The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 3, 1931, Page 3

| Food Worker in VAL tHeAM, wan Doma, F Fete 800 LINE SHOPMEN IN MINNEAPOLIS MUST HIT MASS FIRING, SPEED-UP Railroadmen, Betrayed by A. F. of L., Loose Jobs Wholesale, Staggered and Speeded Jobless and Those Still Working Must Oreg- anize Against Bosses’ Attacks (By a Worker Correspondent) MINNEAPOLIS, Minn—I wish to inform the readers of the Daily Worker about the Soo Line Railroad in Minneapolis, ‘You may recall the 1922~failroad strike which was lost through the treacherous leadership of the A. F. of L. After the strike the company formed its own union composed of cheap scabs. Later the strikers were called back to work and in a year or so the foremen had many lined up \n the company union through prom- lses of jobs, etc. Fined Wholesale Then after the Wall Street crash the company cut off the Saturday working hours. Then they told the workers that they must work an hour less each day with an hours reduction in pay or lose their jobs. A little later they cut another hour off. We were working six hours a day then and on May 21, 1931 we got @ real. big bundle of Hoover's prosperity, 26 per cent of all the men in the shops were laid off. Still later, on Aug. 7, another 25 per cent were laid off and on Aug. 14 more than 30 per cent were sent home with lay- off slips. Now the company gives this small amount of men that are left over eight hours a day with plenty of speed-up. Increased Speed-up I just want to point out the ration- alization on the Soo Line. For the Past several years the company burn- ed the small wooden box cars by the thousands. These cars were re- placed with steel cars. Before when we repaired cars it took about three weeks on a car. Now it takes about three or four days. From day to day there is more speed-up being in- troduced. They have the foremen trying to compete with ane another. Must Organize There is only one thing to do. We must organize. All the men who were laid off and those still working must get into the Trade Union Unity League. When we are organized we can fight. War Vet’s Family Threatened With Eviction (By a Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—In-the “Ed- itor’s Mail Bag” of the Philadelphia Record I read a letter from an ex- serviceman, Here is what he says: “T amv an ex-serviceman, married and have two children, and have not had any work for 16 months. My little family at this moment hasn’t a mouthful to eat. “I have been trying to predict a baseball score, to try and win some money to keep my little home to- gether, but I guess I am not going to be lucky enough. “I have walked now 500 miles looking for work, but I cannot walk any longer. I have not got any shoes to walk with, “I am going to be thrown out of my home now if I don’t get some Money to pay my back rent, which is $13.” It is now clearer than ever before what the workers were fighting for in the last war and who they were fighting for. This worker sees very clearly what he was fighting for— more profits for the master class and the employers, and unemployment, misery and starvation for the work- ers This worker, however, does not re- alize how he will be able to get relief. He does not realize that by going to the Record, a paper that is the mouthpiece of the bosses, he is going to the very same people that are sad- dling these miserable conditions up- on us. What we workers must do is to come to the fighting organizations of our class, the Unemployed Coun- soils, that are affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League. These organizations are really fighting day by day against evictions and for un- employment insurance and real re- lief for the unemployed. All the jobless workers must get to these fighting organizations and demand that all war funds be turned over to relieve ¢he unemployed, Jobless Council Forces Stockton Welfare to Give Relief (By a Werker Correspondent) STOCKTON, Cal—A Mexican wo- man, with several small children, having been served with a three-day eviction notice; came to the Unem- ployed Council to see what we could do about it, We had only the day before. returned from a visit to the supervisors, where they claimed they would take care of all eviction cases. We took this woman to the super- visors to see that they keep their promise. The supervisors. told. us to go to the welfare and they would fix it up. The woman at the welfare got sar- castic and said: “It's funny you peo- ple can always get these Communists to come up with you. and get help. from us.. Why can’t you get help from your ftiends?” The woman, be- ing unable to speak English, could not reply, but one of the comrades pointed out that the welfare was paid to give relief and this relief had all come from the workers themselves because they had produced it. The friends were too hard pressed them- selves to give relief and that the Communists, being workers, were al- ways ready to fight for workers. ‘The welfare parasite