The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 19, 1931, Page 1

ieee ] ; —_—s — ———— ORGANIZE CONF. Roe] Wy ARE OM You Dig For. STRIKE “Sat ONGDAY AT ‘Corin, [Sa dav toy THis 120 DeqRee {| TEAST AND Tree atinet HOoeY Hower Dail Orga Central y, Worker Party U.S (Section of the Communist i Svat A WORKERS OF THE WORLD, _UNITE! fi at New York, Vol. Vil. tered am second-class matter at the Post Office NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19; 1931 ciTy EDITION X. ¥., ander the act of March 3, 1879 KY. August 22nd UR years ago in Boston, Mass., Sacco and Vanzetti were burned to death in the electric chair by the master class. On the eve of this anniversary of the legal murder of Sacco and Vanzetti, August 22nd, the coal bosses in Harlan, Ky., with the aid of the state and courts through the State Prosecutor, and Judge Jones, are attempting to repeat the Sacco and Vanzetti case against 35 striking miners. On the day the trial opened in Harlan, Judge Jones, almost word for ward, repeated the speech of Judge Thayer, about “reds” who must be wiped out. The American bosses by the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti and now by their open threat to repeat this deed against 35 miners in Harlan, Ky., throw a challenge to the working class of the whole world. Millions, under the leadership of the International Red Aid and the Communist International, stormed their protest against the foul frame-up and mur- der of Sacco and Vanzetti! The toiling masses have accepted the challenge! Throughout the world the masses in capitalist and colonial lands are rising against in- human exploitation, growing unemployment and abject starvation. In China, India, Indo-China, etc., in Asia—and Germany, Spain, the Bal- kans, Poland, etc., in Europe—in Central and South America, the United States of America have set into motion millions of toilers, the mass social unrest varying from revolutionary ferment to open revolutionary civil war, has been strengthened by memories of the Sacco-Vanzetti case. Before the very eyes of the toiling masses under capitalism is the Union of Socialist Soviet Repuslics—the brilliant example, the breath- taking panorama of the rising structure of the new system. The toilers of the world have their eyes turned upon the mighty work of the Soviet masses, who haye kicked into oblivion their rotten masters and have laid the firm foundation for a new social order—Socialism, McDonald—the “socialist”—the “pacifist”—drowns in blood the efforts of the Indian masses to shake off the British rule. The fascist rulers in Poland have now established the “Criminal Statute” for the thousands of political prisoners in the hell-holes and torture chambers of Poland—a statute that reduces a class war prisoner to a more cruel fate than it gives to the murderers and criminals which it breeds. Murder, torture and jailing continue in all other fascist lands—the Balkans, the Baltic states, Italy, etc. In the Philippine Islands Wall Street's rule attempt to crush out the life of the rising Communist movement. In Germany the social-democrats connive with the foreign and the German bosses to breathe new life into the stinking corpse of German capitalism—at the expense of starvation of the German masses—and to murder and imprison their militants. ‘The French “socialists” support their masters in murdering and jailing of the militants in Indo-China. In Canada, the government in compliance with the bidding of the Canadian and Wall Street bosses has jailed the entire leadership of the Communist Party of Canada for the purpose of crushing the rising tide of militancy of the Canadian masses. In the U. S. A—the bosses’ terror is raging, parallel with the strug- gles of the toiling masses. August 22, the fourth anniversary of the death of Sacco and Van- zetti, is near the date when the seven Imperial Valley prisoners will be sentenced by the California State Prison Board. Five still face fourteen years, and two Latin-American workers twenty-eight years each. August 22 must be the day when a flood of telegrams and resolutions to Governor James Rolph, Sacramento, California, must demand the immediate unconditional release of the Imperial Valley prisoners and the repeal of the criminal syndicalism law. August 22nd, must be the rallying day of hundreds of thousands in the United States, declaring to the capitalists in Kentucky that the workers will not stand by and see 35 of their brothers legally murdered for fighting against