The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 23, 1932, Page 1

The Tennessee Miners Are Joining the Kentucky Strike, Help Spread the Strike by Rushing Relief Funds to W.LR., 16 W. 21st St., WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Dail Central y, <Worker Orga ‘(Section of the Communist International) xh nist Party U.S.A. New York City Vol. IX, No. 20 _* atered as eccond-class matter at the Post Office at New York. N. Y., ander the act of March 3, 187? NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 23 7 1932 DITION "Price 3 Cents _ PROSECUTOR ASKS DEATH FOR 8 BOYS ‘Alabama State Tries to Rule Out Character of Girls Brodsky Stirs Court Bar Negroes, Crowd Windows, Doors MON TGOMERY, Ala., Jan. 22. — The court was jammed to- day as the Alabama Supreme Court re- sumed the hearing on the ap- peals against the Scottsboro lynch verdicts sentencing 8 innocent Negro boys to burn in the electric chair. Telegrams and resolutions pro- testing against the lynch verdicts continue to pour in from all parts of the world. Joseph Brodsky, one of the staff of International Labor Defense attorneys defending the boys, opened the second day by showing that 14-year-old Eugene ‘Williams was convicted in a court which did not have jurisdiction over him as a juvenile, thus violat- ing even the laws of the Alabama bosses. Brodsky told the court that when Judge Hawkins who presided at the “trials” at Scottsboro was told that Eugene was a juvenile he merely said, “All right,” and proceeded with the trial. Brodsky pointed out that the Alabama Jaw provides punish- ment for judges and prison officials who abuse the rights of juveniles and stated that if this law was enforced Judge Hawkins and the warden of Kilby prison would be fined. Brodsky ended his argument with a summary of the evidence and with @ plea for a new trial for the boys. State Prosecution in Fiery Speech Demands Death For Boys. Brodsky was followed by » Thomas E. Night, state prosecutor, who made a fiery speech demanding the death verdict for the boys, pounding the table, referring to the boys as “nig- gers” and denying that there is any race prejudice in Alabama, He claimed that there was no mob spirit at Scottsboro during hte trial; that the band which played outside the courthouse was only a demonstration connected with the display of some {CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) DRAGS IN RAPE CHARGE IN NEW PETERSON TRIAL State Terrorizing De- fense Witnesses BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jan. 22. — ‘The State has again put Willis Pet- erson, unemployed and tubercular Negro miner framed up for the mur- der of two society girls, on trial fol- lowing the failure of the jury to agree in the first trial. ‘To clinch the conviction this time, the State has injected the rape angle. Defense wit s who saw Peter- son on the porch of his home miles away from the scene of the crime at the time that the crime was com- mitted have accused the prosecution of attempting to intimidate them. One defense witness has suddenly changed his testimony and joined the State in its attempt to railroad Peterson to the electric chair. Despite the general conviction in Birmingham that Peterson is inno- cent the State is more determined than ever to burn him in the electric chair as a direct act of terrorism ESTABLISHED 1896—ISSUE 14,690 Sheriff Blair Who Ordered Beating of Weber and Duncan Is Ex-Baldwin-Felts Killer HARLAN, Ky.—A killer, trained in the school of the bioodiest strike breaking agency in the history of the American class struggle, John Henry Blair was carefully chosen as sher- iff of Harlan County by the coal operators, an investigation of his record by the Daily Worker in Harlan County shows. Sheriff Blair, under whose in- structions Joe Weber and Bill Dun- can were beaten mercilessly for taking a leading part in the present strike was formerly a strikebreaker for the notorious Baldwin-Felts detective agency noted for its kill- ing of miners in Ludlow, Colorado and in the West Virginia coal fields. Blair himself at times has been a coal operator, With a partner named GOVERNOR SENDS jim Green, Blair at one time operated the High Point Mine, at Ages, Ky. Before prohibition, Blair was a strikebreaker and later a big liquor agent, A brief review of the murderous deeds of the Baldwin-Felts agency, for whom Blair did many bloody tasks, will show that the present at- tacks against the miners in Ken- tucky and Tennessee, are the out- growth of the long series of at- tempts of the