finally gave an order for a ten dollar per month house. She balked when asked about an order to move the furniture, but finally agreed. ‘The fight is not over yet. The woman must have light, gas and water. It will be very difficult to get @ house capable of housing the family for $10. The house she had consisted of three 8x8 rooms, with very little ventilation. When we or- ganize more strongly we can force through unemployment insurance, but we will continue to fight all the harder for immediate relief, organ- izinig as we go and gathering more strength. . Cop Drives Off Worker Looking for Job . (By a Worker Cotrespondent.) NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Some. hot- air merchant spread around a report that the Safety Cat Heating Co. in the town-of Hamden was: going to atart off on aircraft production and business was coming back, Ispruced wp and hiked out: there, a distance of three miles. ‘When I went into the employment office the woman in charge immedi- ately picked up the wire, Before I had time to think a cop came bound- ing in. He rushed at me with his club. “Don’t be hanging he said. “Are there any prospects for a job?” I said. “None at all” said the life and limb of the law. ‘There is only one- twentieth of our force working and they are only working two days 4 week. ‘around here,” (By a Worker Correspondent) PITSBURGH, Pa—I was sent as a delegate from the Food Workers’ Industrial Union to the Workers’ In- tesnational Relief Conference which wes held here in Pittsburgh. 1 visited the coal mines and the conditions the miners undergo are something awful. In one town that I visited, a town by the name of Henderson, the miners and their fomilies had nothing else to eat all day but potatoes and black coffee. ‘The children walk around: without shoes. Many of the miners aré liv- inz in tents in the fields and many of the tents are full of holes. All the miners and their families can do is Don't worry, fellow-workers. The capitalist system is on its deathbed. All the highbrows in America cannot Bet it on its feet again. j CP eee (Editorial Note—What this fel- low worker said is true, Capital- ~ism is on its last legs. But this does not mean that we must just wait around and “not worry” until capitalism falls down and dies. Capitalism will not fall down and die unless we workers give it a good push. We must organize, build the Trade Union Unity League and the Communist Party. ‘We must fight for social insurance for the unemployed, we must fight against evictions and for higher wages. Part of our struggle to overthrow capitalism is our day to day struggles for the partial and immediate demands of the working class. Mine Fields Urges Workers to Speed Relief to hope that it does not rain. I saw one family of nine living @ tent that is not fit to keep a dog in. I was in one house in Wash- ington County where the company was turning off the gas because the miner could not earn enough money to pay the bill. I wish all the readers of the Daily Worker could see what is going on down in the mining towns. I am sure that they would take off their own clothes and send it to those fine, working-class fighters. The children of the miners sure rejoice when they get a spoonful of milk. Let's get busy and send a real good batch of relief down to these starving fighters. a International Youth’ Day Meetings . Under the leadership of the Young Communist League and the Communist Party many or- ganizations will take part in the mobilization of the youth and adults to demonstrate against bosses’ militarism and war prep- arations on Sept. 8. So far the districts have reported the meet- ings in the following places. Many of these will be with pa- rades through working-class sec- tions, All of these demonstra- tions will take place in the eve- ning. District 1—Boston, Mass. Bos- ton Commons; Providence, R. I. City Hall; Worcester, Mass.; Lynn, Mass, Peabody, Mass.; Gardner, Mass.; New Bedford, Mass.; Pawtucket, Mass.; May- nard, Mass.; Fitchburgh, Mass.; Norwood, Mass.; Lawrence, Mass.; Lowell, Mass. District 2—New York City; Pat- erson, N. J.; Passaic, N. J.; Eliza- beth, N. J.; Newark, N. J.; Perth Amboy, N. J.; Linden, N. J.; Jer- sey City, N. J. District 3—Philadelphia, Pa.; Tigo, Pa.; Trenton, N. J.; Balti- more, Md.; Washington, D. C.; Chester, Pa.; Reading, Pa.; Al- Jentown, Pa. District 4—Buffalo, N.Y., Broad- way Auditorium; Rochester, N. Y., Washington Square; Syracuse, N. Y¥., Hanover Square; Niagara, N. Y. Welch St. District 5—Pittsburgh, Pa., Hill Section; Allegheny Valley, New Kensington;.Avella, So. Burgetts- town, Pa.; Bentleyville, Mononga- hela City, Pa.; Brownsville; East Ohio, Wheeling Riverside Park; McKeesport, Versailles, Pa.; Can- onsburg, Washington, Pa.; Li- brary, Bridgeville, Pa.; Ambridge. District 6—Youngstown, Ohio, East Federal and Basin; Mans- field, Ohio, Scandinavian Hall; Massilon, Ohio, City Hall; Cleve- land, Ohio; Collinwood, Ohio, Waterloo, 156th, District 7—Detroit, Mich.