry patriots” of today shall remain both patriotic and hungry, while they, the capitalist class, who have piled up enor- mous fortunes from the sweat and toil of the workers, shall remain secure in the fruits of the robbery! This, Hoover declares, is for the good of “the nation”—namely, the capitalist class. This is the “idealism” for which Hoover asks the unemployed to con- tinue to starve. He fulminates against the theory advanced by some straw man, that “everybody collectively owes each of us individually a living”—but he does it in defense of the handful of multi-millionaire parsites who suck the blood out of millions of workers. He declaims against the “specious claim” of a second straw man, that “the hired representatives of the people can do better than the people themselves in planning their daily life.” Yet he, in the name of his class, has a vast army of the “hired representatives” of that class to prevent by police and military power, armed violence and terror, the people from taking control of their daily life! At the moment President Hoover was thus painting the skeleton of mass starvation with “idealism” and hypocritically pretending to respect the “initiative” of the masses, Vice-President Curtis at Gettysburg and the despicable Fish at Grant's Tomb, were threatening the alien-born millions of American workers with deportation if they show any initiative for a reyolutionary solution to the capitalist crisis. President Hoover said that the government should not do anything for “ifdividuals,” but. his administration has handed back to the indi- vidual ‘Capitalists hundreds of millions of income ta#es and is now laying. plans to make up the Billion Dollar government deficit, not by heavier taxes on the rich, but by taxing every worker and poor farmer. ‘And this deficit was born out of a Billion Dollar expense for war preparation, while Hoover refuses the demand backed by millions of work- ers for unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance is rejected by Hoover on the typically demagogic absurdity of the full-bellied class, that starvation is the highest “individual freedom of our American system,” and that “privation and suffering” is a good thing—for the working class —as “the symbol of the triumph of the American soul”! The American working class will not by *aoled by this stodgy capital- ist hypocrite mouthing over empty wurde something better than to maintain “hey suffer, it must be for @ Syst..a of robbery and starvation of the many for the luxury and laziness of the few. The lessons of the Bolshevik Revolution are before them, inescapably, showing them that if sacrifice is necessary, it is only that which a revo- Jutionary overthrowal of capitalism demands! those lessons is Hoover's “special cause of anxiety.” To make them ignore To teach those lessons to the widest masses should be the special anxiety of every re- volutionary worker! JOBLESS! DEMAND NOON MEAL TODAY AT FLOP HOUSE! Parade With Demands To Taylor, Tomorrow NEW YORK.—Today at noon the municipal flop house discontinues its noon ay meal, which, bad as it has been, is all that has stood between them and starvation for thousands of New York unemployed. The job- less are called by the Madison Sq. Branch of the Lower Manhattan {councit of the Unemployed to come ‘in masses, and emand their food as usual, today, at noon. Tomorrow, at noon, a mass meet- ing before’ the flop house will start a parade to the city “welfare depart- ment” at Leonard and Lafayette St., where demands will be presented to Commissioner Taylor for: 1) Three nourishing meals. 2) Sleeping accommodations every night in the month without dis- crimination against Negro, foreign born or out-of-town workers, 3) Sanitary equipment with laun- dry and dryer. 4) No work without pay—no forced labor, 5) Free medical attention for sick workers. 6) Free clothing for unemployed. 7) That the South Ferry lodging house be reopened. ‘The Downtown Branch of the Low- er Manhattan Unemployed Council held a big mass meeting at Univer- sity and 14th St. Saturday evening, in spite of the attempt of the police to work the o!d “Where's your writ- ten permit?” gag. The workers told the cops they didn't need a permit and went on with the meeting. In honor of “decoration day” evi- dently, some fascist minded individ- ual threw a board out of a pool hall _ window above the crowd and in- jured a worker in the audience. Even TAMMANY MOVES TO CUT LITTLE “RELIEF” GIVEN Money Muleted Never Seen By Jobless NEW YORK.