The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 25, 1931, Page 4

rupl et, New ¥ Page Four hed by the © d mail all y Publishing. Co., Inc. Y. Telephe checks to the Daily Worker, dally except Sunday, New York, N. ¥. art-ov Kast “DAIWORK.” i By matt everywhere: One year, of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. - EOS RSPR erREBER oo six months, $3; Foreign: one y two months, $17 Sxeepting Boroughs $8; six months, $4.50. Textile Wades Union! HE strike Royal Weaving mili, which began June 26, 1931, is over. For reasons that must be made known to every textile worker, the Royal workers have been temporarily de- feated in their struggle against a 15 per cent wage cut on the box loom weavers and for im- provements in the bad conditions existing in the other departments of the mill. For seven weeks the workers fought a brave battle against all the forces of the mi'l owners and their government. The Pawtucket police. acting as the paid waich dogs of Joe Ott and the employers, waged a ferocious terror against the strikers. Chief of Police Hill issued his infamous “Shoot to kill” order; this order, as well as all the brutal and lawless actions of the police, was approved by Mayor Holt and by Governor Case. ‘The workers were deprived of their most ele- mentary rights. Picketing was brutally sup- pressed. Police armed with shotguns patrolled the streets sround the mill, Workers, many of whom had no connection with the strike, were arrested and beaten for walking on the side- walks. William T. Murdoch, national secretary of the National Textile Workers Union, was tak en out of the strike on framed-up charges and is still held without bail for deportation. Many other workers were arrested and threatened il- legally with deportation In spite of all this police ter the Royal workers could have won the strike had they been better organized and more firmly united in adl departments of the mill. The National Textile Workers Un: takes for this weakness in rion did not sufficiently make the other realize that if the cut on the box- tments would be tional Textile Work- s for the plain loom and other departments, not made popular enough, responsibility ion ad nothing to fight t ones to break the In the last week of loom work ained m tile Worker: The police terror Unio also during the s! been done b and b: organ t the terror zing mass action and Pol and government fer: power of the wo the Central police attack was co did mass action of thou- th the terror Fabrics mill closed. e Workers Union, the aving, and the workers ist learn the valuable les- We must know how to fi he battle against wage-cut of all oth sons of th and capitalist exploitation. We must in every mill, bringing workers tments into the union. We must m to the organization of the y ‘s and the women. Only by giving ntion to the special needs of the youth and women, who are the most exploited sections of our class, will we be able to form a solid unity of all workers for building the National Textile Workers Union and winning our struggles against the bosses. What can the workers in the Royal expect now? Joe Ott, the most vicious labor exploiter, will ex- tend the box-loom cut-down to the other depart- ments, Already the plain loom weavers have re- ceived a cut on one style of cloth. Heavier fines will be imposed on all weavers. Conditions will be made worse all over the mill. Workers in the Royal Weaving must remember how the National ‘Textile ‘Workers Union won two victories in the Royal before the strike. Last January we stopped the 10 per cent general cut which Joe Ott tried to put over at that time. Later we partially stopped a cut in mill 7 of the Royal. The new cuts now planned by Ott can be stopped the same way In all other mills of the Blackstone Valley the bosses will now be encouraged to cut wages. Un- doubtedly the employers will attempt to revive the U.T.W.—the “union” of Mr. John Powers— as part of their plans to drive out of the mills the only union that fights for the textile work- ers—the National Textile Workers Union. Against these plots of the boss class to impose starvation and slave conditions upon the work- ers, we must fight harder than ever. In every mill we must strike more effectively and more powerfully than ever against every wage-cut/ or speed-up. We can do this only through the union. In every mill there must be organized a fighting mill local of the National Textile Workers Union. To do this every militant worker must immedi- | -ately get in touch with thé NTWU Headquarters | for advice and help. This it has already started. Led by the | NTWU the workers of the Taylor silk mill in | Pawtucket have last week won their strike for | an increase in wages; th have gone back to | work with their mill committee