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

=o 4 Ser : . WORKERS oH) or rae OF THE WORLD, an UNITE! Or Seniet Party U.S.A. Orga ESR (Section of the Communist bi ae ) Central The worker, Vol. VIII. No. 198 Not Beer--But a Fight Against Wage Cuts and for Unem- ployment Insurance ‘HE heads of the American Federation of Labor have officially pro- nounced at the meeting of their Executive Council in Atlantic City that the chief task of the working class at the present time is to fight— FOR BEER. te Price 3 Cents | Entered as second-claxy matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879 PROTEST BOSS TERROR CALLS FOR DEATH OF | 32 IMPRISONED MINERS NEW YORK 2K —Declaring that Demand Amnesty for All Class War Prisoners; ies sees veoane Ubicresd Release of Nine Scottsboro Boys striking Miners’ Kids Need Relief to tight Disease rulers,” B. C. Forbes, financial editor of the New York American, in Friday's issue of his paper Hunger and Misery Stalks Through Coverdale Section Coalfields NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUS warns these rulers of the United States that they must beware of the growing mass discontent due to the advancing economic crisis. “Economic revolutions have be- come the modern danger,” is the way Forbes tries to inform the ruling class that the workers are no longer content to starve on the breadline, or in the shops, with sweeping wage-cuts going on. “The situation at this moment carries a serious warning to those who have arrogated to In their traitorous efforts to distract the working class from the necessary struggle against wage-cuts, the A. F. of L. leaders have peddled | + for months the lie that the capitalists would not cut wages during the crisis. Now that this lie has been exposed before the working class, now that even the capitalist press have come out openly admitting the -uni- versality of the wage cutting campaign, the A. F. of L. misleaders again seek to distract the workers from the fight against wage cuts. The chief task before the workers, as propounded by these professional betrayers of labor, is to submit to the attacks of the bosses and to confine their struggle to a fight for BEER, “Tents and Relief Will Pull Out Miners In West Va.” \Ky. Trial To \[LD Organizer Refuses Hit Growing Boss Terror in Birmingham, Ala., and in Coal Strike Areas NEW YORK.—Instead of one main demonstration in New York on August 22, Sacco-Vanzetti Day, there will be central demonstrations in every section of the city. In the Bronx there will be a parade beginning at 180th Open themselves rulership in this In most industries wage cuts have already taken place. In these |Street and Prospect Avenue at 6 p.m. and ending up at|) country, our fever gira: | |To Leave Strike Area same industries further wage cuts are being prepared. In an article in h forse vegan een clers, our billion-doliar banks, || To the Coverdale relief kitchen,| Help the Pennsylvania-Ohio-West | eter last Sunday's Herald-Tribune, the financial writer of that paper after aa way, ie & ‘Gemonsiration 8) 200 WHITE PL AINS our corporate octopuses.” 125 miners working under the scab | Virginia-Kentuck ng Miners| From Harlan, Kentucky, comes the admitting that wage cuts “have become universal,” further declares: ct Laat there: Will bet twa par: Thus, Forbes’ only complaint is| | United Mine Workers Union of Am- | Relicf Committee and bread into the | report, via the Associated Press, that ‘s oh % that the bosses are not acting] |erica agreement came begging for|strike fields! Send every penny you| the trial against the first group of ‘By October sunt aGearars who have not reduced their wage ae onyerying on oan | or WORKERS HEAR OF drastically enough against the||something to eat. Although they|can spare to their headquarters at| 335-miners, who have been arrested rates will be rare. shat beiee Sealy workers, He feels that the work-| | worked three days a week under this|Room 330, 799 Broadway, New York| here by order of the coal companies, In the meantime, the crisis continues to deepen. Unemployment in- creases rather than decreases. The number of unemployed workers is rapidly approaching the stupendous figure of 11,000,000. These workers and their families are in desperate need. Many have died of starvation. Others have committed suicide. The diseases of starvation are spread- ing on every hand. Children are suffering from malnutrition. The pay- ment of social insurance to the unemployed is opposed by the Wall Street Government and the employers in order to preserve their profits and the better to effect their wage cutting campaign and the general worsening of the conditions of the masses. In this anti-working class policy, the leaders of the A. F. of L. have heartily concurred. They, too, have opposed the payment of social