—Forced to give more than one million dollars to Jimmy Walker's so-called Relief Fund for the Unemployed, the city employees are now compelled to make their final contribution of 1 per cent of their wages today. What became of this million and the million origin- ally voted by the Board of Estimate when the Unemployed Delegation to the City Hall forced the issue and made the gangsters part with some of their loot, the starving jobless of New York certainly reccived next to nothing. The Board of Estimate is supposed to have voted one million dollars also to provide “jobs for 14,326 men during June. But it cppears the city employees will be forced to take this out of their own pockets. while the additional million from the city treasury will go into the pockets -of the ‘Tammany racketeers. This goes on‘ while one million unemployed workers of New York starve. In the meantime the first meeting of the Commission for the Study of Unemployment was held at the N. Y. State Department of Labor at 80 Center St. This is Gov. Roosevelt's solution, Now comes the announcement that even the little will be cut off, on June 19 when the Tammany gang have decided to stop the food pack- ages. After this date only such cases as sre reported by the police will be entitled to help. The Unemployed Council is expected to take the cue and mobilize its forces for a cam- paign. against this cutting down of even the crumbs of municipal charity, Since this committee wes organ- ized by Bammany Hall in October, it claims have handled 30,940 YOUNGSTOWN COPS ATTACK MARCHERS Bloody Onslaught Ordered By Steel Trust Officials BULLETIN | YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, May 31. —Police shot into the National Youth Day demonstration here to prevent a parade. They were as- sisted by the National Guard and American Legion hoodlums who attacked the 2,000 delegates. Two workers, one of them a Negro, were wounded by bullets and are now in the hospital. Many were seriously injured. The police are amongst the casualties. 70 work- ers have been jailed. The workers fought militantly. The Negroes in the front ranks were singled out for special attack. Is held in the square. A fine spirit was shown and the Pioneers were prominent. However, tear gas, clubs and bullets finally prevailed. The State Troops were also called in and a reign of terror is going and mass meetings; by militant re- sistance to the stee) trust.cossacks in Youngstown; by thundering pledges of renewed struggle against imperial- ist war plots, against the worsening lot of the young workers, the first annual National Youth Day come to a@ close Sunéay evening in all sections of the country. Battle Cops in Youngstown YOUNGSTOWN, Uhio.—When five thousand young workers assembled here for National Youth Day, steel trust police descended down upon them and started an onslaught that for sovagery was not witnessed since the steel strike of 1919. The Police thugs. many mounted, rode into the crowd of young workers and with savage abandon began swinging clubs. Shot guns, tear gas and machine guns were in evidence everywhere. Though taken by surprise by the fierce attack upon them, the young workers did not retreat. They put up a resistance that was so militant and stiff that ten policemen were reported as injured casualties. ‘Twenty-five young workers were injured it was reported. Still continuing their resistance, the young workers reorganized several hundred and marched to the Central Square. A young worker knocked a cossack from his horse and calling on all to march led the parade. Despite the bloody attack upon them the spirit of the young workers in town was running high. ene hiss FRENSO, Cal.—The State Conven- tion for the repeal of the criminal syndicalism law was opened here Sat- urday with an enthusiastle parade of over 500 adult workers and young workers who gathered in this city to celebrate National Youth Day. One hundred and thirty delegates composed of Negro, Filipino, Mexican and American workers representing political, fraternal and labor organ- izations greeted the speakers of the convention with applause. Samuel Darcy, organizer for the Communist Party who delivered the report on the California Criminal Syndicalism law, was given an ova- tion by the delegates. Ida Rothstein, International Labor Defense Organ- izer, delivered the report on the or- ganizational proposals for the repeal of the vicious anti-labor laws. Benjamin Ellisburg, president of the Ornamental Plasterers Union of San Franeisco was elected chairman of the convention. Lillian Goodman, ILD organizer was elected convention secretary. The discussion was lively and