recognized by | the boss and all workers members of the NTWU | And in a number of other Pawtucket mill: | . | | | groups of workers have joined the union duri the past week and. are preparing for action. In the Royal Weaving too our fighting unfon ght ahead with its work to organize be r the new struggles that are bound to com: | in that mill |. All workers must understand that the Gener Fabrics be given greater suppor! than ey ke can be won if we do this. Let us show. the General Fab r strikers, who have fought heroically for over three months, ou S solidarity! The National le Workers Union ence of de! tes from all ‘stone Valley. Workers in every rtly be called upon to get together r delegates. This Mill Delegates make br plans for developing le for the workers’ interests on a mass is pre- scale Workers of all’ mills! On with the Fight! Or- ganize and strike against wage cuts! Support the General Fabrics strikers! Unemployed work- ers, refuse to starve—organize to fight for un- employment relief! Demand the release of Wil- liam T. Murdoch! Demand the release of Ann Burlak, wh: out on bail under jail sentence of 30 days | | | | | | militant workers! Prepare for the Rhode Island Mill Delegates Conference which will organize greater struggles! Join Workers Union! Build your union strong! THREE, NATIONAL TEXTILE WORKERS DISTRICT EXECUTIVE BOARD, DISTRICT UNION. the National Textile | Scottsboro, Camp Hill, Elaine, and and the N. A-A.C.P. By HYMAN BARUFKIN. Bt ad Plot to Kill Alabama Sheriff,” was one of the headlines appearing in the press of the country soon after one Negro was killed, four wounded and 60 herded into jail, when a Sheriff, his deputies and armed landowners at- tacked a meeting of Negro share-croppers in Camp Hill, Alabama, on Thursday, July 16. The murderous schemes of the Alabama rul- ing class are made clear by recalling the events of Elaine, Arkansas, in 1919, During the first week of October that year the press throughout the country carried such screaming headlines as “Negroes Had Planned General Slaughter,” and “All Whites Marked for Slaughter,” etc. The 1919 headlines were so much more alarming than those about Camp Hill because the Arkansas plantation-owners hhad to cover up a more savage crime. For over 200 Negro share-croppers were murdered in Elaine. In Camp Hill one was openly killed while four have “disappeared.” Except for this difference there is great similarity in the two cases. In Camp Hill the sheriff attacked share- croppers who met in a church to discuss their grievances against plantation owners. And in Elaine “the Negroes were meeting in this church Tuesday night, as is their custom.” At the Elaine meeting about seventy share- croppers were collecting money to pay an ex- Postmaster and Assistant United States Attor- ney whom they had retained to seek a settle- ment for them in court. A “special agent” for the Missouri. Pacific Railroad and a deputy sheriff “had trouble with their car” just outside the church—and the sav- age events followed. The Arkansas share-croppers’ union had been incorporated, and “the articles of incorporation had been drawn up by Williamson and William- son, white men and ex-slave holders,” as pointed out in an article in The Nation of December 6, 1919, by Walter White, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He states further that “applicants for mem- bership had to answer such questions as: “Do you believe in God? “Do you attend church?” “will you defend this government and the Constitution at all times?” Loyalty To Bosses Did Not Prevent Massacre. Affirmative answers to those questions were required of share-croppers as a condition of ad- mitting them to membership in the union. But that did not save them from one of the bloodiest mass lynchings this country has ever known. Which proves conclusively that even “God- fearine,” “church attending,” croppers who are ready “to defend this government and the Con- stitution,” are subjected to the most brutal ter- rer when they organize to defend their eco- nomic interests against robbery and exploitation. ‘The '-nd owners, aided sheriffs, judse:, state mili( and Federal burn their i } homes, hound them like wild beasts, murder them and sentence as many as possible to life \imprisonment and legal lynching through elec- trocution—as happened in Elaine, Ark., in 1919. All of this is well known to the leaders of the N. A. A.C. P. For in his book, “The Negro Faces America,” Herbert J. Seligman, Publicity Director of the N. A. A. C. P., describes in de- tail the economic facts underlying the Elaine murders, | And Walter White, secretary of the N. A. A. | C. P. end its chief spokesman, in his book, | “Rope and Faggot,” strongly emphasizes the fact that not color of the skin but