The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 5, 1931, Page 4

a ed by the Comprodally Publishing Co., Inc. dally except suva: c 18th Street, New York City. N. ¥. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7, Cable: : Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York. N. ¥. , at 30 Mast DAIWORK." ae - ~ SOBSCKIPTION RATE if f ‘ Or y { By mail everywhere: Oné year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs P. USA of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctly, Foreign; one year, $8+ six months. $4.50. forty You Must Free the Imperial Valley Prisoners By EMORY RAYMOND. OFTY-TWO years is a Jong time. Indeed, it ret of a worker engaged in struggle for ex Forty-two ye: It is a hor ina py-six prison ce And what manner act doubtedly one must eatment, M blooded murder. But scores of sui eas aA killings go unpunished or ev ; scarcely ee in this class-ridden society of tod Al pends upon the station in life of the a Can it be a crime of such grav ity for a Ww un- such perhaps that rker f tter r himself who toils to dream of a better and his fellows? a Undoubtedly t can Pee c and Saher is the crime for which the eight But such is eat r valley prisoners: Oscar Eric 4 alo onwen Eduardo Herera, Frank Horiuchi, Danney Roxas and re being deprived of the be r neir lives in California prisons, framed a Ree the Criminal Syndicalism TA of ae state. Only criminals of the most enaera character, or men broken sae and min merge from such servitude. ee anes under which these Veet eae robbed of their freedom carry the Lee hti “from two to 42 year: ree to 42 A eote and “two to 28 years.” But make no iene about it, fellow workers. the heart of the piles ie class does not soften toward members of the working class. It did not soften toward Tom Mooney and Warren Bil Sacco ene Nens zetti and the hundreds of other class war pris- and we can not expect this case to be ‘The Imperial Valley prisoners dom through decisive If they are not ces oners, an exception. will only gain their cae f the working class. Bens aesin the maximum of the senten it will be because the working class rises be Ge masse behind the International Labor Defense to fight for their release And what of ley inst wh of the eight vic Although the ou de world chambers of commerce) usually thinks of C fornia onl e and happiness, these mu ions of life are little known to the larger part of California's ypopu- When the chambers of Commerce ad- vertise California thusly, they are not thinking of the thousands and thousands of agricultural and other workers who actually produce the products so widely advertised. Little do these parasites think or care of the long hours of pback-breaking toil under the boiling hot sun exacted of the workers. No Happiness for Workers In the Imperial Valley alone more than ten thousand workers are employed in the harvest- ing of crops on the huge fruit and vegetable factory-fields. Two thousand of these workers man the packing and shipping sheds where the products are crated, graded and shipped. Mexicans, Filipinos, Hindus and Negroes com~- prise the bulk of the field workers who are by far the most severely exploited. In the packing sheds mostly whites are employed, the greater number of which are migratory workers. By the use of the modern machinery furnished by the large land owners to the tenants from lation. huge “headquarters farms” a negligible number * of workers are used in the actual cultivation of the fields. Working in the blazing heat of the valley sun, most of the field and shed workesr are entirely dependent upon the short harvest season. Thus they are projected from long periods of unemployment into the feverish mael- strom of the harvest season, lashed on by the whip-cracking foremen. Such a condition in itself is enough to snap the endurance of the human system. weakened as it is by the long stretches of deprivation and unemployment. Little wonder that many workers drop of sun- stroke and sheer exhaustion. But for every worker who succumbs teg press forward to take his place in a pitiful effort to secure & few cents with which to stave off the gnawing pangs of starvation. Therefore, it is of little concern to the fruit and vegetable trusts and their hirelings how the harvesters suffer. The first, last and sole aim of these trusts is to pile up huge profits for stockholders and it is the blood and sweat of the working man who pays. PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSIONS YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE, U.S. A. And the conditions existing in the Imperial Valley present only a small picture of the ex- ploitation and misery under which workers in capitalist countries exist. Stir Up Race Hatred The age-old trick of those who exploit, of ph one race or nationality agairst another, is prevalent in Imperial Valley. Race segrega- tion and discrimination fostered by the bosses and their lings keep the workers apart and unorganized. In one section of the towns live the whites while in another dwell the Mexicans, Filipinos, Negroes and others in their ramshackle hovels. In the