insurance. They have openly sup- ported the police terror against striking workers and against the unem- ployed workers who dare to fight against starvation and evictions. And now, the only program they have to offer is a “fight” for BEER! At a time when the capitalist press openly announces ‘a wage cut for every employed worker, a denial of unemployment relief to the job- less, a continuation of evictions of the unemployed—when both the A. F. of L. and Hoover are forced to admit that a terrible winter is due for the working class—the call to “fight” for beer is the sheerest travesty and farce, adding disgusting, brutal insult to the bitter misery of the workers and poor farmers. The plain, unadorned truth is that the action of the A. F. of L. leaders is part and parcel of the program of the manufacturers and bankers to prevent the workers from taking up the struggle against wage cuts and for social insurance. It is a direct continuation of their strikebreaking agreement with Hoover to prevent the workers from striking againstfwage cuts. No on’ who has followed the actions of Green, Woll and Com- pany since tite beginning of the crisis can honestly doubt that we are dealing here with an outright conspiracy between the A. F. of L. heads and the Wall Street-Hoover Government to keep the workers from actively resisting the capitalist attack on thelr stand- ard of living. The A. F. of L. traitors hypocritically offer their action as a “solu- tion” of unemployment. They pretend that the repeal or modification of the prohibition amendment in order to permit the legal manufacture of beer would solve unemployment. The plain truth is that beer and other prohibited drinks are being manufactured in spite of the prohibi- tion amendment. The illegal manufacture of liquor is a big business employing more workers in its production and distribution than would be employed were the manufacture of beer legalized. But even granting that an additional number of workers would be employed should the manufacture of beer be legalized, the total number so employed would still be a drop in the bucket as compared with the eleven millions out of work today. If the legal manufacture of beer is all that is needed to pull capitalism out of its crisis then we may be quite sure that the capitalists would long ago have legalized its manufacture. The hypocritical claim that legalized beer will improve the condi- tions of the working class deliberately conceals the fact that the ex- ploitation of the worker, and not the absence or presence of beer, is the source of his misery. Wage cuts, unemployment, evictions and mass hunger, will continue to be the lot of the workers under capitalism whether beer is legalized or not. It is these and the system that pro- duces them which the workers must fight against. It must be obvious to every thinking worker that the A. F. of L. beer program is just so much hokum, the sole purpose of which is to distract the workers frégi the real and only immediate struggle—the fight against wage cuts and ‘hunger. Workers! What we need now is not a fake “fight” for beer, but the widest possible struggle against this vicious and cold-blooded attack by the employers and their A, F. of L. henchmen. The prospect for this coming winter is the deepest mass misery and hardship for the employed and the unemployed. There can be only one answer if this mass misery is not to grow still greater. Employed and unemployed! Unite common struggle against wage cuts and for unemployment reli ers, resist the starvation program of Hoover, Green and company pare to strike against wage cuts! WE ARE GLAD TO CORRECT , ‘The District Organizer of the Communist Party at graphs a protest against an underestimation, made in an edit Daily Worker, of the number of white workers who participat the mass demonstration in protest against the police murder of the three Negro workers, Gray, OjNeil and Paige, last Saturday. This relates to the funeral of members of the Unemployed Council who were shot to death on the streets of Chicago on August, 3 by the police at the request of the attorney of the Chicago branch of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, together with a group of owners of double-rent jim-crow apartments. Our editorial had said that 20,000 white workers marched over to the South Side of Chicago to join with the Negro workers in the de- monstration. Our figures were incorrect. It is pointed out that 25,000 white workers participated in the actual funeral procession together with between 35,000 and 40,000 Negroes, while 50,000 more, black and white, participated in a less active way by joining in the demonstration on the street as the procession passed. The correct total of participants in this magnificent demonstration of the solidarity of the