show- ed real determination to carry out the proposals to repeal this law. Resolutions swere adopted on the Scottsboro case, on the Imperial Val- ley prisoners, Mooney and Billings and other class war cases. aga Con Three thousand young workers marched through the city of Passaic for two hours in a parade and dem- onstration against bosses’ wars. Sing- ing, cheering, and shouting slogans they were watched by workers in the streets, from windows, many of whom Joined in the march to the First A militant demonstration was then | on. Workers are still being ar- rested. Marked by high-spirited parades | capitalist paper wants war against the Soviet Union! thei fatherland, the Soviet Union. Worker. only can answer that question, fellow-work ors. ferent kind of battle—a battle against deat. ing up valuable space—space which might have been used parations for war against the Workers’ Re ‘ily from extinction. We do not ask The Dail; FENSE! NOT ALL WORKERS SWALLOW the letters that have been pouring in on the Evening Post, ten conclusions he has drawn from the Knickerbocker is number 5? leadership in the anti-Soviet campaign silly, read: ” ANSWER THE EVENING POST TODAY! THE SOVIET UNION! SPREAD THE TRUTH ABOUT ING DOLLARS, NICKELS, DIMES FROM YOURSELF, Answer Evening Attack on Soviet Union; Rush Funds to The New York Evening Post wants another war against the Soviet Union! Every They not only want it, but they are actively preparing it, by poisonous lies and sensational appeals to the most backward prejudices such as the articles now running in the Evening Post by H. R. Knickerbocker. Only one English-language daily in the entire country is fighting and exposing this war propaganda of the bosses’ press and is rallying the working masses to defend We needn’t tell you that that paper is the Daily But how much longer will the Daily Worker be able to carry on this battle? ts now in the midst of a dif- For nearly two weeks we have been giv- iblic—to appeals for funds to save the | you to save a newspaper; we are asking you to save the voice of your own struggles, your fighting leader, teacher and organier. appeal to the workers of the United States TO DEFEND THE SOVIET UNION BY SAVING THE ONLY ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DAILY THAT FIGHTS FOR ITS DE- Not all workers are swallowing the Knickerbocker filth. the Pest of May 28 appears a fighting letter from a worker, Stephen Balogh, listing series. headline over the letter reads: “Ten Conclusions, All Silly, Except No. “That in America you, the editors of the Post, are ready And number 8, 9 and 10 which the Post calls “That our paper is the Daily Worker and only the Daily Worker. “That it is cur duty to tell that to every worker, and last, but not least: “That the workers of this country, as well as in every country must always ready to defend the Workers’ Fatherland, the Soviet Union!” RALLY TO THE DEFENSE OF HURL BACK THE ATTACKS ON THE FIRST WORKERS’ REPUBLIC BY ORGANIZATIONS TO TH® DAILY WORKER, 50 E. 13th STREET, NEW Pos ‘Daily’! You to fight the imperialist pre- We LIES In fact, judging from most of them are not. In The Evening Post’s And what to take the | be THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN, RUSH- YOUR YORK. YOUR FRIENDS. Fighting Enthusiasm Marks Assembly Deter- mined To Free 9 Negro Boys NEWS FLASH CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., May 31.—Robert Minor, B. Aamis, Tom Johnson, Heywood and one other worker were arrested as they left the conference hall following the close of a highly successful All Southern Scottsboro Conference. Minor, Amis, Johnson, Heywood and the other worker whose name we were unable to learn at the time we went to press, stopped to talk for a moment as they left the hall. At this moment they were ap- proached by Chattanooga police and placed under arrest. The Daily Worker expects further details by tomorrow's issue. BULLETIN CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., May 31—In spite of the carefully planned campaign to terrorize and prevent the delegates to the all Southern Scottsboro Conference here from being elected and allowed to assemble, the conference is a success. The campaign against the Scottsboro Con- ference by the N. A. A. C. P. was the biggest campaign that that organ- ization ever conducted in the South and it was in this case assisted by the police. Reverend Bowen, president of the Chattanooga Ministers’ Alliance, and cooperating with Walter White, secretary of the N. A. A. C. P. with a squad of assistants, conducted a systematic campaign, visiting all churches, Masons’ and other lodges to prevent the election of delegates, Bowen personally visited many and threatened ‘he would have them arrested if they ared to go to Chattanooga. The K. K. K. and the Vet- erans of Foreign Wars were similarly active. Unknown persons bribed truck owners who at the last minute refused to transport delegates, many failing to arrive. The Scottsboro Conference, espite all obstacles, is a success, but it can be considered a success only if made the beginning of a hundred times greater mass movement and if all delegates return home really to begin the organization of millions. ° . . (Special to The Dail Worker.) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., May 31.—The All Southern Conference in defense of the nine Negro boys framed at Scotts- boro opened in the Negro district, at 11:30 today with 200 wildly enthusiastic Negro and white delegates from all over the country attending. One hundred of these delegates were volunteer delegates. The nine Scottsboro boys, Mooney, Bill- ings, the Patterson five and Imperial Valley prisoners were elected honorary members of the conference committee. C, Burton of Birmingham, a Negro worker, was elected chairman. The delegates arrived via hitch hike, freight car and motor truck. Three New Orleans marine work- ers arrived in a 1913 model plauded. The nearest relatives of all the boys were present at the confer- ence. One other Birmingham car failed to arrive due to a breakdown. One delegate and speaker was » Ne- gro worker aged 75, a slave by the name of Elder Carter, who walks on crutches and had to be car- ried to the speakers platform. Carter is a leading preacher, and (CONTINUED ON P. ® THREE) White truck. The car in which the mothers of the nine Scottsboro boys came, broke down, but was repaired} om of foreign born. Elect dele- they arrived only 20 minutes| sates to your city conference for Fight lynching. Fight deporta- 200 Negro, White Delegates Open All Southern Scottsboro Conference US. GOVT ADMITS RENTS ARE HIGH Warn Landlords To Head Off Movement WASHINGTON, D. C.—Forced to admit that the rents built upon the speculative boom profits of land- lords and contractors are exorbitant and daily getting beyond the means millions of more tenants, a govern- ment department sent out a cautious warning advising landlords to head off the movement for lower rents by giving a few concenssions. What is feared by the landlords and their government is the growing smoldering anger at the sky-high rents forced from workers and that now eat up the bigger part of the weekly wage—when there is a wage. ‘The moment is opportune for the Tenants Leagues to become active in organizing and leading worker-ten- ants in militant struggle for lower t MICHIGAN WORKERS RALLY AGAIN; SCORE GOVERNOR'S ATTACK AGAINST THEM Finger Printing Bill Is Now a Law; Governor Brucker Couples Signature With Declaration for Campaign of Deportations Hunger Marchers Gather With Working and Jobless Masses, Workers’ Camp, Detroit | June 7th Meeting Will Hear Report of Marchers Whom the Governor Ordered Arrested When They Demanded Insurance; Plan More Struggle DETROIT, Mich., May 31.—Arrest for the delegates of the jobless and hungry hundreds of thousands in Michigan, and a law to regis- ter, finger print, blacklist and deport foreign- born workers—that is Governor Brucker’s an- swer to the demand of Michigan workers for the right to live. . Some 150 hunger marchers who went to Lansing from every important industrial town in the state to urge the passage of a bill for state unemployment insurance are carrying back to those who sent them on the long mach, the insulting and callous answer of the state government. .‘Phese thousands of unemployed in the auto and furniture manufacturing centers of the country will answer by a might, ‘ge to build their organizations, METAL LEAGUE IN the unemployed council and the tn- dustrial unions and leagues of the Trade Union Unity League, will carry on in redoubled intensity the fight rents. NEW YORK GRCWS Wm. Zs Foster Speak NEW YORK.