white sections store windows display large signs “For White Trade Only.” Race hatred is further engendered in the matter of wages. White workers in the sheds are paid at rates ranging from 60 cents to a dollar an hour, while the field workers, mainly Mexicans, Negroes and Filipinos, toil 16 and 18 hours a day at 25 to 35 cents per hour. Another dirty method of fanning the sparks of race- hatred is by cutting the wages of one group of workers by telling them that another group will work cheaper. Mexican workers are told the Filipino workers have agreed to take the jobs at a few cents less; Filipino or Negro workers are likewise victimized by lies that the Mexicans will work for less. Defraud Workers The vicious contract system affords another means of defrauding the workers of a part of ir miserable wages. Large land holdings are leased to the tenants by the huge combines which own the land. As the harvest season approaches the tenants conclude contracts with “pickers,” or labor contractors. These contract- ors, usually Japanese, Mexicans or Filipinos agree to furnish the laborers needed to harvest the crops. Wages are arbitrarly set by the ten- ants while the pickers, or contractors, receive a certain per centage, usually around two cents a crate, as commission. The tenants retain 25 per cent of the contractors’ commission until the completion of the harvest as a guarantee nent of the contract. The pickers in id out 25 per cent of the workers’ wages wu the final settlement of accounts is made. It is not an uncommon occurrence, however, for contractor to “disappear” near the end of the harvest or the tenant refuse to pay the contr on a pretext of bad crops. In both cases it is the worker who is left holding the short end of the stick, and the big companies which own the land are protected from any lame while at the same time they are as- sured their profits. Government Serves Bosses Recourse to the hypocritical State Department of Labor has been tried but without success. It is too easy for the Jarge land companies to curl the labor department puppets into the palms of their hands. Living conditions in the valley are wretched. Workers live in make-shift company camps con- sisting of ancient tents and brush-covered thatched shacks. Mud-caked irrigation ditches bring the workers their drinking water which is scarcely fit for animal consumption. As @ result of the complete lack of sanitation, dis- ease and death are the playmates of the workers’ children. Such are some of the conditions against which the Imperial Valley prisoners were struggling. And it is for their fight that the bosses have grabbed them and railroaded them to prison under provisions of the hateful Criminal Syndi- calism Law of California. The fight of the In- ternational Labor Defense and affiliated organ- izations against the Criminal Syndicalism Law and to free Erickson, Sklar, Spector and the other Valley prisoners i sone in which every worker is concerned. This law can and is being used against any individual holding membership in any working class organization which takes up the challenge of the capitalist masters and fights for better conditions. a There is no telling who will be the next framed under this infamous class-law; our only hope is to get rid of it. Every worker is duty bound to sign the petition being prepared for circulation by the International Labor Defense for the repeal of this law. One hundred and eleven thousand signatures will be necessary to place the issue upon the ballot in the next election. Your turn may be next, fellow worker. No worker is safe as long as this vicious law is being used 1s a weapon against our class. Fight criminal syndtcalism laws. Freedom for the Imperial Valley prisoners. Experiences in Shop Work By L, COOPER (New York). IN the New York District we have gone through quite a few experiences in our work at the factories. We have made many mistakes, most of these coming from our lack of consistency in our work, We can divide our experiences at the factory concentration points into the fol- lowing: 1—New forms of activities. 2.—Failure to raise partial demands and mob- ilize young workers for struggle on these. Let us take for example our work in the Gem Razor Plant. First in planning this factory as a section concentration for Brooklyn where we have several units in four different territories it was wrong. This whole section was to be made “Gem conscious,” that is, involved in the life in and around this factory, therefore we proceeded in a purely mechanical manner to have shock troops composed of representatives from all units and assigned beside this were the three units that were around the plant to do all their work at this plant. One big mis- take in this was the following—we did not take into consideration factors which are important, such as local interest in the factory and the reflection of this local interest in the life of the unit. The unit response to such a me- chanical step was plain disregard of work at this factory. Although I don’t want to excuse the units for not carrying out the instructions of the