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

} | ae AL rer Tae Prize FIGHTER. KID Me OUT ON i Rane oda ae else JoB wiry (Section of the Communist International ) ‘WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Iontered as second-cl at New York, N. Y., _VYol. VII. No. 210 is matter at the Post Office inder the act of March 3, 1879 NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1931 = Price 3 Cents _ WORKERS TO DEMONSTRATE FOR MONEY LABOR DAY The Bankers Rule Tc protestations of Ramsay MacDonald, and along with him the whole capitalist press, that the bankers had “nothing to do” with the cabinet crisis in London and exerted “no pressure,” would sound more convincing if they did not protest so much. For example, MacDonald's new “Minister of Education,” Sir Donald MacLean, in a speech reported in the N. Y. Times of August 30, in “re- futing” this charge against the bankers, remarked: “There is nobody in the country who can give a more emphatic denial than I, of such suggestions, because it fell to me to be hourly © in touch with those splendid men who are shaping the destinies of the nation at this juncture through that great national institution, the Bank of England.” It is a happy commentary on the intelligence of MacDonald’s minister of “education” that, while protesting that the bankers had nothing to do with political power, they nevertheless “shape the destinies of the nation.” A similar “refutation” is seen in a London dispatch in the N. Y. Post of August 29. After scornfully denying that the U. S. Federal Reserve had anything to do with political pressure, the correspondent, aptly named Mr. “Kiddy, concedes: “Naturally the banking community is in a special position of knowing when unsound national finances are beginning to affect both the internal and external credit, and if they did not express their views strongly to whatever government is in’ power, they would be greatly to blame.” Perish the thought that these bankers have dividends from their stocks and bonds in mind! Modest, unselfish and self-sacrificing, they only want their pound of flesh and have no more. wish than Shylock to take one drop of blood! This, also, we learn from MacDonald's minister of educa- tion, who extols the bankers as follows: “They make no speeches and very few of you even know their names. They are indifferent to praise or blame, but their object is the welfare of their country.” No doubt American bankers share in these angelic qualities. No doubt it was the welfare of their country that caused numerous American bank- ers to hold a secret conference with Hoover last week, and not any frivol- ous concern lest the creeping paralysis that has stricken first the German and now the British financial structure lay its dread hands on the “im- pregnable fortress” of American finance, with consequent evaporation of the “values” which these bankers hold “securely” in pretty decimals writ- ten in ink on the paper leaves of their ledgers. But whatever may be the morals of bankers, we are convinced by MacDonald’s minister of education that the bankers rule. Help Us Nail the Lies! Send Us Reports On Suicides and Starvation of Jobless YOVER.-recently cooked up some “statistics” to “prove” that the star- vation forced upon the millions of jobless and their wives and babies was nothing at all, in fact it was excellent for their health! Upon this falsehood Hoover bases the refusal of Unemployment In- surance, or any Winter Relief to the jobless, such as the $150 demanded by the Communist Party for each jobless worker to provide for the winter. Hoover contends that “local relief” is “adequate,” and will be adequate this winter. The capitalist press is everywhere spreading this lie, and assuring the workers that “nobody will suffer.” Thus the N. Y. Times in an editorial on June 15th gave—“Assurance in advance that no one will be allowed to starve or freeze next winter for lack of work”—and on August 9th again declared :—‘“Americans are properly determined that no one in this coun- try shall be allowed to starve because he cannot find work.” Workers! Readers of the Daily Worker! Help us refute this shame- less lie! Even though the capitalist press in your localities suppresses news of most of the suicides of starving and despairing workers, and only pub- lishes an insignificant per cent of the cases of utter starvation, yet you will find these partial reports published, usually in obscure corners of your local capitalist press. Send them to the Daily Worker! Send them in from your own city! Clip them out and write on