The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 21, 1931, Page 4

Published by the Comprodally Publishing Co., Inc., datly except Sunday, at 50 Best SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Page Four 3th Street, New York ( N. ¥. Telephone Algo 71-7956. Cable: “DAIWORK” ail By mai: everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1;.excepting Boroughs Ghdteas And AI’ to the Daily Worker, st 15th Street, New York, N. ¥. ot Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. bod: ee een oa f TE NE IE H ARLAD N MINERS DEF Y JIMMY RETURNS WITH MACDONALD'S GIFT a ; L OPERATORS’ THE COAL OPER: TERROR s Busting Tradition it ES ri Shocking, amazing, stupefying, paralysing! rvation. miners the Cour <y., from joining In other a smell min- ‘Some of these m nearby peni- hard-boiled thugs They are trained by an the use of ma- n they drive down r cars into miner: down upon miners their families, tear woop them and to pieces, Their special target One soup kitchen has been miners operating one kitchen dered in cold blood, both shot of the kitchen by deputies ard to believe how rigidly this terror every protest and effort of the nize. When an investigator or comes to town, he stay out. At first you just joking. Then they begin to y shoot straight. The jailer told as you are a member of your or- ion and in Kentucky, you'll be in jail. e, we're going to put every member nization we can find in jail.’ I told blown up. have been dow at ence to clear out ates. He answered: ‘Well, I’m the t ain’t legal in Kentucky.’ n Henry Blair is a big flabby man sneer on his face. When I was ssed by him, he sneered: ‘Well, o give me some of that soup out of tchen?’ That night the soup kitchen to splinters by dynamite. I never e feeling all the while I was in jail, beans and cabbage, that the sheriff, The American Legion Conterence to Fight Unemployment Reliet By FRANK E. O'BRIEN 'HE Legion's on Parade.” This is not the first. time that the American Legion has paraded itself as the enemy of the working class, but now its hostility becomes more open, more pro- nounced. T! week the American Legion is launching a fight against the payment of un- employment insurance to thé millions of starving and hungry workers. To be sure, the Legion terms its Washington conference a Parley”. Capitalist politicians, farmer-labor dem- agogues, bankers and a whole galaxy of para- sites are to meet with American Legion heads to-map out a campaign of strategy to be used against woskers fighting for the right to live. ‘The “war plans” when completed will be dis- patched to some 10,000 commanders of Legion posts scattered throughout the country and or- dered carried into execution, ‘The real fascist: c ter of the conference is best illustrated by a statement issued by Ralph T. O'Neill, national commander of the Legion. O'Neill says, in part. “The unemployment situation presents an emergency comparable to that. of 1917, and our membership will function again as it did in 1917—the gangster and the racketeer are look- fig for recruits and their seductive whisperings will be poured into the ears of hungry men. Unrest and fear are abroad in the land and the ranks of the unemployed are fertile fields for the fallacies of Communism. Lawlessness and Communism are a more direct threat at the intesrity of the government which we are pledged to maintain than was the threat of antocracy in 1917.” Commander O'Neill has doubts that a cure for unemployment can be found under the present Capitalist system, but intends to employ every means at hig disposal to force the workers to endure their erings under the existing social order. O'N ates, “We want to be of assistance not only in re- Ueving the immediate distress incident to the present depression, but hope to find the cause and the cure, if there be one, and to inaugu- rate a campaign that will help to furnish some permanent relief.” The American Legion’s conference cannot and will not remedy the present economic crisis. This par! as I have stated previously, does not hhaye that as its real purpose. The American Legion stands out today, more clearly than ever before, as an arch-enemy of militant workers ~Tueggling for unemployment insurance and im- Mediate relief for themselves and their fami- lies. The on! lution that the Legion will find for the unemployment situation will be street corner apple selling and odd jobs about the pala- tial mansions of the idle rich. the pen of! William K. Hutch- News Service Siaff Corre- “AN controversial issues have been banned by Legion officials in charge of the conference. This was taken to mean that such subjects as the soldiers bonus and proposed increases and extensions of the world war pension act wi!l be tabooed.”" é 4 jm s told | | nowhere near the shooting. e I. L. D. was legal everywhere in the | sheriff are out to get the leaders, of course. | “Jobless | di 2, and the courts were working hand the very new outrage against min after another, the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. union leaders have sold the miners out. Ike Lane, who organized the I. W. W. locals, w ased and vanished after he told the sheriff where to find his charters and a list of members in his unions When Ike Lane was being taken downstairs to the judge’s office, Mrs. Wakefield asked the jailer, Leslie Ball, “Is Ike Lane going to get out?” Ball answered: “He'll get out if