hunger. August 22 must likewise be the day for powerful demonstrations for the release of Mooney and Billings, J. B. McNamara and Matt Schmidt. August 22 must be the day for the increased mobilization to save the nine Negro children of Scottsboro, whose young lives the masters of the South are preparing to snuff out. The Scottsboro case is a challenge to all black and white workers— this challenge must be met. One of the props that holds up the rot- ting capitalist system is the method of planting race hatred and na- tional hatreds—white workers are poisoned against black, native against foreign-born, etc. Along with the Scottsboro case runs the case of the Camp Hill Ala- bama share-croppers, who were given a bloody bath for the “crime” of fighting against starvation and supporting the campaign to save the Scottsboro children. In the coal mine areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia hundreds of militant miners are in jails for daring to revolt against un- employment, starvation and wage cuts. In Paterson, New Jersey, five workers are framed on murder charges because of their militancy in the silk weavers’ strike. On August 22 the ruthless policy of deportations of foreign-born workers, pursued by Hoover, Doak and company must be mzrcilessly ex- posed as one striking at the very heart of the American working class. ‘The vicious Michigan Anti-Alien Bill is the forerunner of a national sys- tem of finger-printing and registration of foreign-born workers. The infamous Fish “Investigating Committee” that let loose a flood of red-baiting, has for its purpose the outlawing of the leader of the American toilers, the Communist Party of the U. S. A. These attempts the American working masses must fight agai all their might. The American masses will fight for ie Oona eae, of the U. S. A—their leader in their battles against the master cl 5 On August 22, the fourth anniversary of the death of Sacco and Vanzetti, the masses must give their broadest support to the Interna- tional Labor Defense, which daily and tirelessly mobilizes the workers for the defense of their militants, who fall into our class enemy's hands. The International Labor Defense leads the masses in the struggle for general amnesty for all class war fighters! Support and build the International Labor Defense! , Out into the streets on August 22! Beat back the boss terror in all capitalist and colonial lands! Mobilize on August 22 for struggle for general amnesty—for imme- diate unconditional release of the seven Imperial Valley prisoners— Scottsboro boys and every fighter now in bosses’ jails the world over! the establishment of a Hudson Coun- ty Committee, to conduct the work of the election campaign, in every city and town of Hudson County. John J. Ballam, Communist candi- date for governor of New Jersey, 1s FOR ELECTION REPORT MADE BY STRIKE COMMITTEE Green Approves AFL Sell Out Scheme as ‘Regular’ Policy Picket ‘Settled’ Shops 8 Strikers Fined For Singing PATERSON, N. J., Aug. 18. — At the mass meeting today J. Rubin, Secretary, gave the report of the General Strike Committees on the present strike situation. He proposed a general strengthening of the strike leadership. This is particularly im- portant at the present time since the strike breaking tactics of the UTW tend to cause some demoralization in the ranks of the strikers. Rubin pointed out that the Strike Commit- tee must be activized more at this critical time and the union must be built more rapidly. “Sam Weisman of the Food Work- ers Industrial Union, spoke at the mass meeting of the need for mil- itant picketing and the need for picketing on a more systematic basis. He appealed to the workers to con- tinue the militant picket lines, Fakers Get Green’s 0.K. The UTW has announced that Bill Green - will come. to speak. to the strikers some time this week but the date has not been announced. The UTW-Associated A. F. of L. union delegation with Holderman at its head went to see Green at Atlantic City for two purposes, one of which was to get him to Paterson to speak to the strikers. The other purpose was to get an official “declaration by the Federation that their union, the United Textile Workers, had nothing to do with Communism but was con- ducting a regular strike in accord- ance with the principles of the Fed- eration.” Bill Green on the part of the Executive Council of the Fed- eration gave his immediate approval to Holderman that the “strike” of the UTW-Associated was a “regular” A. F. of