economics is the underlying cause of lynching. He points out that during the decade preceding the Civil War about 50 Negroes were lynched, which number was “well below that of white victims.” While in a single year after slavery was abol- ished 235 workers were lynched, of whom only a third were whites. When a Negro was lynched during slavery times a white master lost about five hundred dollars, while a white worker had no value to him. Whereas since slavery was abolished Negroes have no value—to capitalists —and lynching terrorizes them into accepting illegal slavery. : | Yet when the Camp Hill atrocities became | known the two outstanding spokesmen of the | N. A. A.C. P., Walter White and William Pick- ens, issued statements saying in part: “It must have been the aim of the Commu- | nist agitators to deliberately muddle the affair | and stir up trouble” (Pickens), And: | “We have feared trouble because of the man- ner in which the Communists have made bom~- bastic and empty statements in the Scottsboro case,” said Walter White. The same Mr. White who, in his article in the Nation quoted above, says: “The cause of the Phillips County (Elaine) | trouble, according to Governor Charles H. | Brough, was the circulation of what he consid- ered incendiary Negro publications like The Crisis, the official organ of the National Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Colored People.” That, Mr. White wrote in 1919, But now he borrows the very same words of Elaine’s chief lyncher and hurls them against the Commu- nists, And yet only a short time ago N. A. A.C. P. leaders advocated Communism for the Negro masses. Early in December last, Walter White addressed a conference of liberals in New York where he said: | “I believe it would be better if more Negroes | were won to membership in the Communist | Party. Then maybe the colored race would be | more feared and respected.” And now, only six months later, he severely attacks the Communists in the Camp Hill and Scottsboro cases, All that the N. A. A. C. P. want in Scottsboro fs a “fair trial in Alabama courts.” A fair trial! By BURCK “ Elaine case it took a whité jury seven minutes to return a verdict of guilty of first degree mur- der against five Negroes; that in five days twelve share-croppers were sentenced to death, and'80 ntenced to prison terms running as high as 21 years; that the charge of murder in the first degree was changed against some defendants be- cause the prosecution had no “material wit- nesses” against them, and the defendants were “allowed” (through third-degree torture by | strangling, drugs and an electric chair) to plead | guilty to‘murder in the second degree, Fight against al! attempts to deport | upon which they were sentenced to 21 years’ impris- onment—without a single’ witness appearing against them. ‘The N. A. A. C. P. leaders know these facts | and many more like them, yet all they ask for | in Seottsboro is “a fair trial.” But even that they did not begin to ask for until about a month after the boys were con- victed. Which was not unusual. It was only a continuation of their regular policy, as is evi- denced by the Elaine case, In that case 94 Negroes were put on trial on charges carrying the death penalty for some and near-life imprisonment for many of them. All were defended by a lawyer who was ap- pointed by the court. He did not consult the defendants; he did not ask for a change of venue. And at the trial he called no witnesses for the defense; in the case of five who were sentenced to death jointly the lawyer “did not ask for a severance and separate trial for each defendant, as was their right under the law”; nor did he address the jury in their behalf (just as Roddy failed to make these elementary de- mands in Scottsboro). This lawyer was appointed by the court the day before the trial, which began a month after the lynching-and rioting that precipitated it. All this time the N. A. A. C. P. stood idly by and took no‘part at all in the case. Nor did they take a hand in it for about a year after the trial and conviction, as can be seen in their official reports. In the Crisis, the official organ of the N. A. A. Cc. P., the organization réports its monthly ac- tivities, and following an annual meeting they print a report of their activities during the pre- ceding year. The December, 1919, issue contains a long article describing the Elaine events, which proves that the Association knew all about it. And in their issue of March, 1920, appears an “abridged” report made by officers to the an- nual meeting held January 5, 1920. Under the heading, “What Has the Association Done?” they list briefly their major activities since’ 1911. But Elaine is not mentioned. Further on is a heading, “What the Associa- tion is