the clippings the name of the paper and the dats the item appeared. We do not want long stories written about them, just the simple clipping, from which we can make a list of the crimes of capitalism against the workers! Let us, every day, confront the liars with a list of workers they have murdered! For a jobless worker who commits suicide is murdered by capitalism! Help us present the proof of capitalist starvation of the un- employed to the jury of the working class! Arrests Continue in Alabama in Attack On Negro Masses Boss Lynchers Trying to Stiffle the Protests Against Scottsboro Outrage and Crush: Struggle Against Starvation BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 30. The Alabama boss lynchers who mass pressure to bear in their case. Another worker brought here from SOLIDARITY MEET TO PUSH MINE RELIEF “Free Imperial Valley Fighters, Harlan Miners” Held at Starlight Park WIR and ILD Take Part Together A mass demonstration for the im- mediate release of Tom Mooney, well-known labor prisoner, who has already served 15 years in St Quentin penitentiary, and all other class war prisoners will be held on Labor Day, September 7, at Starlight Park, 177th St. and West Farms Rd., at 8 o’clock. The demonstration for Mooney is being held in connection with the “Solidarity Festival” arranged by the Workers International Relief for the relief of the striking miners of Penn- sylvania, O., and West Virginia. B: arrangement with the WIR, speakers representing the International Labor (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) 5,000 MORE N. J. WORKERS FIRED MONTH OF JULY NEWARK, N. J., Aug. 31.—The New Jersey Department of Labor for July shows that lay-offs, unemployment and wage cuts continue in the state. A report of 788 factories and es- tablishments show that employment. decreased 2.3 per cent between May 15 and June 15, and total wages de- creased 3.4 per cent. About 5,000 workers lost their jobs in these 788 factories. The greater decrease in wages than employment show that either wage cuts are in force or the higher paid workers are laid off, or a combination of the two. Employment in dyeing and finish- ing textiles decreased 11 per cent and total wages 21.7 per cent. Wage Drops Thirty-one electrical machinery apparatus and supply establishments employ 1,000 workers less or 3 per cent and total wages decreased 7.8 per cent. Employment decreased 1.7 per cent in the foundry and machine shop products factories, the most impor- tant industry in the metropolitah area of Newark and Jersey City. A decided reduction in wages oc- curred in the smelting and refining concerns. The average weekly wage was reduced 6 per cent. Six hundred less workers are em- ployed in the petroleum refining, the leading industry of the state. The Election Campaign Committee of the Communist Party is exposing these conditions and urging the workers to vote Communist by vot- ing for John J. Ballam for governor. Bumper Peach Crop in Illinois Rots As Farmers Starve WEST FRANKFORT, Ill, Aug. 27, -— Thousands of bushels of peaches will be left to rot in southern Illinois, because the low price does not make it worthwhile to pick them. There is a bumper crop—but the farmers are glad to get forty and fifty cents a bushel. If you will pick them yourself, you can have them for twenty-five cents, Peach pickers get 75c to $1.25 a day—for a long, hard day's work. Seventy-five cents is the more us- ual price. At the same time, Belleville peaches which pay the farmer 50c a bushel in the field, or 75c deliv- ered in St, Louis, are sold there by the merchants for two dollars | | and two and a half a bushel! It does not pay to ship the fruit to the cities. One farmer shipped a carload and had 27c left over ex- penses. This is why carloads will rot in the fields. Meanwhile thou- sands of miners in Saline, Willi- amson, Franklin counties, will face starvation this winter — but | | they cannot touch the fruit at 25¢ a bushel. Many have not worked | fifty days in two years. i a YVolice Raid Workers’ Homes in Weapon Search (Cable By Inprecorr.) BERLIN, Aug. 31—Saturday the police conducted unprecedented raids in the working-class sections of Ber- lin, such as Buelow Square, Weld- ing, etc. The streets were cordoned by 2,000 police and many detectives. From-5 o'clock in the morning until late in the afternoon all workers’ hhousese were: searched for weapons. Only isolated revolvers, war souvenirs, ete., were found. The premises of the Workers’ International Relief and the International Labor Defense were searched and pamphlets were