L. strike breaking sell out scheme. The workers know that the “regular” A. F. of L. method is com- plete treachery to the working class for the profits of the bosses. In addition to Green, the UTW has booked Vladeck of the yellow Jewish Forward, which has particip- ated in every sell out of the needle and other workers that the leader- ship of the company unions have put thru with the aid of the so- cialists. The other star performer for the A. F. of L. union will be Heywood Broun, the socialist party link to the night life of New York. Viadeck will speak on Thursday and Broun on Friday or Monday. Picket “Settled” Shops This noon two picket lines were sent out, one to the Maryland Silk Co. and the other to the G.G.G. The workers at the Maryland had gone back without any settlement. At the G.G.G. four workers went to the As- sociated to complain of the fake set- tlement that they had been driven back for. The boss of the G.G.G. came to the NTWU this morning and asked the union how he could have the picket line stopped. He was told the demands of the NTWU and that (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) U. S. Steel Corp. Opens Wage Cut Drive in Monessen PITTSBURGH, Pa., Aug. 18.— Additional wage cuts to affect the 250,000 workers in the United States Steel Corporation began yesterday with a slash in wages for 2,000 steel workers in the American Sheet and Tin Plate Mills at Monessen, Pa., a plant owned and controlled by the U. S. Steel Corporation. Wages were cut from 10 to 20 per cent. Hot mills were cut 10 to 13 per cent; cold roll men 20 per cent. This grows out of the announce- ment a month ago that the board of directors of the United States Steel Corporation were in favor of wage cuts. At the last meeting of the board of directors the plans for wage cutting were not an- nounced. Wage cuts were soon afterwards put into effect for all office workers. Now, without any formal announcement, wages are being slashed for the 250,000 steel workers in the steel plant. The purpose of starting off by cutting wages of the 2,000 workers in the Monessen, Pa., plant of the U. S. Steel is to divide the steel workers by not making the cut simultane- ous in all plants. The Metal Workers Industrial League, affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League, has issued a leaflet to the steel workers in Monessen, calling on them to or- ganizc shop committees and pull the workers out on strike against these wage cuts, which are just the beginning of still further wage cuts. The United States Steel Corp- oration has figured out that by slashing wages 10 per cent for all t workers i+ will save $39,000,000 which will be paid to the para- iite stockholders. Bronx Foreign Born Committee Makes Plans Tonight! The Bronx section of the Commit- tee for the Protection of the Foreign Born will meet tonight at 1400 Bos- ton Road. The meeting will make detailed plans for the open air meet- ings and demonstrations which are to be held in the Bronx during Na- tional Anti-Deportation Week which will run from August 23 to August 30. FORD CUTS WAGES ‘CORK, Ireland, Aug. 17.—Ford has ordered wage cuts amounting to 1214 per cent for all workers in the Ford tractor plant here. No doubt this is a sample of the American “high standard of living.” Sometime ago Ford declared that “wage cutting was criminal” and that he himself would never do such a thing. THREATEN NEGRO WORKERS IN BIRMINGHAM Order N egro es Off Streets By Nine O'Clock BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Aug. 18. ? i | | | Funds Needed Now for Defense; Court _ Is An Armed Camp Price 3 Cents. MINE TRIAL OPENS; JUDGE ASKS DEATH FOR 35 | The boss terror against the Negro workers has reached new depths of bloodthirsty murder and savage re- pression. All Negro workers have been warned by the Ku Klux Klan and the police not to be on the streets after 9 o'clock. Negro churches have been instructed to close early to conform to this cur- few rule. The Birmingham Electric Co., co-operating with the police and the K. K. K. in terrorizing the Negro districts, is putting out the lights in the Negro sections. Threats of shooting down Negro workers on sight are being spread through the Negro neighborhoods. Negro workers are being murdered openly on the streets. Last Friday two Negro workers were stabbed by ' ten white thugs while walking along Third St. They are in a critical con- dition. The police have refused to make any arrests, claiming that the Negro workers are not able to