Doing.” Under this are divisions entitled “Riots,” “Lynching and Riots,” and “Legal De- fense.” But there is no mention of Elaine. And only in their issue of December, 1920, does the Association mention its being active in the Elaine case. Thus, it seems, that it took the N. A. A. C. P. about a yeat to enter the Elaine case, in which they allowed 94 men to go on trial on murder charges, to be defended by a court-appointed lawyer. In the Scottsboro case, on the other hand, the International Labor Defense (I.L.D.), took up the fight for the nine boys immediately it be- came evident that the Alabama ruling class was bent on legally murdering them. And unlike the N. A. A. C. P., the I. L. , did not rest con- tent with asking a fair trial for Negroes in a southern court, but launched a campaign which aroused a wave of indignation and protest not only throughout this country, but abroad. _ Meantime the N. A. A. C. P. continued their policy of “wetchful waiting” and inactivity, which brought down upon them a storm of cri- ticism, especially from a section of the Negro Press. As a result they felt constrained to make an effort to get into the Scottsboro case—about a month after, the boys were convicted. And instead of pointing out—as they well know—that just like in Elaine, it was economic interests that prompted the lynchers in Camp Hill, and condemning them; instead of doing that they justify the Alabama plantation-owning murderers by joining them in blaming the Camp Hill lynching on the Communists. Just like the Arkansas governor blamed ‘the Elaine atrocities When me know that in the onthe N. A. A.C. P, Why Striking Miners Forced Back to Work Will Fight By ROBERT. Ww" the miners who have gone back to work ‘come out again? Will the mines ré-strike? Are the men satisfied? These are big questions now in the mine 'strike situation. These ques- tions ‘are being answered by the miners them- selves; by the men who haye gone back to work, by the growing revolt that is and must develop among the men in the mines against the con- tinued starvation wages, ageinst dozens of in- tolerable grievances, against the U. M. W. A. that stands out yellower than ever as a com- pany union. Here are some facts that clearly point the way to continued struggle, to bigger struggle. These are reports that miners are bringing from the mines to the N. M. U. In Coverdale the companies are not only in the coal business but seem to be in the bath house business. Every miner must pay fifty cents for the questionable privilege of using the showers.” He has to pay that fifty cents whether he uses the shower or not, he has to pay that fifty cents even if it means buying less food for the family. Most of the workers emphatically are against using the showers, they're dirty, the only clean- ing done in them is an occasional washing of the floors. There are no lockers; a substitute for the lockers is a contraption of a pulley chain. You hook your clothes to the chain then pull the chain up towards the ceiling and lock it at the bottom, but most of the locks are broken so a miner might as well leave his clothes down. All you get-for the fifty cents is water, you have to bring your own soap and towels. ‘There is a reason why the company insists that the bath houses stay open and the men keep paying. It is estimated that the company collects $800 every two weeks from the miners for the bath house and that the total expenses is $350. But the boss insists that the only rea- son he wants the bath house is because he likes to see the men keep healthy and clean. “I don’t need the lousy bathhouse,” the miner says. “I can take a bath home and save fifty cents, that fifty cents I can use.” At the last meeting of the U.M.W.A. here one of the miners got up and shouted, “Close the bath house down!” But another miner went him one bet- ter, there’s more to complain about besides bath houses, he said. “Hell with closing bath house down, let's close mine down”! “Then there’s the matter of supplies—a bitter ' and important grievance. In the mine at Cov- erdale it’s not enough that a miner has to lay his own tracks for the car, he has to go search for the rails. A miner has to work fast all ‘day. You can’t ‘stop, you dare not if you want'to get the ton- nage. In order to get the coal in a miner needs the car right by him; if the. rails are short, the car is so far away that he is forced to shovel twice, sometimes three times. He has to throw the coal from where he breaks it to the car and then pick it up again and dump the coal in the car, Well, as far as the boss and the bosses’ union, the U. M. W. A. are concerned that’s something for the miner to worry about. If you ask the inside boss for supplies, for rails, or tim- ber, he says, “I haven't got it in my