white and black workers and of protest against the murder of our Negro comrades, was, therefore, 110,000, ’ We are glad to make the correction. And now we trust that the Chicago workers, under the continued leadership of their Unemployed Council and of the Chicago District of the Communist Party, will not rest upon their laurels, will not permit that our comrades died in vain, but will work with redoubled energy and confidence to organize the masses of Negro and white workers of Chicago and to fight relentlessly for immediate relief for the unemployed, to Prevent the recommencing of evictions, and for social insurance. m Avenue, where the central demon- stration will take place. One parade will begin at 100th St. and Second Ave., marching through a number of working class streets, down to Fifth Ave. and 113th St. and then to Mount Morris Park. The other par- ade will begin with a meeting at 140th St. and 8th Ave., extending for 33 blocks through working class sec- tions, and marching to Mount Morris Park where it will meet the parade coming from the opposite direction. Both parades will start at 2:30 and meet at the park at 3:30. In mid-town Manhattan, a parade | will start with a meeting at 12:30 at Bryant Park, 40th St. and Sixth Ave., and march to Madison Square. In downtown Manhattan, there will be a mass meeting at 7th St. and Ave. B at 2:30 p. m, with a parade of 27 blocks through the working class section, ending at Rutgers Square at 4 o'clock with a demon- stration, In Brownsville, there will be a par- ade beginning with a, meeting at Pennsylvaniaand. Sutter- Aves.,..at 2:30 p. m., and ending at Saratoga and Pitkin Aves., at 4 o'clock. In South Brooklyn, a demonstra- tion will take place at Court and Carroll Sts. beginning at 2 p. There will be no parade in connec- tion with this demonstration. In Newark, the demonstration will take place in the Military Park, at 2p.m. In Paterson, there will be a dem- onstration ‘at the City Hall at 5 o'clock. In Passaic, there will be two dem- onstrations held in opposite sections of the town. All workers are urged to turn out for these demonstrations in their sections, and make Sacco-Vanzetti Day a day of militant working class protest and struggle against the growing boss terror and for the re- lease of the nine Scottsboro boys and amnesty to all class war prisoners. To Get Signatures Thurs. in Bronx for Election Drive The members of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League, LSNR branches, IWO, Workers’ Clubs, ILD and members of the ‘LUUL will be mobilized on Thursday, August 20, to collect signatures and help to put the Communist Party on the ballot in the Bronx. The response of the above mentioned organizations will be so tremendous that accord- ing to a very conservative esti- mation we will collect more than 1,000 signatures, iy There will be two ‘headquaters: 1—1400 Boston Road 2—2700 Bronx Park East WASHINGTON, Aug. 18,—Herald- ing the drastic increase in the un- employed army, which this winter will, on the admission of the Hoover government, exceed all previous fig- ures, the Department of Labor has just issued the report that employ- ment dropped 2 per cent in July and payrolls dropped nearly 5 per cent. ‘There has been a steady and per- sistent increase in the jobless ranks, according to government figures. These figures are in no way an ac~- turate indication of the vast num- ber who are daily losing their jobs, as the Daily Worker has repeatedly proved the government figures are faked in the interest of concealing the truth about unemployment. A drop of 2 per cent, however, means that according to government figures over 200,000 workers lost their jobs during July, and each month from now until mid-winter will see at least 250,000 workers each month thrown into the ranks of the ™. | Spain. \U. S. Says Jobless Increase; AFL Acts to Keep Hunger STRIKE SELL-OUT Many Can’t Get Into Overpacked Hall WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., Aug. 17— Over 200 road workers who had been on strike here against wage cuts, and most of whom are now unem- sirens mage ere at the. call ofthe White Plains Workers’ Center, last Saturday. Since the hall was packed to capacity over 100 workers were forced to stay outside. A representative of the Trade Union Unity League spoke urging them to keep up the fight against the wage cut and to demand $5.00 a day instead of the $4.00 offered by the bosses. The A. F. of L. leader- ship was branded as a strikebreak- at|ing agency which betrayed the strike, Many of the workers were Spanish- speaking. Comrade Machado spoke on the revolutionary situation in Machado exposed the role played by the anarchists and syndi- calists which led them into the camp of the A. F. of L. betrayers i of lining up with the revolutigeiiy leadership