iden- tify their assailants, which is a plain lie. Reports from Irondale, a suburb of Birmingham, show that Negro work- ers are staying up at nights with shotguns and rifles to protect them- selves against the attacks of the po- lice and K.K.K. thugs. The terrét against’ the Negro workers is especially directed against militant Negro workers thought to be members of, or sympathetic, to the Communist Party and its relentless struggle for equal rights for Ne- groes. Realizing that in order to crush the growing militancy of the Negro masses they would first have to destroy the Communist Party, the bosses have directed their attacks against Negro and white leaders of the Communist Party. It is not the first time that bosses in various parts of the country have tried, and without success, to destroy the revo- lutionary party of the working class. ‘Three Birmingham Negro workers were tried on vagrancy charges this morning. While arrested in connec- tion with the police attempt to fas- ten the murder of a society woman on a Negro worker, the police openly admitted in court that the real charge against the three workers was the possession of radical literature in thelr homes, The police who testified were not able to say what sort of literature, apart from the fact that it was radical. NEW YORK.—In an answer to the urgent call for relief issued by the Strike Committee of the miners now on strike against starvation in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, Marcel Scherer, national secretary of the Workers’ International Relief, issued ithe following statement: “Thousands of miners who are still on strike represent the most militant and courageous elements in the coal fields. Starvation, tear gas, machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, wholesale arrests—every means at the disposal of the mine operators and their hired thugs—have failed to force these he- roic workers to accept the miserable conditions of the bosses. They have stimulated the fighting spirit of the working class. But this is not enough —unless relief is immediately forth- coming the strike will be ae into se- rious danger. “The families of the miners neea food desperately. Children are dying because of the Iack of milk and other necessities, Families, evicted from their shacks, are actually sleeping on the roadsides. These conditions plus the new offensive and tactics of the Strike Committee, calls for the unit- ed action of the working class in the collection of relief. Therefore, all trade unions, fraternal and mass or- ganizations, as well as individuals, are urged to contribute as much as they can without delay, regardless of the fact that they may have con- tributed substantially before. Rush funds, food, clothing and tents to the Penn-Ohio Striking Miners’ Re- VOLUNTEERS WANTED IN DAILY WORKER OFFICE If you have an hour or so to spare, come up to the office of the Daily Worker on the 8th floor of 50 E. 13th St., and lend a hand. There is a great deal of clerical and office work piled up which must be taken care of at once. I. L. D. Prepares New Appeal for 9 Boys As Roddy Finally Goes Insane CHATTANOOGA, Aug. 18.—Ste- phen Roddy, Klan attorney of the National Association for the Ad- vancement of Colored People, went violently insane a few days agoand tried to murder his wife with an axe, He has been taken to an asylum in Missouri by his father. This leaves the N. A. A. C. P. not only without clients in the Scotts- boro case, but without any attorney to support their pretense of “de> fending” the Scottsboro victims. Hoover Admits His Aim Is to Crush the Soviet Union Hoover has admitted, according to a statement printed in the San Francisco Daily News, a Scripps- Howard paper, that his chief task as the head of the capitalist govern- ment of the United States is to crush the Soviet Union. He has gone fur- ther and stated that he is deter- mined to smash the Workers’ and scheduled to speak this week, Friday, August 21, in Bayonne, 7 p.m. sharp, at 23d St. and Ave. C. In Jersey City same evening, 8:30, at Newark and Jersey Aves; in Hoboken, Saturday, August 22, 2 p.m., at 5th and Wash- ington Sts. After an enthusiastic discussion, a committee was elected to make ar- rangements for the calling of a coun- ty conference on September 17, ‘Thursday, 7 p.m. sharp, at the Work- JERSEY CITY, N. J., Aug. 17— Delegates of Hudson County, who were delegates to New Jersey { ate Ratification Convention of the Com- munist Party, held a meeting last ‘Thursday evening at the Workers’ Center, 308 Henderson St., for the purpose of calling a county confer- ence of all working class organiza- tions m Hudson County for the rati- ficatjon of the working class candi- Farmers’ Republic, no matter what the cost is in blood and workers’ lives. We reprint the report in full from the San Francisco Daily News of Aug. 13: “By JOHN D. BARRY “President Hoover I know very well. One day, at the Department of Commerce, I had an intimate talk with him. The subject of Rus- sia came up. Hoover sald: ‘To tell the truth, Marsh, the ambition of sia.’ “I said, ‘Even if you starve the women and children?’ “Hoover said, ‘Yes.’” This statement wes made by Benjamin C. Marsh, secretary of the People’s Lobby ir Washington, closely associated w:th the presi- dent of the People’s Lobby, Prof. John Dewey, greatly admired and loved throughout the country. Marsh came to San Francisco in a hurry and went out in a hurry to keep lecture engagements else- where. In the address where he used the story about Hoover he gave me the impression that he was saying things he'd repeatedly said before and was likely to say again. By now he'd probably spread the report over a large part Of the country, = ae it Lai 6B Sea apie Bees Committed to Asylum After Attempt to Kill His Wife Only a few days ago Alabama boss papers reported the withdrawal from the case of Beddow of Fort, Beddow and Ray. Beddow had been em- ployed by the N. A. A. C. P. leaders, but following the failure of these leaders to shake the faith of a single one of the nine boys in the Interna- tional Labor Defense and its policy of mass defense in support of its court fight, Beddow decided to with- draw. Stephen Roddy is the attorney who helped the Scottsboro boss court in railroading eight of the nine boys to the shadow of the electric chair. He has been denounced by all nine of the boys as “a traitor to our cause.” ‘The boys reported to their parents that Roddy had tried to get them to plead guilty to the framed-up charge of “raping” two professional white prostitutes. The parents and their boys have consistently refused to have anything to do with this Klan attorney or with the N. A. A. C, P: misleaders. ‘When, after several weeks of hesi- tation, the N. A. A. C. P. leaders were finally forced to make a pretense of interesting themselves in the Scotts- boro case, they announced that they had retained Roddy as their attor- ney. In an attempt to answer the sharp criticism of a section of the Negro press and to placate the in- with the claim that he was repre- senting them from the very outset. As this is not the first time that Roddy has been confined to an in- sane asylum, the Southern attorney of the I, L. D., General George W. Chamlee, is now filing a new peti- tion for new trials for the eight con- demned boys on the grounds that they were represented in court by a madman. The appeal to the Su- preme Court of Alabama against the lynch verdict of the Scottsboro court was filed by I. L. D. attorneys some ten days ago. Negro and white workers! Join the mass fight to save and free the Scottsboro boys! Demonstrate against boss terror and legal lynching on Aug. 22! NEW YORK.—Bank crashes begin to pile up at a rate greater than last year, which in itself was a record for crises in the United States. Fol- lowing the announcement of the crash of the Toledo banks, depriving small depositors of over $100,000,000, comes the report from Richmond, Va., that the Hopewell Bank and Trust Co, of Hopewell, Va., closed up, depriving depositors of a quarter of a million dollars. Another bank, the Richmond dignation of the Negro masses, the Trust Co, failed, but merged with Relief. Is Still a Desperate Need in Mine Area Says WIR Remaining Ranks 1ks'of M Mine ide Seiler ai in Greater Need Than Ever Before Scherer Declares | lief Committee, Room 330, 799 Broad- way, at llth St. | The fourth item on the agenda for the National Conference of the| W.LR. to be held at Pittsburgh, Au- | gust 29 and 30, will be an analysis of | the need and methods of building the | W.LR., presented by Marcel Scherer, | national secretary. This item was | overlooked in the publishing of the | agenda yesterday. All organizations are urged to speed up the election of delegates to the National Confer- ence. DRIVE AGAINST GERMAN PARTY IS INTENSIFIED Delegates 5 Countries! Pledge Defense of the Soviet Union (Cable By Inprecorr) Nuremberg prohibited four Commu- nist Party membership meetings, ution. Hitherto only public