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Battle Creek, Mich. District 8—Chicago, Ill, Wash- ington Park; Milwaukee, Wis.; St. Louis, Mo., City Hall; Gary, Ind.; Collinsville, -Ill.; Cicero, Ill.; Ben- ton, Ill.; Hammond, Ind.; Raciine, Wis.; Kenosha, Wis.; Granite City, IIL; Chicago Heights, Ill.; West Allis, Wis.; Rock Island, TIl.; Waukegan, ll; Indianapolis, Ind.; Indiana Harbor, Ind.; Bennile, tl. * District 9—Minneapolis, Minn.; St. Paul, Minn.; Duluth, Minn.; International Falls, Minn.; Bly, Minn.; Bemidju, Minn.; Cook, Minn.; Virginia, Minn.; New York Mill, Minn.; Superior Wis.; Owen, Wis.; Iron River, Wis.; Hancock, Mich.; Ontonagan, Mich; Iron River, Mich.; Ironwood, Mich.; Negaunee, Mich.; Soult Ste. Ma- rie, Mich, (border demonstration). District 11—Columbus, N. D.; Williston, N. D.; Belden, N. D.; Frederick, S. D. District 12—Seattle, | Portland, Ore. District 13—San Francisco, Cal., Post and Fillmore; Berkeley, Cal., University and San Pablo; Stock- | ton, Cal. Hunters Square; Los An- geles, Cal; Oakland, Cal., 7th and Peralta; Sacramento, Cal. Plaza Park. District 15—Hartford, Conn.; New Haven, Conn; Stamford, Conn; Springfield, Conn.; Bridge- port, Conn.; Plainfield, Conn.; New London, Conn. District 17—Charlotte, N. ©.; Mill Villages (2). District 17—Atlanta, Ga.; Tam- pa, Fl.; New Orleans, La.; Chat- tanooga, Tenn, District 19—Denver, Colo.; Salt Lake City, Utah. Wash.; LIVED ON AGED MOTHER; WORKER SHOOTS HIMSELF PHILADELPHIA.—William Broad- bent, 26, 4211 Parish St., killed him- elt yesterday. He had been out of work for over a year and added to this was the bitterness of seeing his aged mother go each night to do cleaning work in a downtown office building. They’ both depended on the meagre wages the mother got for this work. Workers Correspondence 1s the backbone of the revolutionary press. Build your press by writing for it about your day-to-day struggle. Abe Cahan, Socialist, Admits That COAL BOSSES CHIP IN TO BIG FUND “TO FIGHT REDS” IN FIELD (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) the township will make some ar- rangement for you.” The demands will probably be backed up by a march of parents and children from Cross Creek and Studa to the meeting of the school board, which takes place Saturday at 2 p. m, in the basement of Avella Bank. Conditions in the schools are very bad. The rooms are so overcrowded that two grades meet in one room, and in some places the children of lower grades are skipped clear over one grade to a higher one, simply because there is more space in the Toom of the higher grade. oe ie Communist Campaign Rally. AVELLA, Pa., Sept. 2—The Com- munist Party is holding a big cam- paign rally here on Sunday, Sept. 6, at 6:30 pm. at the Carnival grounds, and has onother mass cam- paign rally at Burgettstown at 5 pm. the same day. These meetings were placed late in the evening, so that miners could attend the mass conference of the International La- bor Defense and the National Min- ers’ Union in Washington, Pa., at 2 pm. Sunday. Miners who never before voted anything but the capitalist party ticket are aroused by the open strike- breaking of the whole state appara- tus. Many of them voted for Pin- chot for governor, because they were fooled by his liberal demagogy. But the hard clubs of the state troopers and the savage jail sentences rain- ing down on the arrested pickets have convinced them that this is a capitalist’s state, and that they should go along with a workers’ party in this election. They are very ready to hear the Communist explanation of things and the Communist meet- ings are well attended. The vigorous support of the miners’ strike by the Daily Worker and other Communist papers, thousands of copies of which were circulated daily through the mine strike area, has given these miners an insight into the program of Communism which they never had before. Prejudices carefully fos- tered for years by the coal operators and the United’ Mine Workers of America are being melted away in the heat of the class struggle. Local 120 of the National Miners’ Union at Avella has passed the fol- lowing resolution, which is signed by all of the members of the strike com- mittee: “The Strike Committee of Avella, Pa., Local 120 of the N. M. U., goes on record to denounce the lies of the Socialist. party,- which states that it is furnishing the striking miners with adequate relief. We see this as @ maneuver to fool us into voting for the Socialist party at this time. “The Socialist party came to the National Miners’ Union relief com- missary exactly three times in the past three months. They furnished us with 75 loaves of bread, one suit of clothing, 14 pounds of coffee, 12 cans of milk, one sack of potatoes, one box of macaroni and a bag of beans. This stuff would have been enough to feed only two families during this period of time when hun- dreds were on strike. On each article given us they pinned a label stating it came from the Socialist party. “We