he turns over his I. W. W. charter,” and the other stuff he has. Although Lane was taken back to jail, that ht the deputies went directly to the place of of the I. W. W. membership lists, ete. They were buried clear under his house, nd had been entirely safe during three previous Immediately after securing the lists, the price was paid: Lane was released and the sheriff im- tely announced that he would get out war- ts for the 200 names on the list. “Mention the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica and the Harlan miners spit. But they are desperately eager to join the National Miners’ Union, for they see these leaders facing death ev y and they have confidence that this time they won't be sold out. “Little by little, by underground methods and stealth, they are defeating the gangster terror of the coal opt or hey find ways of dodg- ing the road patrols so that tey can get to meetings. Sometimes a few carloads of thugs show up, but when they see these grim miners in a mass, they turn and chug away as fast as they can go. The miners are determined to fight. They know they can get no justice from the courts. The deputy who murdered the soup kitchen operators in cold blood was released im- mediately on $5,000 bail. Union men falsely charged with murder have all been held all the hot summer without bail. | “Let a miner be caught reading the Southern Worker and he is flung in a cell without hope of release. When one of the most vicious gun- men, Jim Daniels, was slain in an open battle on.a highway, 47 miners were indicted, though most of them have proved alibis that they were The judge and the In this way, they hope to cripple the organization. “I don’t believe they will succeed. But we are desperately in need of money to defend the miners still in jail and to feed their starving families. Me? Oh, I'm going back to Kentucky soon. No sheriff can tell me to stay out. Hon- est, once you see those people and what a grand fight they are putting up and how they suffer, you just have to go back.” This is Jessie Wakefield's story. ra. ‘That the order has already gone out from the White House to officials of the Legion to “kill” the demand for full cash payment of the bal- ance of the soldiers bonus is quite evident when one hears what one of the chief spokesmen for President. Hoover has to say on the. subject. Emerging from a call he had paid on the “Chief Engineer” a few days ago, Senator David A. Reed (R.), Pennsylvania, said, “It is up to the veterans to decide which war we are going to pay for—the last one or the next one.” Then Senator David A Reed pro- ceeds to admit that a war looms in the offing by saying, “If the veterans refrain from asking any more money from the Treasury it would seem reasonable that we could go ahead and start building the navy to treaty strength. If they make further demands they will bé de- feating the very thing—a strong navy—which we have been advocating.” The senator shows his contempt for rank and file veterans by re- marking, “It was great (paying the bonus) for the second-hand car business and the booties trade.” The worker-exservice man wiil fight for un- employment insurance and immediate relief in spite of the attempt of the American Legion officiaidom to betray him to capitalism. The soldier, sailor and marine will fight shoulder to shoulder with the workers when the class con- flict takes place. Already hundreds of former service men throughout the country are joining the only veterans’ organization worthy of con- sideration—the Workers Exservice Men's League. The Workers Ex-service Men's League raises the demand for full cash payment of the soldiers’ bonus immediately. It fights for the pacsaze ot the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill, which would grant the unemployed worker $15 per week, with two dollars additional for each pendent. and for immediate relief for the job- ] and their families. The Workers Exservice Men's League fights against imperialist wars and for the defense of the Soviet Union. It wel- comes to its ranks all those former service men who believe in the class struggle It has branches in all of the larger cities in the United States. An office is being established in Chicago which will cover the entire Chicago district, as well as Milwaukee, Wis.; St. Louis, Mo.; Indianapolis, Ind., and the Southern Ili- nois mining fields. Workers who served in any military service, United States or with a foreign army, and who desire to apply for membership in the Workers Exservice Men's League may do so by addressing, Workers vice Men’s League, 23 South Lincoln St., Chicago, Tll.; or National Office, 79 E. 10th St.