confiscated. BOSS PRESS PRAISES N. Y. ‘MODEL’ PLAN Plan’ 1s ” Attack On Insurance For the Unemployed Will Study Jobless Socialists Favor the Stagger Plan Governor Roosevelt's plan for un- employment relief has been hailed by the capitalist press as a model of deception to the working masses. The capitalist press hails this plan for what it is—an attempt to curb the struggle of the workers for un- employment insurance by a dema- gogic plan for the construction of public works and of charity throngh forced labor. The Journal of Com- merce, the organ of the bankers, points this out as the first important feature of the Roosevelt plan. It states that, the appropriation of the $20,000,000, $12.50 for each of the 1,600,000 jobless if they got it instead of the. grafters, is of an emergency character only. “This assistance is specifically de- clared to be supplementary and the State administrative agency will function only until such time as the Governor shall declare that the em- ergency necessitating its creation no longer exists.” ‘The capitalist press praises the Roosevelt plan..first and foremost, - ae aes lot at-the corner of Ocean and Coop- | because it is a direct step in the attempt to refuse all unemployment insurance. While the millions of jobless have been starving for over two years Roosevelt only found out {CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) Hoover Cuts Pay 10 Cents Per Hour on His Cal. Farms: Wasco, . Calif. Daily Worker: New cotton crop has ripened in California. Already bales of cotton started to move and the Hoover Farms boasted of the first ship- ment. The first. cotton sold was sold at a preminum of 5 cents over the prevailing market price. ‘We who are working on Hoover Farms have to rush almost beyond human endurance in the hot fields to pick and prepare cotton for gin- ning. At least one third more of extra work is added upon us this year, New and inexperienced hands hired receive 25 cents an hour, a cut of 10 cents per hour over last year. The old help get 30c per hour. That is for day work. Another story on piece work, Lowest Level Known It is claimed that more than $2,000,000 will be paid out in labor payrolls for harvesting the 1931 cot- ton crop in California. This shows that the wage scale is the lowest ever for harvest rate. Last year about "$3,000,000 w was expended for the sea- | son’s crop. Majority of the workers receive 50c for 100 pounds for picking seed cotton. Average pickers will do well if they pick 200-250 pounds of seed a day. You can figure the grand pay we will receive. Last year majority places paid 75¢ per hundred pounds. A cut of 33 1-3 per cent over last year. (This is real Hooverlan standard). The cotton owners not only pay low labor costs, but according to es- timates of agricultural statistics have unusually low ginning costs. We will starve on the jobs while they profit. Hoover talks of no wage reducing policy, while we are piling up more profits for him at his farms at re- duced wages and terrible speed-up. Can such a president who has such enormous incomes be considerate of labor, when he depends upon labor for more profits? ‘There is no sanitation installments for workers and the drinking water | is hot and filthy. Hoover's Cotton Plantation Slave. | Harlan, Kentucky, by the Southern | in Harlan County by coal operat- Relief Need — -@ : 3 More Also Wounded} As Sheriffs Go On Rampage Miners’ Trials Are Set) Coal Bosses Jury Still Grinds Out Frame-Ups BULLETIN The following wires were sent to- day to Governor Samson at Frank- — i | 1 OTHER DE! up adoption } | month old. t District of the International Labor | Defense: “We protest the murder of Jo- | | Deputy Sheriff Joe Fleener. We | demand cessation of cold blooded | murders and the reign of terror iG AS ON MEETING ors, thugs and deputy sheriffs. We | --— | demand the right of miners to or- ganize their union and relief for | their starving wives and children, in Elections ‘The Harlan authorities have im- | [onG BRANCH, N. J. Aug. 31. prisoned hundreds of miners for |The police of this city broke up a organizing and defending ther>- selves, but let the thugs and depu- | ty sheriffs who kill workers go free. We hold you responsible for the lives and ‘safety of the miners of Harlan County.” |Try to Stop Red Drive) Communist Party election campaign rally Saturday by using tear gas bombs to disperse the crowd of 500 workers gathered around the plat- form listening to the speakers. This meting was held on a private Two more miners in the Harlan coal area were shot dead by deputy sheriffs in the pay of