district, this response was a reaction to a wrong decision. The units responded either with no representation or bad representation. Taking the case of one unit (the Brownsville unit) we see the general attitude that was taken by units that we did not feel it neces- sary to help. As the comrade that represented that unit stated in her own words, “I am on the shock troop because we did not have any- body else that wanted or could be on it.” | Practical experience forced us to drop this rather cumbersome form of organizing the work. We were forced back to the units around the plant. In line with the procedure that the National Office has been following of sending shockers to the various districts, the district has sent the leading comrades to be responsible for the work carried on at our factory concentration points. Not only does this method gain a lot of experience for the YOL and also act as train- ing for even these comrades but has also kept the district in direct touch with these points. Coming to the Gem Factory we found the following situation. Not so long ago when we began work here we had a group of workers who came to meetings called by the Metal Work- ers’ Industrial League. Everytime that these workers met, the union always managed to have a different rep., who went through the same procedure as the previous rep. Always asking their names, their addresses, their age, then leave with the assurance that the Union would do something. Always it was that the union would do something and the workers act only as an information bureau to the union, No concrete, definite activity was given these workers. These workers were not made to feel they are the union. Because of such methods we reached a period when the workers wouldn't get only by going to the union. This demand GAS! In the last article, the role of the socialists in protecting the basis of graft in the capital- ist governments was exposed. cles dealt with the origin of graft and gang- sterism in the United States. IEW YORK has its Capones. But Tammany Hall is wiser than to separate the func- tions of the gunmen and grafters. It knows it is cheaper to hire the killers, when needed, than it is to let one grafter build up a big machine which may be a bit unwieldy. However, there are many who divide the honor of chief gun- men to Tammany. Foremost is Bill Dwyer, who moves in the highest political and financial cir- cles and is an intimate friend of Mayor Walker. Dwyer’s influence extends far into the confines of city hall and police heaquarters. It was Dwyer who inaugurated the very practical | method of running rum into New York on city | garbage scows, thereby saving the necessity of sending the scows back on the twenty mile re- turn trip without a pay load. The capitalist press reported the rum running but it refrained from mentioning some of the further details. “Legs” Diamond—Strikebreaker. “Legs” Diamond more recently has been in the public eye. He has many killings to his credit. On every occasion that this gunman has appeared in the Tammany courts he has gotten treatment that he never complained about. Four times he was discharged after being held for murder. Magistrate Andrew J. Macrery, who later was bumped off, freed “Legs” Diamond. Judge George W. Olvany, later head of Tam- many, freed Diamond on a robbery charge. “Legs” Diamond is on the inside with Tam- many Hall and has done them many services. At one time he was a bodyguard for Arnold Rothstein, Later he became a gorilla for Ja- cob (“Little Augie”) Orgen, gangster hired by the bosses to break strikes. Vaccarelli and Tammany Hall. In his series of articles on graft in New York which appeared in the Daily Worker, Allan Johnson exposed the role of another A. F. of L. gunman, Paul Vaccarelli. Vaccarelli is the New York prototype of “Big Jim” Murphy of Chicago. Johnson wrote as follows about Vac- carelli: “Paul Vaccarelli, alias Paul Kelly, is a con- victed gunman. He has been a prize-fighter and a saloonkeeper, and he earns a very, very comfortable living today by labor rackéteering, strike-breaking, supplying gunmen to officers in A. F. of L. locals, and rum-running on garbage scows owned by New York City. “Vaccarelli was once tendered a testimonial dinner ‘because he refused to tie up British supplies and prevented the New York longshore- men from striking’ during the World War. “The following ‘personages’ attended the strikebreaker’s dinner: Justice Freschi, of Spe- cial Sessions commonly called the ‘slaughter house’ by workers); Magistrate Corrigan (one of the three ‘honest’ judges, so-caled in New York); Municipal Court Justice Levy (an ac- complished crook and now elevated to the Su- preme Court); Municipal Court Justices Snitkin and Prince; Congressman George Loft; State Previous arti- Graft and Gangsters y HARRY GANNES Senators Downing and Koenig; Assistant Dis- | (Man- | trict Attorneys Cardone and Mancuso cuso was later made a judge and helped to loot the City Trust Bank); Sheriff Riegelman of Queens; Public Works Commissioner Folks; Al- derman Charles McGillick, and Commissioner Roberts of the strikebreaking