realize that this food is given to us, not for relief, because we would long ago have starved to death on such rations, but as a gesture be- fore elections to persuade us to vote for the Socialist candidates for office in our county, and to win us away from our real leader, the Communist Party of the U.S.A.” Hi isi. se Plan Defense Conference. WASHINGTON, Pa. Sept. 2— Word comes from Brownsville that, following a speaking trip through the mining towns of that section by Vin- cent Kemenovich, secretary of the Central Rank and File Strike Com- mittee, all locals of the N. M. U. and branches of workers’ fraternal or- Banizations are electing big delega- tions to the Defense Conference, which the N. M. U. and the Inter- national Labor Defense has called to meet heré in Millers Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 6. This conference will form a central defense commit- tee to lead the campaign to win freedom for the 71 striking miners ivy Se od AM dD f 1931 rage Three —- 44aaa indictd in Washington County courts and coming up on trial in various cases now. The conference will send @ committee to the county commis- sioners to demand the release of all striking miners, and will organize a demonstration. It will also plan the campaign to collect thousands of signatures to lists demanding release of the prisoners. Collection lists to raise money for bail for these cases and for their defense are being cir- culated. The entire strike bulletin of Sept. 2 (the strike bulletin is a mimeo graphed leaflet of some 800 words, circulated by the N. M. U. and Cen- tral Rank and File Strike Commit- tee three times a week) is devoted to rallying support for the release of the Canonsburg defendants who were convicted last week in Washington, Pa. and for the release of the rest of the miners indicated there. It brings out an interesting feature of the trial not known until today, be- cause of the drastic secrecy main- tained by the authorities during the trial and the difficulty of communi- cating with the defendants, who were practically incommunicado while waiting trial and during the trial. ‘The capitalist papers here made a great fuss over what they described as the “nervous condition” of Stella Rasefske, nineteen-year-old girl leader of the miners’ children and active relief worker, one of those convicted. Stella, so far as the re- porters for the Jabor press could ob- serve, was not particularly nervous, but the capitalist press reporters un- doubtedly thought, because of some private information given to them by the authorities, that she should be nervous. The facts as they now appear show that, indeed, she would normally be expected to be nervous, if not hy- sterical. Apparently a definite at- tempt was made by the jailers placed over her by the coal operators to either drive her out of her mind or get her killed outright. The night before she went on trial the jailers Placed an insane woman in Stella’s cell. This lunatic began by dousing Stella with biling coffee and then chased her around the cell all night, threatening to kill her. Stella's screams were disregarded by the jailers and guards, and the insane woman was not taken out until Stella went to trial the next day. But though they wouldn’t turn their hands to save Stella from the lunatic, they apparently told the capitalist press the story. oe COLLIERS, West Va., Sept. 2—A woman and a man, members of a relief collecting committee of Local 116 of the National Miners’ Union, which is on strike here, are in Weir- ton jail and were to come up for a hearing Sept. 1. They were shot at by a rich farmer, who found them coming on his land to ask for food for the starving strikers. The farmer | is not being tried, the victims of his anger are being tried, on the charge of stealing a peach. Fortunately, the shot missed them. Rebukes Democrat For No Work; Told to Vote Republican--| Will Vote Communist | NEW YORK.—Asking to sign the petition for Communist can- didates, a worker appeared at the office of the Daily Worker and told how the capitalist parties plug for one another to fool the workers, “I was unemployed and had four hungry children,” he said. “I went to the. city employment agency and asked for a job. They sent me to the democratic leaders at the Kanewah Democratic Club on 125th Street. I told them about my case and asked for work. They told me nothing doing. I told them I wouldn’t be fooled by them and wouldn't vote for them. ‘Alright,’ he said, ‘vote for the republicans.’ I told him I wouldn’t vote for any more of the robbers but that I would Communist! Henderson Is Close to MacDonald NEW YORK. — “Socialist” leaders in the United States are scrambling about in an attempt to cover up the Mac Donald open betrayal and point to the “opposition” in the British Labor Party as a real move “in the interest of the working class.” The Daily Worker was able to show yesterday by conclusive proof that Mac Donald had actually ad- vised leading members of Parliament to join the opposition of the Labor Party. Now we have Abe Cahan, ed- itor of the “socialist” Jewish Daily Forward, admit that Henderson slipped over to leadership of the op- position, not because he was opposed to cutting d on unemployment insurance or increasing the attacks against the workers, but because of his position, he had his ear closer to the rumblings of discontent among the workers, and switched over in order to help MacDonald, as well as to keep the workers from militant action. Cahan boasts of the fact that 16 Did Not Disagree But’ Feared Workers Would Act cosiaens cute cmniiendie aia atndias of the 20 labor ministers were with Mac Donald in favor of cutting un- employment insuxsace (and with them was enderson). But he points out that the mistake of Mac Donald, Snowden and Thomas was that they “obviously failed to understand how the working masses felt about the entire mater.” Realizing they must put over the cut in order to help ca- pitalism, Henderson was commis- sioned to do his share by keeping back the workers, Cahan points out that the reason Henderson was fit- ted to do this was because “he comes more in contact with the rank and file, with the masses, and he was a must be done, Henderson is for it. But Henderson knows the workers wont like it. Hence Mac Donald stays on to act openly with the rest of the capitalist representatives, but, in order to keep them serviceable for furtther emergencies, Mac Donald advises he members of Parliament to stay within the Labor Party. Hen- derson, with his ear close to the ground, hearing the growing discon- tent, sets himself at the head of it, only the better to be able to vehead it. ihe new national coalition govern- ment is losing no time in plotticg its atacks against the workers. The latest, news from London is tHat it will first o%tain a “vote of confi- des ce,” whist imeans it will corse’ - idate its ruling Lower and be ab'e to act more quickly and more ruth- nearer, more practical understand-jlessly. Out side of the fact that un- ing of the real situation and the na- ture of people. Therefore the break between them came.” A simple di- vision of socialist betrayal, The job employment insurance will be cut, and that some government emloy- es’ wages Will be slashed, no word is mentioned yet about taxation, INVESTIGATOR ADMITS FRAME- UP OF NINE BOYS (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) Defense, the organization charged by the boys and their parents with the defense, that the two girls were forced by the prosecuting officials to testify falsely against the boys: “There is no way of proving this conclusively but from the interview I had with the two girls separately several weeks after the trial, I would say that there is a strong possibility of truth in this statement. The talk with Victoria Price, particularly, con- vinced me that she was the type who welcomes attention and publicity at any price. The price in this case meant little to harm her as she has no notions of shame connected with sexual intercourse in any form and was quite unbothered in alleging that she went through such an expert!- ence as the charges against the nine Negro lads implied. Having been in direct contact from the cradle with the institution of prostitution as a side-line necessary to make the mea- ger wages of a mill worker pay the rent and buy the groceries, she has no feeling of revulsion against promiscu- ous sexual intercourse such as wo- men of easier lives might suffer. It is very much a matter of ordinary routine of life to her, known in both Huntsville and Chattanooga as a prostitute herself.” It was mainly Victoria Price's tes- timony that the Alabama bosses used in railroading the boys to the electric chair. Miss Ransdall points out the reason the bosses played up Victoria in preference to Ruby Bates and Orvil Gilley, a white youth who is supposed to have witnessed the al- leged rape of the two girls: Victoria Price Lied Most Glibly. “From all I could gather later, it seems that the opinion of the spectators and officials at the trial was that both Ruby Bates and Or- vil Gilley were no good because they could not make their testi- mony fit in with the positive iden- tification of the Negroes and the account of events as given by Vic- toria on the stand.” Victoria was preferred “because she got the point at once of what was needed to hurry the trial through so that sentence of death could be pro- nounced quickly. From my talks with Judge Hawkins, who presided at the trial, with Dr. Bridges who examined the girls, and with other officials, I believe any unbiased person would have come to the conclusion that this was the basis of their judgment of the two girls as witnesses.” Miss Ransdall stresses the rabid race hatred. which pervaded the trial of the boys: “The officials and citizens of Scottsboro and néighboring com- munities present at the trial gave unmistakable signs of violent hate, of blind, unreasoning antipathy to these young Negroes