coal operators, and three others were wounded, when deputies of Sheriff J H. Blair, who has freuently threatened whole- sale shootings of miners went on a rampage with intent to murder miners. The reports of these deliberate killings by company gunmen in the er Avenues, 8 P. M. Several weeks ago a meeting held at the corner of Morris and Chelsea Avenues was broken up and three workers were arrested. The chief of police and the city commissioner said that there is a city ordinance against any street meetings of any political | party in Long Branch, and therefore | the Communist Party can’t hold a street corner meeting. If the Commu- nist Party hires a private lot or a} CONTINUED ON PAGE ‘ hall they can hold there meetings | THREE) without any interference from the lice. |Knitgood Strike Is Still Going Strong) 7 call the bluff of the city offi-| | cials the’ Election Campaign Commit- | The response of the knitgoods | tee of the Communist Party hired a private lot at Cooper Avenues (where the International | Labor Defense held a meeting Thurs- day) to hold its meeting Saturday. J. Murphy was chairman of the meeting, J. Halpern, Geo R. Carroll, and James Sepesy, campaign man- ager, were the speakers at the | ing. The whole police force was pre- sent at the meeting to overawe ao terrorize the crowd of 500 workers present. Also two fire department tru were present at the meeting. The meeting proceeded in an or- derly manner until J. Sepesy was introduced to speak. Then the fire trucks started to sound its siren and blow its horn continuously, te drown out the speaker's voice. This angered the crowd and caused the workers to crowd closer to the platform into 4 solid ring. The fire trucks came also {closer on the field, nearer to the speakers stand to disrupt the meet- and Ocean workers on the picket line of the | | Vanity Knitting Mills, 140 W. 21st St. was good. The union calls upon the knitgoods workers to come every morning and during the day to help these strikers. A membership meeting of all knit- goods workers is called for Thursday, | September 3rd, 7:30 p. m. at the of- fice of the Union, 1311 West 28th Street, to take up immediate trade problems and also mobilize the mem- bership for organization activities and for the support of the Vanity strikers that are now out on the 6th week, Write to the workers in the Soviet Union. They will answer your questions concerning the Five Year Plan. Send all letters to International Letter Exchange, Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St. framed up the nine innocent Scotts- boro boys and massacred Negro crop- pers at Camp Hill are continuing their attempts to frame up some in- nocent Negro worker ni connection with the murder of two society wo- men in this city on August 4. The two women, in company with an- other, were shot while resisting a hold-up man, laleged to have been @ Negro. Several new aryests were made to- day, in addition to the scores of Ne- gro workers already arrested. Carl Montgomery, a colored worker, is be- ing “held for coroner” charges after being arrested at Eastoboga, near Anniston. The reason given for his arrest is that he arrived at Easta- boga shortly after the hold-up and has since “been in seclusion.” Another worker is being held “on suspicion” in Pineville, W. Vi. In Chicago, two Negro workers, held for extradition to Alabama “on suspi- cion” were released efter the Inter- national Labor Defense brought REMEMBE™ ! Solidarity Day for Miners Relief, Sepiember 7th, at Starlight Park! Lincoln, Ala., was released yesterday when the police found he could prove his whereabouts on August 4, Although the hold-up occurred several weeks ago, the sheriff has made a request for two bloodhounds to be used in hunting down “suspi- cious” Negro workers. The county commission is “considering” the re- quest. The commission has already authorized the employment by thé sheriff of seven additional deputies permanently. Negro and white workers! Protest the ‘boss terror and murder and frame-up of Negro workers in Ala- bama! Demand the release of the nine Scottsboro boys! Smash the frame-up charge against the Camp Hill croppers! Support the mass struggle, initiated by the Interna- tional Labor Defense and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, to free the victims of Alabama capitalism! Organize block defense committees, collect relief, rush funds to the Inter- national Labor Defense, 80 E. 11th St. New York City. Support the struggle for Negro rights! Support the demand for self-determination for the Nesro majorities of the Black Belt