of the T.U.U.L. P When the anarchists tried to usurp the meetings, the workers voted that they should not be given the floor again, after they had spoken once. The workers refused to listen to them any longer. One way to help the Soviet Union is to spread among the workers “Soviet ‘Forced Labor,” by Max Bedacht, 10 cents per copy. ers no longer swallow the lies of the ruling class. For this reason not only increased brutality is necessary, but more phrases of the kind flung out by Pinchot, and backed by William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the news- papers for which Forbes writes. Forbes goes on to tell the bosses the following: “This statement can be made in the most sober truthfulness: “Never before’ were the real rulers of this land, the con- trollers of billion-dollar and other gigantic financial and business enterprises. held in such low esteem by the vast majority of American citizens.” Child of Jobless Worker Dies of St arva tion BUFFALO, Aug. 18.—Mary Alice Mallery, aged 9, died at 5 o'clock Friday evening at Buffalo City Hos- pital from diphtheria, which devel- oped from chronic undernourishment and malnutrition. The father, Er- nest Mallery, was recently sentenced by the notorious Judge Geo. Woltz to three months’ imprisonment for alleged disorderly conduct, the con- duct consisting of participating in a demonstration against the Scotts- boro convictions. The funeral was arranged by the Social Welfare, who buried the child, although food for the starving fam- ily had previously been denied. Er- nest Mallery was refused permission to attend his child’s funeral. The League of Struggle for Negro Rights and the Trade Union Unity League have planned a series of demonstra- tions against the conviction of Mal- lery. “union” agreement, the men were so starved that they came to the strikers’ relief kitchen as taking for a bite to eat. Every day more workers from the Terminal mines bring out their tools—to join the strike against this grinding hunger, is extreme. One hard boiled company doctor admitted that most of the children in the coal fields—to say nothing of their parents—have tuber- culosis. “I guess they’ve got a kick coming on that score, alright!” he remarked with a shrug of his shoul- ders. The «#triking miners have many “kicks” coming. So have their wives and children, That's why they are all in the battle, fighting with a grim determination in the face of the mos extreme terror labor history has known. Feet swollen from walking the roads without shoes, bodies barely covered with one whole garment, men, women and children march upon the mines, fighting for the right to life itself. Trained dogs snap.at. their feet, growl, terrorize the chil- dren. The dogs often carry the tear gas for the state to cossacks—‘first aid’ —they call it The fight against stravation is a bitter one. The miners expect this and more from the “law.” But they look to their fellow-workers to help them face this terror, to stand behind them in this struggle. They look to you to help feed them while they are forging ahead, chin up. One meal a day is what they ask of you. On this meal, they will walk miles to picket lines, face the cossacks—their clubs, gassings, bullets. One miner collapsed from hunger— died on the steps of t’.e relief station in Barking. Others, actively engaged in strike work from dawn to mid- night, are weakening for lack of a little food. Paterson Strikers Continue Their Picket Lines Despite Court Fines PATERSON, N. J., Aug. 17.— Twelve of the strike picketers who were arrested at Streng’s last week were fined $5 each today. They were given the alternative of a jail sen- tence since the cops know that the strikers would take a jail sentence in preference to giving money for fines to the court. The workers who were fined are Sophie Melvin, Mar- tha Stone, Joe Phillips, W. Gershon- owits, Minnie Danziger, John Steu- ben, Harry Eisenman, Gertrude Goldman, Nathan Liss, Ben Neuman, and Norma Hawkins. The setttlement-sell-out program of the UTW came to light again in On the day this news was pub- lished the American Federation of Labor announced it was ahead with its “solution” for ment, namely, agitating for the legal manufacture of booze, To distract the workers from the struggle for unemployment insurance, and.to aid the Hoover government, Green, Woll and the other A. F. of L. oNicials have organized the National Com- mittee for the Modification of the Volstead Act. ‘The purpose is to get the workers to vote for booze instead of unem- ployment insurance. The lies spread by the A. F. of L. officials is that booze legally manufactured would increase the number of jobs that is available. The facts show that more booze is manufactured now ille~ gally, employing thousands, than was made during pre-prohibition