-New York, N. Y. FIGHT STEADILY FOR RELIES! | Organize Unempioyed Councils to Fight for Unemployment Relief. Organize the Unions. Mobilize the Employed anJ Unemployed for Common Strug- | gies Under the Leadership of the Trade Union Unity League | the | “can’t you read? Read the Plenum Reports | Resolutions in “The Communist” The October issue of The Communist contain- ing valuable material for the study of the deci- sions of the recent Plenum of the Central Com- mittee will appear in a few days. The following articles on the Plenum will appear: The XI Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Comintern Extracts from report to the 13th Plenum of the C. C., C. P,, U.S.A. By William W. Weinstone To the Masses—To the Shops! Organize the Masses! Extracts from the Report of the Political Bu- reau to the C. C. Plenum. By Earl Browder Tasks in the Struggle Against Hunger, Repres- sion and War. Resolution of the 13th Plenum, Central Com- mittee on the Main Tasks in the Organization of Mass Struggles Against the Offensive of the Capitalists. Resolution on Work Among the Unemployed. Adopted by the 13th Plenum, Central Com- mittee, C. P., U.S. A Besides these articles this issue contains an excellent article by Comrade A, Landy, entitled Cultural Compulsives or Calverton’s New Cari- cature of Morxism. No Pa: member or revolutionary worker should fail to read this issue of The Communist. Order from your literature agent or send direct to The Communist’ P. O. Box 148, Station D, New York City. ‘Buy Tomatoes for the Needy”, Says Mayor Murphy * By JOHN SCHMIES. The following is a quotation from the capi- talist newspapers, boosting Murphy for City «Mayor: “Enough tomatoes to make 10,000 quarts of canned goods were purchased at the Eastern Market by Edward Fronsdorf and Ben E. Jacob, acting for the Food Committee of the Mayor’s Unemployment Committee. This was the first step to provide needy Detroit fami- lies with some of their food during the winter.” IN DETROIT, we have an unemployed army of over 200,000. This of course, does not in- clude all the dependents of this army of unem- ployed. We have a still larger army of work- ers who are working only part time. Misery and Starvation is growing rapidly in Detroit. Among many families actual hunger is the order of the day. Thousands of families are being evicted, thousands of workers are losing their homes. The public schools were closed for 2 weeks longer due to infantile paralysis Which develops due to the lack of proper nourishment and over- crowded housing among large sections of the population. leading doctors in the city, including doctors in charge of the City Health Department. If one compares this frightful situation devel- oping among the masses and then reads in the papers that the canning of 10,000 quarts of to- matoes is to relieve these conditions, one can This fact is even admitted by the’ “Reliet” According to the Y By A.B. McKENZIE. HE o‘her morning an unemployed worker was walking down the Bowery when he noticed the sandwich man of the “Y” walking in front of him. He read the sign advertising the “Un- employed Relief” restaurant, and decided to see if they, would help him. He applied at the desk and was told to see a Mr. McMenamin, who is the interviewer of all applicants for aid. As the worker entered this man’s office he was greeted as follows: “What's your name? Where do you live? You say you live in Pennsylvania? Why did you come to N. Y.? Because you are broke? Is that any reason why N. Y. should have to support you? Don’t you think we have’ enough to support here with over eight hundred thou- sand unemployed? Well, it isn’t our fault that. a firm had you come here to work and then didn’t hire you. You should have mede them sign a contract before you came here. How old are you? How much education have you had? Married? Divorced, eh? Why? All right, re- port at the desk and the man out there will give you your mea! checks for lunch, and then you will see Mr. Whitehead in the other office. Your number will be 21.” While waiting for Mr. Whitehead the worker noticed a sign on the bulletin board advertising a number of jobs to be filled. Here is a par- tial list of them: Collection Correspondent, Asst. Engineer and Fireman, Duco Sprayer, Auto Mechanic, Li- censed Engineer, Sales Manager, Stenographer. Private Secretary. The wages ranged from $75 per month to $50 per week. Being an experienced correspondent and sales manager, this worker, when he finally got in to see Mr. Whitehead, who, by the way, was a short well fed looking individual, asked about these jobs. Mr. Whitehead looked very much surprised and said, “Why, we haven't had any jebs in here. with the exception of a one day, pert time job. for over six months, and as for as I can see there won't be any.” The worker asked him what the “Y” meant by the sign on bulletin board advertising these jcbs. What's the matter with you,” asked Whitehead, On the bottom of that sign it tells you that theses jobs are for people who have education enough to fill the requirements, and that we are starting a night school at which you can get the proper training in order that you can hold these jobs. We only used these jobs as an example of (he kind you could get if you had the training. The best thing a work- er can*do these days,” says Whitehead, “is to trust in god and be careful of his company.” “What do you mean by that statement,” asked the worker. “Why, I mean he should stay away from the Reds and other radicals that are trying to undermine our government. If a man will do this he will come out on top even- tually, in spite of the depression.” “You will take these three tickets downstairs and get yourself something to eat. Then at five o'clock you will report at the desk and get as- signed to your bed. At eight-fifteen you will report for your medical examination. Tomor- row morning you will come back here and I will give you five hours’ work around the building. If, after you have been here a few days, you should get a job you will pay the ‘Y’ for your bed and food at the rate of 82 cents a day. You will not be allowed to move