with confiscation of the land of the rich landowners for the white and Negro workers who till the land! ing, but unsuccessfully. The army of | police present, with the chief of pol- OTTO H. KAHN AND HIS HOLY WATER By HARRISON GEORGE Otto H. Kahn, by the grace of his millions a philanthropist scattering benefactions on the arts—and artists—has undertaken to sprinkle holy water on capitalism. He starts off by say- tion France—“in which economically, has been is the most prosperous “The economic.collapse which started in the autumn of 1929 is not traceable to the system of capitalism.” A rare and engaging absolution, were it not for the fact that where capitalism has been overthrown by the workers—in the Soviet Union —there is no “économic collapse” but on the contrary unparalleled economic advance; while simultaneously wherever on the wide earth cap- italism still holds the reins of power there is unparalleled economic decay, collapse and dis- integration. But perhaps Mr. Kahn has not heard about the Soviet Union, so we will take him on his own ground and examine his arguments, It is not capitalism which caused the crisis, he states, but rather the effort to sneak “socialistic” vices into what otherWise would be a pure and crisis- less capitalism, As “proof,” he cites England, whcese problems, he says, are “due to the capital- destzoying taxation...to provide means for the dole and other measures of socialistic com- plexion”... But, unfortunately for Mr. Kahn, who speaks with the authority of the great Wall Street firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., it can scarcely be denied that America also has some “problems” in the line of an eccnomic crisis, in spite of iar fact that it has no“? "” following: economist writes: declining industry, they they seem no longer to the State are sufficient than as an economist. cured by Secondly, Mr. Kahn anticipated our protest, and was as on that phase, rather choosing to men- had he'picked up the August 30 issue of the N. Y. Times, in which his statement was pub- lished, would have read on another page, the “Storm in France Seen as Brewing,” as a headline of a story wherein a prominent French —"It needs a great deal of in- sistence to get. Frenchmen to admit that we are a privileged nation among all others. Last year when the State was promising a plan for na-~ tional equipment and large subventions for their for an evér-weakening economic situation.” ‘We leave Mr. Kahn to chew over a “declining industry” and an “ever-weakening economic sit- uation” as the best example he has to offer of a capitalism pure and undefiled by “socialistic measures,” and turn to what he thinks is wrong and to be remedied in American capitalism. Here Mr. Kahn qualifies as a humorist rather that, although we have no “socialistic” “dole” although we do have a crisis, the crisis is to be refusing a “dole,” and in keeping a “stiff upper. lip.” Workers should not mind their babies dying before their eyes of hunger. that, is needed is “a stiff upper lip.” “anti-trust” did that ca capitalism, socially and least hampered, France today.” Yet Mr. Kahn, country.” Volstead At many and But Mr. still believed it. Now believe the resources of support in any measure | tion.” the length proportion companies His first suggestion is misses the All says the Clayton Act ee Ne ion for the last. things, be accorded “more adequate compensa- And he gives the following heart-rend- ing reasons: “Thousands of millions of dollars of railroad securities are héld for investment throughout and orphans” touching as to make one overlook entirely that the Wall Street firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., in which Mr. Kahn has invested his “small means” is the greatest holder of railroad securities in all the world! ” legislation must be “modified.” Well, use the crisis? If so, how does Kahn account for the crisis in Germany and England where they have no such legislation? over, Mr, Kahn, the Clayton Act is not a “so- cialistic measure” and was enacted by a strictly kosher capitalist government. laughter at your innocence in assuring us that —“Of course, we will not have monopoly in this More- But pardon our The third way to overcome the crisis is the ancient hokum of the A. F. of L.