Department of Conciliation of the Department of Labor, in Washington. Strikebreakers, labor-haters and exploiters all. “A new clubhouse, near Gun Hill Road, was opened by Vaccarrelli in April, 1930. Among the gunmen, politicians, labor misleaders and professional strikebreakers who accepted invi- tations to the Legion’s housewarming banquet. were: manic President Joseph McKee, Supreme Court Justice John McCeehan and Bronx Borough President Henry Bruckner. Included in the list of honorary members of this gunman-strike- breaker organization are Joseph Miller, Borough President of Manhattan, and appointed to the Supreme Court bench; Borough President Hen- ry Bruckner; Commissioner William Weber of the oBard of Education; the Reverend James Gaffney and Alderman J. J. Hanley.” It is hard to beat the Chicago Municipal Court Judges for sheer corruption or for gang- land connections. But the New York Mag- istrates have won this honor. Jobs as City Magistrate in New York are peddled like so many sacks of potatoes to the highest bidder. Not content with the usual “income” of the bench, the City Magistrates and Municipal Judges in New York invariably have “side-lines.” An example is given by Judge Vause’s case. In 1929, Judge Vause started the Columbia Finance Corporation with the huge capital of $128. The company later did business in the millions. It was only through the eventual bankruptcy of the Columbia Finance Corpora- tion that it was discovered Judge Vause forged a stranger’s name to a note on which he bor- rowed $2,500, One slip led to another. It was further discovered that he got $250,000 from the United American Lines for negotiating the transfer of Piers 84 and 86 in New York. Judge Vause is not different, just unfortu- nate, and a bit careless. Then there were Judges Ewald and Rosen- bluth. Ewald purchased his job too openly. He paid Walker $12,000 in 1927 for the right to evict workers and send strike pickets to jail. Judge Ewald, for instance, sent 150 pickets to prison. Coaching him on which of the strikers to give jail terms to was Samuel Markowitz, lawyer for almost all the “socialist” unions in New York. Markowitz sat on the bench next to Ewald while the workers were being “tried.” Judge Ewald was a good friend of “Legs” Diamond, and at a dinner given to Diamond on his release after being suspected of killing two other gunmen, one of those present to toast him was Judge Ewald. Tammany Hall is not content with pulling the strings in the Municipal Courts alone. The Supreme Court judgeships likewise are’ for sale. Hereby hangs a sensational story. (To be continued) attend. After making a new start we had four work- ers who were ready to help. Besides using thes2 workers for getting contacts, speaking to friends and in general trying to organize workers, they are putting out a paper issued directly by them. A new method that is being utilized and is meeting with some response from the workers inside is the method of issuing little slips of papers and putting these in convenient places. ‘Yhis in many cases 1s the center of discussions among the workers because it shows that the union is inside, and a part of them. The meth- od of chalking up walls, etc., is another method that can be used. The main shortcoming in our work here has been the complete failure of raising in an organized manner any partial demands. Because of raising these demands as they came to our attention we made a few mistakes by issuing wrong demands. Demands that the workers did not want. In those places that we did raise these partial demands they were raised only as propaganda slogans. Let us take the Polymet Radio as an example. There a simple demand based on unsanitary condi- tions was raised. ‘This demand was raised in the shop bulletin as one the workers were to was taken all right by the workers, but where we fell down was to use such demands for taking organizational form, such as, grievance committees or else used to rouse the workers to action for winning this point, How? If the shop bulletin for instance was to arouse the workers to action in the form of say, chalking up the inside of the factory, or issuing slips of papers to all workers or organizing into a grievance committee on such an elementary is- sue. These are small immediate actions that lay’ the basis for our broader struggle against the bosses, Calling workers to organize in the abstract form will not have the effect that these small actions have. Betause of this lack of partial demands do we continue to hammer away against a stone wall. In our practical work on the outside of the plant we had to use varied methods. One of these was sports. Every noon hour many young workers would come out in front of the factory and play ball. We had comrades go out and play with them. Even some non League members who were members of the Unemployed Council helped us in this work. Here the LSU could be utilized effectively in breaking through. The mistake was that we discontinued this fowm of activity. Here is whore we must real- overnor Roosevelt, Mayor Walker, Alder- the workers will we be able to