your clothes until the full amount has been paid. This bill starts today and comes out of your first week's pay. So the quicker you get yourself a job the less you will have to pay.” “But I thought I was paying for my board and bed by working these five hours a day,” said the worker. “These are the rules of the house. If you went to accept them, O. K., if not, don’t ever expect any help from us again.” Having no other alternative the worker asked where. the dining reom wes and was told to go downstairs and turn to the left and he would find it. Doing this, he found himself in a nice large, well lighted dining room, However, he had no more than stepped into this place than he was told that this was the dining room for people who could afford to pay for the food they got, and thet he would have to go into the next room. When he got into the next room h? saw an altozether different picture. The room wes dark, the tables dirty, and the food was leid out on the counter where it was ex- posed to the dirt and flies. Being half starved he bought a bowl of dirty soup and a bow! of some stuff the counterman called coffee. He was given a couple of slices of bread to go with the soup. The “food” was so dirty and taste- less that he could hardly keep it in his stomach. Fellow workers, this is the kind of unemployed not help but see the starvation program of Mr. Murphy, which he so faithfully forces upon the shoulders of the working class and their chil- dren. In the quotation above you will note that it says “this was the first step to provide needy families with some of their food for the coming winter.” What does this mean? This proves very conclusively that the charges made by our movement against the present city administra- tion were and are correct. We charge that over 25,000 families were stricken off the welfare list, that the welfare support was completely stopped and that thousands of workers were left: to starve, and it is cnly now during the pre- sent election campaign that Mayor Murphy once more comes out with his demagogy and with his methods of fooling and misleading the workers, It is true that it is impossible for Murphy, who is such a faithful servant of Henry Ford, Dodge-Chrysler and the Wall Street bankers to make similar promises which he had made in the city election campaign a year ago. He is convinced that he stands exposed before a large section of the Detroit population. He is con- vinced that the very misery of the masses is a living monument against the faké promises 21 demagogy which he, so skilfully put across dur- ing the last campaign. Knowing this, he is util- izing similar methods but in a different form during the present election campaign. One of these methods is the canning of 10,000 quarts of tomatoes. What a joke! But it is more ser- ious than that. This present scheme of Mayor Murphy's Unemployed Committee is nothing else but an actual racket of the present City Hall officials. It is interesting to know that the other candidates for Mayor, such as Nagel, Em- mons and Hanna are endorsing the very same methods and advancing a similar program. Only ‘the candidates endorsed by the Com- munist Patty, the Auto Workers Union, and the Unemployed Council, and other militant workers’ ofganizations are honest and sincere in exposing the starvation program of the ca- pitalist candidates and at the same time make @ determined fight for the necessary things of life, duch as sufficient milks for starving children, the number of which is increasing daily, but yet we find that the big creameries are dump- ing milk into the river than than supplying the needy. Only W> workers’ “candidates are fighting for cash relief, which will make it possible for the workers themselves to purchase the necessary things of life and would make it impossible for grafters and racketeers to swell up their pocket- books at the expense of the. working masses. Knowing the above outlined conditions which are only a very small part of the actual! situation under which the workers are compelled to live we must seriously drive home to every working class family that a vote for the workers’ candi- dates is a vote against hunger, against the star- vation program, against the increased system of wage cuts and the speed-up—a vote for the workers’ candidates is a demand for milk for our children: is a demand for cash relief for all unemployed: is a dem2nd for better living condition of employed and unemployed: is a demand for better living conditions of employed and unemployed workers, All workers, employed and unemployed, must rally to their class program and vote for the following candidates:— John Schmeis for Mayor William Nowel, Joseph Billups, Nellie Belanas, Antonio Gerlach—For Councilmen, relief the botses are “giving” the workers who have made them rich by “trusting in god and staying away from those Reds that are trying to undermine our government.” Workers of the world, unite! Overthrow this rotten system of which the “Y” is such a good lackey. Form a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government. Join the Communist Party and the Unemployed Councils of the T. U. U. Ly And what’s worse still, it violates “tradition”! Listen at this patriotic horse-radish, taken from the news: “In the wardrooms and flag-officers’ quar- ters an atmosphere of consummate grief is ap- parent while an attitude of humiliation is