days. ‘These same individuals would be re- employed in the legal manufacture the settlement of the Rosenstein shop on Straight Street. There were twenty workers on each shift before the strike. Now after the shop has been announced by the A. F. of L. fakers as settled the night shift has not been taken back and there are no winedrs or warpers on the day shift. In the Sheinfeld Silk Co. which was announced by the UTW as set- tled no night weavers have been tak- en back and those who are working are getting prices under those of the UTW's own price list. Fifteen work- ers at the Millinery shop at 507+ E. 19th Street were told by the boss to join the UTW. These workers who are working below the UTW prices were told that they would only have to pay one month’s dues to the union. The Mart Silk Co. which set- tled with the NTWU agreed to every demand put by the union. At the meeting of the workers of the Colonial Throwing plant the girls decided to stay out on strike until their demands were met by the boss and the NTWU was recognized. The boss had gone to some of the girls at their homes and had offered them raises of $2 to $3 which would have raised their wages to a $10 to $15 rate. He refused to recognize the NTWU and the girls decided to stay out. At the warpers’ meeting today a committee was elected to investigate the warping plants where the girls are working as learners at from $10 to $22 a week. This committee will also mobilize the warpers for the strike. At the winders’ meeting {t was de- cided to reduce the wage demands from $22 a week to $20 a week. All of booze, making no decrease in the |of the winders were in favor of the Jobless, Pots ck size of the unemploves. aay, yer. Herustion singe thew, thousht. te. doe mand was too high. A committee was elected to visit the winders to get them on the picket line and into the union. Mother Bloor who has just come in from the northwest will be the prin- cipal speaker at the women’s mass meeting which will be held at the Turn Hall Wednesday at 2:30 p. m. Entertainment will be provided by the Pioneers. At 7:30 p. m, Wednes- day the youth conference will take place. The Women’s Delegate Con- ference will be held at the Turn Hall, August 24 at 8 p. m. Workers Correspondence is the backbone of the revolutionary press. Buiid your press by writing for it about your day-to-day struggle. All through the cial fields, hunger | ater need for what you can today! Never v your help FOSTER POINT OUT NECESSITY FOR RELIEF | |WIR Outlines Agenda! for Conference In a statement issued by Comrad: | Foster today the importance of in-| creasing the tempo of relief for the} striking miners was made clear. The new tactics to be pursued by the National Miners’ Union cannot be successfully carried out unless the miners are provided with adequate relief. “More than ever before,” Comrade ster said, “the need for relief from starvation is desne--* Rally to aid of the striking min- ers, rush” aid to fhe Penn-Ohio Striking Miners’ Relief Committee, Room 330, 799 Broadway! That relief is of prime importance to the successful waging of strikes has been most clearly been taught by the present strikes in the coal and Starvation is the the textile industries. strongest weapon bosses can weild against the wo: g class. With hunger the capitalists hope to force the workers to accede to their mis- erable conditions. With starvation they work to break the growing soli- darity of the toiling workers. The National Conference of the Workers’ International Relief which will be held at Pittsburgh, August 29th and 30th, will be an important step for- ward in the building of a powerful mass organization permanently ready to supply relief on the basis of soli- darity. The agenda for the National Con- ference is announced by Marcel Scherer, national secretary of the W.LR., as follows: 1) Report on the strikes of miners and textile workers and the strike rective, William Z. Foster. National Campaign for miners’ relic{ cnd the distribution of relief in the mine strike area. Al- fred Wagenknecht, secretary of the Penn-Ohio Striking Miners’ Relief ‘Committee. 3) Reports by the Strikers’ Com- mittee from the textile strikers in (a) Allentown, (b) Rhode Island, (c) Paterson. A developing of a campaign for the textile strikers re- lief. 5) The relationship of the W.LR. and the revolutionary trade union movement. Jack Stachel. 