Party Life Build Where " You Work By I, AMTER. There is not only the tendency but the very practice for the overwhelming majority of the membership of the Party not to conduct revo- lutionary Communist work in the shop where they work, but everywhere else. Comrades who will not do any Communist work in their own shops, will go to other factories to distribute leaflets, get contacts, sell Daily Workers, etc. They will attend demonstrations and work hard at night, they are militant fighters on the picket line—they will carry out every Party decision and instruction—but they do no Communist work in the shops whete they work. This is curious, and evidently is based upon the fact that the comrades fear to be fired if dis- covered; and they do not wish to be responsible for their being fired. Even young comrades, members of the YCL and of the Party, who have no personal responsibilities, will hesitate and fail to do work in the shops where they work, but will be most militant outside the factory. This fear has been instilled into them by the boss— and yet many never consider that millions of workers who have not engaged in any revolu- tionary activity whatever, are today out in the streets, having been fired by the bosses. True, the Party does not want members to be fired, firstly because it puts the Party mem- bers in a bad situation, and secondly because it separates the Party from the masses in the shops. But if the comrade only works for the boss in the shop, if he fails to carry on Com- munist work while he works, then he is of no use to the Party in the shop, and, though working there, is isolated from the masses. He is iso- lated because today the workers are waiting for leadership and organization: they look to militant workers to give them policy. If this is not given them, the workers remain apart from the Communists, and the Communists have no influence on them. This situation must be changed. True, it is difficult to work in the shops—but it is also difficult to get contact with the workers outside the shops. But surely when working in the shop, knowing the workers of the department, and they knowing our comrades—if we make a careful selection, it is not difficult to carry on work, It is not difficult to smuggle literature into the shop—leaflets, stickers, etc. It is not difficult to work out ways and means of reach- ing the workers, of providing information for bulletins, leaflets. for the Daily Worker, which are distributed outside the shops. But if the contacts obtained outside the shop, and the contacts that may be obtained inside only. by the Party and YCL members who work inside the shops, are not organized with the active aid of the workers in the shops, then the work of or- ganizing the workers is hampered. Party members are working in some of the most important establishment in the country— and yet the movement inside the shops for the Party and the Trade Union Unity League does not move forward. This is due to the fact that that our Party and YCL members do not buil@ up the Party, YCL and revolutionary unions where they work, Many workers inside the shops are much more militant than Party mem- bers, not because they are more revolutionary, but because they show more daring and not the caution that too many Party members dis- play. This situation must be changed.. The workers look to the Party for leadership. not only in the streets, but also in the shops. The Party members in the shops must build where they work. That is their main task—and on this depends to the greatest extent the building of the revolutionary unions and the Party in the shops. ize a mistake—call those responsible to account and reyive this activity. ' Even the Young Pioneers who have a group in this section can’t be utilized. Due to activ- ity that the Young Pioneers have carried on, a child was gotten in, whose mother works in the factory. No attempt so far has been made to sound out this parent, yet here we can see what can be accomplished. In spite of these varied’ forms of work that have in many cases met with partial success no systematic approach towards activity on this plant has been worked out. And only through systematizing and organizing our approach to F ‘ Red Goats By JORGE passes Toot Your Own Horn! “Dear Red Sparks:—In the news of the Nas tional Youth Day parade in Passaic, I found nothing about the National Textile Workers’ Union Band of Paterson, N. J., which marched at the head of the parade, and of course not only marched, but played our revolutionary marches with gusto ad enthusiasm. “This may be news to you, as it was to many of the marchers, who thought we were a hired band. For this reason, and not that we want any praise, I am writing you. For by participate ing in parades of workers we are only fulfilling the purpose for which we were organized, “It may also be of interest to other workers’ organizations, especially youth, that our band, after only one year of learning band instruments, were able to come out in the street and play in such a manner as made comrades from other cities think we were a hired band. ‘This should be