keenly felt because of the unprecedented blow which has been struck at the prestige of the traditions of Britain’s glorious elder service.” Well, if the “blow” had no “precedent”, fu- ture “blows” surely have one now! And all the blooming “grief-stricken” admirals and impe- rialists, headed by Sir Austen Chamberlain, can just go ahead and cry gobs of tears. And with good reason; a British High Sea Fleet which goes on strike costs untold hundreds of millions of dollars, but isn’t worth a farthing to bombard Bolshevik coastal cities. The capi- talists can’t depend on it. No wonder the N. Y. Post opens its editorial by saying: “Almost ev- erything has been turned upside down since 1914.” Only it meant—since 1917, and Novem~ ber 7 of that year. Let no one get the idea that mutiny in the British Fleet is a happy event for American im- perialism, just because the two imperialisms are preparing for war against each other. Mutiny is a highly infectious disease. More, capitalist war depends upon the “enemy” acting “regular” and not “violating traditions” by, say—wig-wag- ging the American jackies the question: “What are you Yanks fighting us for? For the foreclosures on your Dad’s farms, for the Unemployment Relief your brothers are not get- ting, for wage cuts given your sisters, or what? Please explain, because we're not fighting for wage cuts.” No Tin Cups, You Vets! Major General Harbord has given the Amer- ican Legion orders that its members should be- ware of demanding the balance of their “tomb- stone bonus” in cash. That, says the Major Gen- eral, is “holding out a tincup.” We'll bet our left eyé that 99 per cent of the veterans haven’t much use for Major Gen- erals anyhow, but let them listen to this, which was published in the N. Y. Journal, September 14; the day before Harbord got horrified over “tineups”: “Legion Can Use Any Discards”—said the headline. Then the story began: “The Kings County American Legion through its welfare committee has issued a e2ll to all persons who contemplate moving this season net to throw away any old furniture, clothing for men, wo- imen or children or any other material that can be used this winter to aid veterans and their famiiies who may find themselves in want. Funds of the committee have been ex- hausted by the tremendous demands fer as- sistance made on the committee, but a large part of this demand can be filled by utiliza~ tion of waste material of every description.” Now, veterans, isn’t that perfectly lovely! Waste material! Evidently the Major Ceneral is against tin cups because you can't collect a busted rocking chair in it, or any other “waste matter.” So, lay to, you “heroes” (of 1917-18) and stand by to take on garbage for yourselves and families. The Major Geneval probably in- tended to add that, rather than tin cups, gar- bage cans are better. But if you vets want to know what the Major General was really and honest-to-god worried about just pipe this news item of a gent who doesn’t need a tin cup “Covington, Va., Sept. 15 (Associated Press) —The mzrrizge on April 18 cf George Hunt- ington Hartford, heir to the $209,909,009 Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company fortune, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Epling of Welch, W. Va. has been disclosed iy records here.” It seems that ins mg blood has a mother who. hired a ceriain dame called Miss, Mildred King “to divert the son's attention from an un- named New York woman in whom he was in- terested, to’ some one more suitable to the mother,”—or so says Mildred King in a suit to collect; $100,000 from the mother for the “di- verting” job, The item adds o “Hartford is a sophomore at Harvard, where he.has considerable reputation aS a squash racquets player.” Now. vets, THAT is what you fought for! And the prize squash racquets player with 200,000,- 000 smackers must NOT be approached with high taxes to pay your cash bonus or furnish you unemployment insurance. And THAT, vets, is what Major Genera] Harbord calls “tin curs.” The moral of this story is that you vets sould line. up. with the Workers Ex-sevice ien’s League, 79 E. 10th St., New York City, for the cash bonus and unemployment insurance. Paste This In Your Hat The N. Y. Times of Sept. 16, by way of pre- paring for the “Disarmament” conference at Geneva next year, and in order to put a pléas- ant face on the huge expenditures American capitalism is making for war, gave us the fol- lowing: “Money costs in the United States are so much higher than elsewhere that inevitably we should appear as the most militaristic of all the na- tions.” So, money costs hére are higher, eh? But the Times “forgets” all about that, when it tries to tell American workers hsv “much better off” they are than workers in the Soviet Union, and they “prove” it by comparing the money wages of the Soviet workers in roubles to American dollars, at two roubles per dollar. Yes, money costs are higher here on every- thing, which makes all such comparisons falss. Look on page three of the Daily Worker of Sept. 19, and see there a letter from an Ame:i- can worker in the Soviet Union, where he tells how he is going on a vacation, taking a ten day train ride for 75 roubles. That's about $37.50 U. S. money. But tell us, where will you ride ten days on trains in this country for that ptice? Yes, and where do you get vacations to have the time to take such trips?