whom they had never seen before, and who had done nothing whatever to them.” Recognizes Class Issue. Miss Ransdall clearly does not agree with the contentions of the NAACP misleaders and the Southern Uiberals that there is no class issue involved in this frightful frame-up of Negro children. She says: “... One is brought up against the ugly fact that these pleasant people of the South, the Civil War notwithstanding, are still living on the enslavement of the Negro race. And this brings one to a second ugly fact, that when this is so, the subjugating race cannot afford to have any regard for decency, hon- esty, kindness or fairness in their treatment of the black race.... The thing that stands out above everything else in their minds Is that the black race must be kept down: as they put it, ‘The nigger must be kept in his place.” Re- pression, terror and torture are the means that will do it.” That it is not the entire white race in the South that benefits from the brutal oppression and exploita- tion of the Negro people is appar- ently not clear to Miss Ransdall, Cer- tainly white workers have been cor- rupted by the white ruling class, but it is also crystal clear that chauvin- istic tendencies do not arise spon- taneously within the working class, but are the results of a deliberate boss policy of poisoning the minds of white workers against the Negro peo- ple and thus accomplishing the dou- ble end of isolating the Negro masses for @ more intensive exploitation and of splitting the working class and re- tarding a united struggle against the oppressors of both the white and Negro workers. Of two of the attorneys claimed by the NAACP to be representing them in the case, Miss Ransdall says: “The NAACP ... claim credit for the presence at the trial of Stephen Roddy, Chattanooga attorney who represented himself in Scottsboro as sent by friends of the defendants in Chattanooga but refused to go on record as attorney in the case, say- ing that he had not been employed by any organization whatever.” In another section of her report, she says of Roddy that he “was undoubt- edly intimidated by the position in which he found himself. He made little more than half-hearted at- tempts to use the formalities of the law to which he was entitled... .” Milo Moody, she contemptuously dismisses as “an ancient Scottsboro lawyer, of low type and rare prac- tice.” And it was to the tender mercies of these attorneys that the NAACP wished to again deliver the boys, in spite of the vehement protests of all of the boys and their parents. POSTPONE HARLAN TRIAL 3 MONTHS; MINERS TELL OF MURDER; NEED AID (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) ped in front of the hall and blowed three blows with their horn; then asked us what time it was. We said we didn’t know. They asked a second time and Julius said, ‘Haven't got any watch.’ Julius said, ‘Are you-all waitin’ on someone?’ and Fleener said, ‘Why, what's it to you?’ Julius answered, ‘Thought maybe it might be those people that went into that house.’ “Then they blowed three times again and I heard the driver say something about somebody knowin’ the car horn. Then they backed up a little, turnin’ the car so that the lights was full on us. We turned to go in the house but that Fleener was out on the far side of the engine and said, ‘Stick your hands up and don’t start to run.’ We thought it was safer inside so kep’ agoin’; hard- ly thought he'd shoot us in the back, but he started to shootin’ and hit me in the shoulder just as my foot was on the doorstep. “I turned around. There was three or four shots more. I saw Julius fall over on the gravel. As the car left there was three or four shots at him as he lay on the ground; then @ volley of shots at the building and they went off. Jullus was shot in the back of the head. All the shells we found was 45 calibre automatic. Near’s we could judge, the driver of the car was Crip Niderford, and Law- rence Howard was on the back seat.” While other reporters were accept- ing the sheriff's story, I went to in- vestigate. As I reached the building the next mornnig, I found a crowd of women and children counting five bullet holes low in the tin walls of the hall and one hole in the door, and looking in horror at two great Pools of blood a few feet from the door. They said no other reporters had been around. “Those men been alivin’ in there with their families; they didn't have no place to go,” they said. “The Moores had two little children; the Baldwin's four was sleepin’ right in there when all this happened.” I visited Mrs. Moore, whose hus- band had been shot to death almost at her side. She’s a thin little woman with brave eyes. I found her in a shack near by. She said, “The Bald- wins was outside; I and my husband was in the doorway, I standin’ lookin’ out and he squattin’ there on the door- step, when the law said, ‘Stick_up your hands.’ Seems like there wasn’t hardly time for them to do it when Fleener began to shoot. After the first shot I got out of the way and went into the other room. I didn’t know he was hit then. I went to see about the children and never saw him until I found him lyin’ aead with the moon shinin’ on him.” The other women with Mrs. Moore told me how 18 or 20 deputies came and searched the hall, finding two single-barreled shotguns and one Winchester pump shotgun. “After it seemed like they had finished search. in’ and cursin’, one came back again,” one of the women said. “The others called, ‘Where you goin’?’ Joe, he answered, ‘Been wantin’ to plow up this soup-kitchen, and now is the time to do it.’ The others yelled, ‘We're all through searchin’ there, come on. “I plead so hard for the women and children in there; but this Joe said, ‘Damn women and children! If you got children in there, get your children out.’ He was terrible drunk; but they said, ‘Don’t do no more to those women and children;’ and they got him away.” There is no law in Kentucky against the possession of guns in houses. Miners say that the guns confiscated in the soup hall were kept there because the other kitchen, at Evarts, was glown up. aan ier NEW YORK, Sept. 2.—Joe Moore, a@ miner in Harlan, Kentucky, was | Shot in the heart and killed instantly “They blowed aagin three times like they was waitin’ on someone. | by deputy sheriff Lee Fleener, who also seriously injured Julius Baldwin, | now dying from a bullet wound in the head. Jeff Baldwin, a brother of Julius, was also shot. The three miners were standing in front of the miners’ relief station when sheriff Lee Fleener suddenly opened fire on them, The Federated Press corres- pondent, Mrs. Harvey O’Connor, re- ports that the A.P. and U-P. stories stating the miners opened fire on the sheriff, were false, and “that no reporters were around, but took their story second hand from the sheriff.” In the same report, Dr. Kaywood, head physician of the Harlan Hos- pital, is quoted to the effect that “Julius Baldwin was shot from be- hind.” The sheriff who shot the miners is still at large. The South- ern Office of the International Labor Defense immediately wired a protest to Gov. Sampson of Kentucky and to sheriff John Henry’ Blair of Har- Jan County. The miners in Harlan jail held un- der criminal syndicalist charges will be brought to trial tomorrow. The prosecuting attorney announced to- day that he will insist that Mrs. Jes- sie London Wakefield, I.L.D. organ- izer, should be tried first. Mrs. Wakefield has been in Harlan for the past two months conducting defense work and distributing relief to the Prisoners and their families. Prior to her arrest her Ford car was dyna- mited by the operators’ thugs. The I.L.D. has accepted the offer of Franklin Reynolds, a former as- sociate of Clarence Darrow, in con- ducting the legal defense of the Har- Jan cases. “The General Defense (I.W.W.) in refusing to build a mass movement fro the defense of the imprisoned miners, si disrupting and endanger- ing the lives of the 34 mén who are held on murder charges by the op- erators’ courts,” according to a state- ment issued by J. Louis Engdahl, National Secretary of the Interna- tional Labor Defense. The statement continues: “The two I.W.W. papers have been attacking the L/L./D. in their attempt to muddle the situa- tion. This skeleton of a once milit- ant organization is trying to build itself over the dead bodies of starv- ing miners. The ILD, which is milit- antly defending 95% of all labor ca- ses in the United States, was work- ing in Conjunction with the Ken- tucky miners in building a defense movement. The General Defense re- fused to coopertae in a United Front and insisted that they should have full control of the cases. In a let- ter written by Herbert Mahler, head of the General Defense, to Voight, Mahler said that the ILD defends only Communist workers and that the IWW undertakes to defend A-F. L., IWW, Socialist and Anarchist workers, whcih is a deliberate mis- representation, since the ILD hand- les practically all labor cases in the United States. Two more points must be taken in consideration. First, the miners in Harlan asked the ILD to participate in the de- fense; and sécond, a mass movement is essential behind all legal defense if the persecuted workers are to es- cape the electric chair. The General Defense ignores all mass protest. ‘The ILD will back the legal defense of the Harlan miners with a mass movement and will support workers of all organizations militantly strug- gling against the terror let loose by the coal operators.” Prepare for the Fifth Annual DAILY WORKER MORNING FREIHRIT YOUNG WORKER BAZAAR MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Saturday, Oct. 8, 9, 10, 11 17th INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY SPECIAL TRIAL OFFER Twenty-Five Cents for Two Months Subscription to the YOUNG WORKER (Published Weekly The only youth paper fighting for the every day needs of the young workers YOUNG WORKER Post Office Box 28, Station D, New York City, N. Y.