an incentive to other workers’ organizations to get busy along this line of cultural activity, so that next year’s Youth Day will see not one band, but many of them, in line—P, L.” A good idea, and we hope that your NTWU band also gets a delegate to the Cultural Con- ference in New York June 14, initiated by the John Reed Club. By the way, the John Reed Club has organized a special group to help song-writing workers along. To write, or help workers write, the words for revolutionary music, or the music for the words, and to do mission- ary work in teaching workers’ organizations the many splendid revolutionary songs already avail- able but which many organizations do not know. American Dumping We are downcast at the news reported in the N. Y, World-Telegram of last Friday, that Amer- ican dumping has taken on a form peculiarly obnoxious to Europe. ‘Texas Guinan, who joined the “socialist” party last election to support Heywood “Gin” Broun | and the Reverend Norman Thomas, undertook to go abroad with about twenty of her night club “hostesses,” business in New York having fallen off alarmingly since the Stock Market crash. News repcris are that she was barred from England. and certainly she and her “hostesses” were prevented from landing in France. The World-Telegram, being friendly to “socialists” and “hostess used two columns and a front page Picture telling of the outrage. It seems, strange enough, that somebody had whispered that Texas was one of those dames who makes money by introducing girls to tired business men, and that British morals might suffer if she landed with her “hostesses” or “performers,” who, it is said, perform things that are not listed even in the Ten Command-. ments. Texas, in truly socialist” indignation, resented the charge, offered a reward $f anybody could prove it, and remarked bitterly that “England was only too glad to welcome me when I worked for her during the war.” What kind of “work” she did, remains vague. Then she and her “hostesses” started for France, ” But a squad of French dicks met her and te- fused to allow any scabbing on the girls of the, Montmarte. Not a “hostess” could go ashore. She had “falsified” to get a visa. French offi- cials said. The affair endangered relations be= tween France and Washington, The U. S. Consul, Edwin Kent, went down to the ship and tried to get the French to let the outfit land. Nothing doing. He pleaded that the poor girls were “forced to underga the hardships of a cold luncheon”—certainly more than a U. S. official does for the unemployed in America. But nothing doing. Cables to Washington, but Secretary Stim- son would not send the marines—France is ‘not Nicaragua. The French ambassador at Wash- ington was interviewed. No, it was not a ques- tion of morals, he said. “The reasons are econ- omics rather than moral.” It appears that if Texas and her “hostesses” were moral and didn’t intend to compete with the Paris girls, things, would be different. “Too many night club ladie: in Paris already,” said the ambassador. Meanwhile, from the top deck, Texas w: screaming at the French dicks: “Hey sucker‘ I've been thrown out of better places than thi Is this the land Jack Pershing and 2,000,0 Americans helped to liberate? There’s no mo! liberty here than in Russia!” ‘That last cra was picked up straight from Heywood Broun! column in the World-Telegram Tt was all very touching. Norman Tho: should protest. The Civil Liberties Union shoul demand the civil rights of an American citize! be made effective. The Americari Fund for Public Service should send Kerensky a check to finance an appeal to Aristide Briand, and the New Republic write another editorial saying th; it is all due to the “silly Communists” attac! ing the good, constructive “socialists.” We Set No Date A comrade who corresponds with friends in France tells us that there, among the news- Paper men the rumor is current that war is to “break out” in the coming July. Our com- rade notes that this agrees wtih the prophecy of Ludendorff, the German general whose book on the coming war was commented on in the N. Y. Times only about ten days ago. What do we know about it? Well, we know that imperialist war is certain as sunrise. But whether it will come in July or not we do not venture to prophecy. Everywhere, and jnet as much in America a8 elsewhere, the imperialist governments are in a real fever of war preparations. Any day, both before and after, as wei: as during July, the new world massacre may begin. War hysteria, Pparticlarly against the foviet Union, is being consciously whipped up, That is clear, But Con’t be deluded by. the apparent mass enthusiasm for war when it begins, Before it 1s over, there will be more mass enthusiasm to Stop it, determination to overthrow the fuper= jalist yovermrents which started i and cons tinue it. Even the little "imitation bombs" dropped by: “accident” over upper New York the other day, sent half a million people into hysteria. A lot! of patriots will learn wheat it’s like to be a Nicaraguan before the next war is ended, and) they'll be ready to be Called “bandits” saat a HATTA