6) The call of the International Committee of the W.LR. for a dele- gation of American workers to par- ticipate in the World Congress of the W.LR., Berlin, October 9-16, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Inter- national Relief. Four Toledo Banks Crash; $100,000,000 Deposits Hit TOLEDO, Ohio, August 17—A huge bank crash, involying the four lead- ing banks in this city, with deposits of over $100,000,000 will deprive tens of thousands of workers of their life savings, and force many thousands of them who are unemployed to face the immediate prospect of death by starvation of eviction, The closing of these four banks, the Commerce Guardian Trust and Sav- ings, the Ohio Savings Bank and Trust Co., the Commercial Savings Bank and Trust Co, and the Amer- ican Bank, is indicative of a growing instability in the banking situation, This is further evidenced by the fact that this year there have been twice as many bank failures as last year, with amounts double those in the a record for bank failures. Represéfitatives of 100 rural Ohio banks met in an effort to stave off ruin. The Toledo bank officials are spreading the usual lies about “re- organization within ten days.” In New York this was told the 400,000 depositors of the Bank of United States—none of whom have received a penny of their deposits to date, and the bank has been shut nearly a year. . AKRON, Ohio, Aug 17.—The bank crisis in this state has spread from the rural banks and the Toledo banks to the building and loan associations here. Today 12 such associations closed up refusing to pay out any \1of tals $96,000,000 depogite, ih \ is on the eve of opening. State's Attorney W. A. Brock has called on the courts to supplement the terror of the company gunmen by ordering the death of the striking miners. The Associated Press report quotes Brock as stating: “We've got to put the cold chills of steel down the backs of the criminal element in the country.” By “crim: element” Brock re=- ers to the striking miners who have en carrying on a fight against starvation and against the company gunmen who rule the coal fields in Kentucky through the sharpest ter- ror heard of in any part of the country. State’s Attorney Brock. tool of the coal company, ad paid them, is demanding the death penalty far all 32 now on trial. The same Associated Press report tells of the jailing again of Jesse London Wakefield, representative of the International Labor Defense, and Arnold Johnson, representative of ihe American Civil Liberties Union. Both are in jail, the.Asso- tiated Press telegram says. it goes on to state: “County officials offered to- drop the charge against Mrs, Wakefield (she is charged with criminal syn- dicalism) if she would leave the community.” This she refused to do. Bae HARLAN, Ky., Aug. 18.—The home of Henry Thornton, a Negro miner of Harlan and active member of the National Miners’ Union, was invaded by four deputized gunmen Saturday night. Thornton was dragged out of his bed, beaten by the gunmen and ordered to leave the country. The miner replied that he would not leave his home, that he saw no rea- son for going away. They took Thornton out on the road and held a@ conference among themselves to decide what to do with him. First . they suggested killing him and then compromised on beating him again with the butts of their guns and taking him to jail. Late the next day the prison doc- tor dressed his wounds. Two days later he was hailed before a judge and charged—with being drunk. But when it was established that Thornton never drank they put him back in jail until another charge against him can be brought up. When Jesse Wakefield, local repre- sentative of the International Labor Defense who was arrested and charged with criminal syndicalism, came up for trial here, two women were brought in to swear that Jesse Wakefield had spoken at a mass meeting in Eyarts and talked about “egg shells and killing John Henry Blair, high sheriff of Harlan County, and others.” They couldn’t remem- ber anything else. Since Wakefield never spoke in Evarts in her life, these witnesses obviously perjured themselves. Bond for $10,000 was set—$5,000 of this, however, is a “peace bond,” good for a period of six months, binding her to be “peaceful.” Since her crime consists in representing the International Labor Defense in de- fending miners as a result of class war activities, continuing this work would involve forfeiture of the bond. Eight surety companies refused to handle the peace bond. They know what it means. ‘Thugs are raiding every house tn Catrous Creek. Their excuse is that they are searching for guns. In this state, however, there is no law against keeping a gun. Everyone has at least one that is used for hunting rabbits, squirrels, birds and for protecting their homes, Ob- viously these thugs, who are raiding homes, attacking miners whom they drag out of bed, roving around bombing and shooting and destroys ing, wanting to disarm the workers and terrorize them into submission. Again, the trial of the 40 striking miners is coming up very soon, and the thugs fear the mass protest of the miners in the coming trial and want to terrorize them into staying away. ‘The results, however, show