pocket.” “Go look for them.” , And he'll send you in some other section of the mine where he guesses there might be some. What you need might be there and then again it might not, so you go looking all over. Meanwhile time is being lost, mean- while you know every minute lost is so much less food for you and the family. If you can’t find rails then you either have to dig coal with the car many feet away or go home. If you can't find the timber you have to go home be- cause the timber is used io prop up,the roofs of the mine rooms and to work without it is certain ‘death, “Then if that isn't enough, you get into a sec-. | back-breaking job it is. | little fun with you. "tion where water is seeping in, Well, the first day you don’t mind it so much, the “Bug” dust absorbs some, but the next day you get down to find 3 or 4 inches of water. Only a man who's had to work in water knows what a miserable, ‘You get caked up, the coal gets full of water, your feet get wet, every- thing is damp and soggy, your work is slowed up. In Coverdale there’s no extra pay for work- ing in water and there are no pumps to drain it off. If you tell the inside boss about it. he has a Here you are standing in water, miserable and sick of the whole business and the boss takes the occasion to have his little joke. He says, “Go see the Mine Commit- tee!” Who is the mine committee in a U. M. W. A. mine? He knows that none exists, that’s his funny way of first rubbing in that there's no committee and to go see the superintendent. There’s a popular joke around the mine, among the miners, about the U. M. W. A. It’s so con- spicuously a company union that the miners say, “Let's elect the superintendent for chairman, the mining boss to be the mine committee and sec- tion boss for secretary and checkweighman to take all the weight!” (Of course this means a U. M. W. A. mine or pit committee—not the representative united front body which the N. M. U. proposes urlder the name of “Mine Committee.”) Checkweighman! That’s more fuel for the fire that’s going to break out and burn itself into one of the biggest strikes ever witnessed in the coal fields. A miner who has been work- ing for many years knows how many tons of coal he pulls out. He knows that a few years back when he worked'two days he mined 25 to 27 tons of coal, now with the same amount of work the company marks him up with 16 to 17. Have the standards of weight changed through the years? Don’t a pound weigh a pound any more? The U. M. W. checkweighman is a fraud, who helps the company steal. The N. M. U. de- mands a checkweighman elected from and by the miners. Now what about dead work, pulling out slate? Here's something that’s written in the union contract. It states that all dead work, slate above one foot, is to pay four cents an.inch. A miner reported the following: He had four cuts of slate, each cut, amounted to two yards, a total of 8 yards.or 288 inches which at 4 cents an inch amounts to, $11.52. This miner got $1.92, he had to work over a day to get the slate out. Many times you.get no pay at all for dead work, that’s a present to the company, they need a present, don’t they? If you're working in water then you're got to clear the slate away nine feet from the face. Work, work, work, in water, with slate, with cheating weights, with mine bosses who only jeer at your grievances; work, work, work and at the end of two weeks you get a statement that reads, “snake.” The boss finds that he doesn’t owe you anything. You owed for measly food in his company store, you owed him rent for his shanties, you owed for doctor that you hardly eyer used, you owed him for a bath house you don’t want, you owe him for insurance the boss should be paying and on top of that you owe the U. M. W. A. union dues and initiation fees for helping to keep you in these miserable conditions, ‘That's why the miners will come out again. They struck against starvation, they went back because of starvation and monstrous terror and will come cut again for the same reason. And the men who didn’t go back, the men who knew that going back meant starvation while working, are still carrying on the fight, now under new forms, building the N. M. U., preparing to re- ceive back into the N. M. U. ranks, to reinforce them for the biggest battle against the yellow U. M. W. A. and the pig-operators, the men The “Whip” Admits Unemployed Are Denied Relief ‘HE Chicago Whip, an organ of the traitorous Negro reformists who joined with the white imperialists in attacking the Negro and white workers for fighting against starvation and evic- tions, is forced to admit in its current issue that the relief so loudly promised by the city ad- ministration has not been forthcoming. The Whip admits that the Negro unemployed work- ers