meetings have been prohibited. Five coun participated in a rally in Cologne last Sunday, with ten thousand participants, including French, Belgian, Dutch and Luxem- berg workers’ delegates, all unani- mously pledging to protect the So- viet Union. LONDON, August 18—Following two crowded mass meetings of min- ers at Whitehaven, the largest center of the Cumberland <oalfield, the workers decided to disobey the union instructions and refused to return to work, Only nine miners out of four thousand opposed this decision. The meetings demanded the resignation of officials for flouting the ballot de- cisions. The minority leadership is gaining the growing appreciation of the miners. Five WIR feeding cen- ters are now actively functioning. Gov’t Gives Contracts to Wage Cut Bosses WASHINGTON, ON, Aug. 18.—The fed- eral building contracts are purposely let to building contractors who cut ‘wages, according to a statement pub- lished by the Scripps-Howard News- ‘ paper Alliance here. This newspaper agency says that an examination of the records of the Department of Labor will show this to be a fact. ‘The Scripps-Howard Alliance goes on to say: “The Bureau of Conciliation of the Labor Department in nine weeks re- ported twenty such disputes on fed- eral public buildings. Seventeen of these controversies centered about wages, and one about employment of non-union laborers”. Banks Crash in West Va., and Nebraska; Number Increasing In Lincoln,.Neb., six banks closed their doors, with deposits totaling over $1,180,000, The amount lost in bank failures in the United States thus far this year has been over $500,000,000, and the number of bank failures during the past two months has shown @ great increase. The figure for June was 166, as against 66 last year, the figures for July and August will un- doubtedly exceed the 1930 records. The history of bank failures show that toward the close of the year bank failures increase at a steep pace. ~ ' Om RET RL ESR ING Nt BERLIN, August 18.—The police of | which proves their intensified persec- | fener Press Man ls Shot In Leg By Gunmen CALL FOR MASS TERROR | Bring Atty From La. to Defend Miners BULLETIN Associated Press dispatches re port another series of raids on the Harlan miners by deputy sheriffs and company gunmen, Six miners | were arrested including two Negro workers. The arrested are Finley Powers, Harlic Mealer, J. L. Van Hoose, William Gibbs and the two Negro workers who were not named. Powers and Mealer are now charged with having shotguns and rifles. The same charge has been placed against Gibbs. National Miners Union and Com- munist Party Uterature was also seized, This is one of the intermittent raids marking a raging terror against the Kentucky miners now organizing under the leadership of the National Miners Union and the Communist Party. HARLAN, Ky., Aug. 18.—Thirty-five Har- lan miners went on trial this morning for murder. Richard Dow- ling, of New Orleans, former \judge of the Supreme Court offered his services to the In- ternational Labor Defense to defend the Miners and he has | deen retained. Associated Press dispatches from Harlan states that in the trial against the 35 miners who are being tried on the framed up charge of shooting (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) MASS PROTEST TOMORROW AT CUBAN CONSUL Protest Murder and Jailing of Cuban Workers at Noon NEW YORK, N. Y.—Section -4- of the Communist Party and the Ma- rine Workers Industrial Union has called a mass demonstration in front of the Cuban Consulate at West St. and Battery Pl. on Thursday at 12:30 pm. to protest against the brutal Machado government. Speakers from the Communist Party and the Marine Workers In- dustrial Union will speak on the role of the Cuban Communist Party and the revolutionary trade union move- ment in the present revolutionary upheaval in Cuba. Thousands of Cuban workets have been murdered and jailed by the Ma- chado government, which is the di- rect representative of the Wall St. bankers and Cuban sugar barons, for fighting against starvation and try- ing to throw off the yoke of Yankee imperialism. ‘The workers of New York must show their solidarity with the Cuban workers who are not only fighting against Machado and Wall St., but against all bourgeois parties and for the establishment of a workers gov- ernment. All out Thursday! Protest against the murder and jailing of Cuban workers! One way to help the Soviet Union is to spread among the workers “Soviet ‘Forced Labor,’” |