—More than a hun- dred metal workers joined the New York local of the Metal Workers In- dustrial League, since January. In addition four shop groups were formed, in some of the largest metal factories. A youth section of the local was formed and the young metal workers are beginning to de- velop activity in youth metal fac- tories. The local is continuing to grow and develop, fifteen new work- ers joined the local at the last mem- bership meeting. Also seventy dol- lars was collected at this meeting, for the organization funa. The Executive Board prepared an extensive plan of work for the sum- mer months. The plan was enthu- siastically approved by the member- ship. The most important task as contained in the plan is the build- ing of 20 shop groups in the most important factories in the city of New York. Preparations are being made for a district convention of the metal workers, the tentative date set for the convention is July 29. The drive will officially start with @ mass meeting on Friday, June 5, 3 p.m, at Stuyvesant Casino, 142 Second Avenue, corner 9th Street Workers from all trades in the metal industry are urged to come to this meeting. William Z. Foster will be the main speaker. Admission free. To Strike Against Wage Cuts! Capitalists Admit Slashes The Trade Union Unity League calls for strikes agajnst wage cuts, and wage cuts are multiplying at a tremendous rate. In spite of every attempt of the capitalist organs from Hoover down to conceal this fact, two responsible capitalist informa- tion sources, writing for their own people and not for workers to read, have admitted that the income of the workers is collapsing, and by implication, admit the situation is worse than they date to put in plain words. Weekly Wages Fall The National Industrial Confer- ence Board has issued a long report on wage changes from 1924 to and including 1930, but not 1931. It ad- mits frankly that the reduction in weekly earnings in 1930 was very great, but by excluding any part of the present year, during which most of the open, general wage cuts in hourly and daily earnings were made, CNG has been able to make the statement utterly false in its implications, that “hourly wages have not been slashed.” Cost of Living High Moody's Investor's Service in a de~ tailed study of wage and price changes in the economic crisis of 1893-7, 1907-8, 1920-21, and 1929-30 (with a little on 1931) recognizes the “general tendency to cut wages now,” and states that investors should be- ware, for “it is a mistake to assume that wages can be slashed right and left” without disaster. Moody's also recognizes that retail prices in this depression have kept up with the fall in wholesale prices. It states that in all four crises, the fall in the prices of manufactured goods is between 60 and 70 per cent of raw materials have fallen 31.6 per cent and manufactured goods prices have fallen 22 per cent, the Ba OF Ba ert x a BL for relief for the jobless, the campaign to strike against wage cuts, and the country-wide struggle against the fin- ger printing bill Attacks Labor Brucker signed the registration bill Friday, and issued a furious anti-la- bor proclamation at the same time in which he said.“‘We should support any gesture in the direction of purg- ing our state and our country of these men who carry on this subversive activity.” Auto Company Bill This vicious bill to finger print the foreign born workers, emanated from the Union League of Michigan, which sponsored it in its final form as introduced by Labislator Cheeney, April 10, and campaigned for it as it was rushed through both houses of the legislature while they were hurry- ing to adjourn so as not to be in Lansing when the hunger marchers got there, The vice chairman of the Union League's “Committee on Subversive Activities” is none other than the | notorious stool pigeon and “Paytriot~ er,” Jacob Spolansky. He is the man (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) WONT TELL HOW MUCH WAGE CUT ‘Hillman Clique Just Lets Boss Steal NEW YORK.—When a 5 per cent wage-cut was declared by the owners of Howard Clothing Co., known also as Kopel & Marx, at 116 Nestel, Brooklyn, the workers, belonging to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, appealed to Hillman and so did the boss. Hillman and the impartial chairman granted a bigger cut, but are afraid to tell the workers how much it is. Neither does the boss. When the workers drew their pay they found amounts missing as high as $7 and $13. It is not an even cut, and nobody can figure out the amount of the slash. ‘The workers went to the manager of the trade department. Jackson, of the Amalgamated, and he told them this was a “preferential shop” and no businey agent could come in un- less he got the O.K. of the impartial chairman, Jackson sent them to Blumberg, general manager of the Amalgamated in New York. Blumberg tried to pacify them and postpone his answer. A week went by and the workers, still being in- sistent, Blumberg told them that all he could do was to tell the boss to show the price lists, but he refuses to it