are still hungry and forced to sleep in the park: “Despite the many official promises and as- surances of immediate and adequate relief for the hundreds of men and women on the south side who are unemployed, broke, without food or the me-ns of obtaining it or a place to lay their heads, which came as a result of the fatal clash two weeks ago between police and radical organizers, to date no such program of relief has been put in operation, and the parks are still nightly filled with the hungry and homeless.” The article admits that while “te Governor's Commission, the Mayor’s advisory board, the charities, and various other bodies” are still try- ing to fool the unemployed with promises, “men and women, in dire need still panhandle the passersby on the streets for a dime, seek hand- outs at the back door, solicit after dark as Prostitutes, or resorting to violence, turn {oot- ‘pad, thug and burglar in a losing effort to keep themselves alive.” The article, while not openly stating it as such, admits that the bosses are trying to force the whole burden of the crisis on the shoulders of the workingclass. It says: “These homeless ones must sleep in the park, in vacant stores, in alleys, etc. if they can not find a friend or relative in better circum- stances who will take them in.” ‘The Whip excuses the failure of the bosses to furnish relief for the unemployed, saying: “The charities are over-taxed by the de- mands of the community, and must turn away many of those who are forced to swallow pride and appeal for aid.” ‘The workers of Chicago have already learned that the reformists, white and Negro, have no program of struggle against starvation, and that their function in the crisis is to try to betray the fight of the workers against starvation and evictions. The Whip further exposes this line by supporting in its present article the fake program of the South Side Council on Com- munity Welfare. It is also alarmed by the grow- ing militancy of the Negro masses and feels it necessary to warn the bosses of this condition. It says: “The same conditions of suffering and un- rest which were generally agreed to have caused the fatal riot on Dearborn Street, still maintain, growing aily more fertile as fields of further struggle... “The crowds attending the radical meetings in Washington Park continues to increase In size, and the speakers continue to belabor with undiminished vigor, the preachers, politicians and community leaders, both white and col- ored, for their failure to offer assistance to the many who stand in need of it.” The Whip also admits that: © ‘ “Despite the promise of the Bailif and the renters’ court to suspend eviction orders until adequate investigation could be made, fami- lies are still being set out without legal writs. by landlords who take the law into the hands, and hire thugs to do the work for them.” In the above statement, The Whip: deliber- ately tries to cover up the role of the bosses’ courts in issuing eviction writs. The workers of Chicago know that while it is true many landlords are throwing out workers without legal writs, this is not because the courts refuse to issue writs. Such writs are still being issued. Many landlords just don’t bother to seek these writs but proceed to evict workers without any writ. In this they are supported by the city administration and the police. But—the workers are not permitting these evictions to go unchallenged! The Whip ad- mits: “In the meantime, the Unemployed Coun- cil, the radical group, continues its activities in restoring jobless families, Between Satur- day and Tuesday, five families which were evicted were restored by these men, and though the police were called, no arrests were made and no evictions occurred, The organ- ization, at its headquarters at 331 State Street is feeding a limited number of hungry men and women upon bread and vegetables which have been contributed by bakers and grocers on the west side.” Negro and white workers of Chicago! On with the struggle against evictions and starva- tion! Demand immediate relief from the bosses and their government! Demand the payment of social insurance to the unemployed! Fight against evictions! Fight against wage cuts and the stagger plan by which the bosses are try- ing to spread misery and hunger to ever larger masses of workers! Fight against discrimina- tion and for unity of the black and white workers! -Workers! Join the Party of. Your Class} Communist Party 0.S A P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Cums munist Party. 7] s Address Pree reerr rere reer cer ieeerrrreerrirritreyy CHY ceccecseveeveree Occupation .. now in the mines in whom the fire of rebellion | .Mail this to the is rising. | Party, P. O, Box 87 . ' . aah, ' ais ae . ‘ ' ; ’ ie ; :