—‘modify the ct.” Well, they have beer in Ger- wine in Australia — and a healthy crisis in both! Kahn reserves his sweetest suggest- It is that the railroads, poor and breadth of the land, a large thereof by saving banks, insurance and other institutions, representing the investments 1% millions of men and women of small means.” How touching! So touching that one scarcely old catch-word about the “widows who own railroad stocks! So ice, McGarvey armed to the teeth, seeing that the fire trucks could not break up the meeting, lost patience, and shot two tear gas bombs among the crowd. The cops then began push- ing and poking everyone to move on, and to break up the meeting. The workers were incensed and one work- er came to the Communist head- quarters and asked for six copies of the Daily Worker to give to his friends. The break up of this meting on a private lot proves that the city of- ficials of Long Branch are trying to keep the Communist Party out of Long Branch, and off the streets of the city. The Communist Party Election Campaign Committee is going ahead arranging another meeting, steter- mined to campaign for John J. Bal- lam, candidate for governor of New Jersey and to battle for the rights to the streets for the workers, LABOR FAKER IS REWARDED CHICAGO, Ill—With great pride the Federation News, official organ of the Chicago Federation of Labor, announces that a former president of electrotypers union, Mr. Ewald Zimmerman, has become the man- ager of the local office of Fintex clothes. A good enough career per- haps for such a labor leader as Mr. Zimmerman. Boss Gunmen Kill 2 More in Harlan, Ky.; Greater | Workers ‘Int'l Relief Delegates See Need For Mine Relief |Solidarity Day Sept. 7 %4/ All Districts to Take Part in Relief Drive PITTSBURGH, Pa., Aug. 30. ~ A session lasting all forenoon of the del egates to the Workers International | Relief national conference here, end- ed this afternoon (Aug. 30) with trips to the mining towns by all del- egations from cities outside the mine trike area. The forenoon session was not at- i tendad by the delegates from the mine area, who had all gone back the night before to prepare the Sunday mass meetings, the picket lines for Monday morning, and conduct other | strike work District by district, the delegates detailed plans of organizing the W. I. R. on a permanent, dues paying basis and for mobilizing every possible re- source to. bring food and clothing and shoe and tents to the miners striking against Full plans were mead activizing union lccals and workers fraternal organizations for thg Solidarity Day, Sept.T “a day of huge mass meet- ings and mobilization for relief and organization of relief collecting ma- chinery, as well as for rallying masses in support of the strike. Then in each district there will be a Relief and Solidarity Week. of collections leading to a big tag day at the end. Preliminary distribution of leaflets and propaganda meetings will be conducted. . Bulletins will be issued by districts, assigning quotas for or- «CON' yar wer RISE IN JOBLESS SUICIDES PROVES HUNGER SPREADS |Unemployed ‘Jailed For Fishing In Cleveland What appears to be a wave of sui- cides among jobless workers, as well as an increased number of ailings of unemployed, indicating the growing misery of the out-of-work, is spread- ing throughout the country. The Dai- ly Worker has already printed dozens of cases in Detroit and elsewhere. In the course of one day the following instances were sent in by workers. In Chicago on August 30 a jobless woman killed her four-year-old son with chloroform, rather than see him die of starvation, and then jumped out of the window in an effort to kill herself and end her hunger | pangs. From the Minueajolis Journal of August 25, a worker clips the fol- lowing item: Mrs. Felia Fay and Mrs. Josephine Howard were fo'ind dead in a gas-filled room. The newsprper comments: “The copboards in the kitchen were empty of food. They were apparently destitute. Mrs. How- ard was the widow of the late Cap- tain Fred Howard of the fire depart- ment.” To save themselves from starva- tion unemployed workers in Cleve- land have been catching fish, but now a sries of raids and arrests are made on them by the police. Four unemployed were arrested in one batch and given heavy fines, which meant jail terms. One worker, Kassey, who had been without a job for ten months was given a stiff fine and when he told the judge he was hungry and could find no other way to get food was told to get the money in eight days or go to jail. STARVED MAN EATS MEAL CANTON, Ill—A hungry man en- tered the home of Clyde West, a lo- cal business and ate all the food that was prepared on the dining room table.. A purse of money in the same room was untouched. This shows that it was some starving unemployed worker who was not used to stealing anything, although the paper calls him @ thiel