Rockefellers, the Mor- gans, the Fords and the Insulls to crush out the struggle of the miners against starvation. BOYD TO WHITE- WASH SHERIFF John Henry Blair learned the les- son of murder from the highest strikebreaking school in the United (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) The Knoxville N KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, TUESDAY EVE BEATEN UNCONSCIOUS, Worker Says Harlan the Harlan ‘‘law’S fear Lynch, Ky wbipping. KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—Work- ers throughout Tennessee are aroused by the vicious beating of Joe Weber and Bill Duncan, strike leaders in the Kentucky- Tennessee strike against starvation. The role of the Tennessee authori- ties is being exposed. The sheriff of Claiborne County, Tennessee coop- erated with the killers of Sheriff} Blair of Harlan Count. Adjutant General Boyd, strike- breaker, has been sent here by the After a bloody battle with the police and the eviction of a worker. had failed to break the organiza* tion of the rent strikers at 2802 Olinville Ave., Bronx, the landlord was forced to reduce the rent on 2 room apartments by $2, on 3- (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) Overflow Lenin Meets Respond to Call of Communist Party to Push Fight on Hunger, War NEW YORK.—15,000 workers packed the huge Bronx Coliseum Thursday night to honor the memory of Lenin and to pledge their support to Lenin’s Party, the Communist Party, in its organization and leadership of the revolutionary strug- gles of the toiling masses as the only way out of the increasing Tee rate, “mates uapltalism, ‘The | ® delegation from the strikers on Coliseum was packed from an early the German ships in New York har- bor, to Mrs. Montgomery, mother of hat to be turned pe jeer eae one of the Scottsboro Negro boys , Mine d and to a large delegation of Negro Naber ing Bbetians seem 4 and white mine strikers from the The meeting was marked with the | Kentucky strike area. | greatest enthusiasm. The huge crowd A tempestuous outburst of ap- of workers gave tremendous ovations (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) Japanese Rush Warships, Planes to Crush Mass Movement in Shanghai Admission that the Soviet Union is prepared to go to the Bronx Tenants Win Strike and Get Reduction in Rent room apartments by $2.50 and on four room apartments by $3. He is also returning the furniture of the | evicted family. The landlord has | recognized the House Committee. Earlier in the day police and de- tectives brutally attacked an open- air meeting of the tenants which was led by the Upper-Bronx Unemployed Council. Five workers were arrested and a number injured, Those ar- rested are the women Levine, Ogut- ovsky, Breyer, and the men Royder | and Ford. Ford, a Negro worker, was treated most brutally by the police, being blackjacked and beaten up. The hundreds of workers present defend- ed themselves militantly, beat one detective and hurled stones at the police, The marshall attempted to fool the | workers and force them to give up the strike and negotiate individually The strikers refused to deal with the | police and turned these demands | down, | It was then that the police started | to convince the tenants with their | clubs. Two riot squads with tear gas bombs were called out. The strikers barricaded themselves | in the house and refused to let the | dicks and cops in. -The police forces | were increased until they amounted | to 200, | The fighting attracted about 2,00)! workers to the meeting. | Brooklyn Rent Strike Continues In Brooklyn at 415 Williams Ave., | the striking tenants held a demon- stration on Wednesday in which about 500 workers participated, The crowd marched to the landlord's of- fice on Stone and Pitkin Aves., but | the landlord was afraid to show his | face. i The same landlord has ten more houses on Hinsdale St. Here a block limit to assure world peace “even to the point,of total land and naval disarmament” was made yesterday in the imperialist press. A dispatch from Eugene Lyons, Moscow correspondent of against thé Negro masses. Detroit Feb. 4 Demonstration lo Answer kakery ot Murphy NEW YORK.—Detroit workers are preparing a huge demonstration on Feb, 4th to answer Mayor Murphy’s attempt to stave off financial crisis by starving the jobless. Murphy’s program is now “private charity” after he was elected on a program filled with promises of adequate city relief for the {CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVED the United Press, admits that the Soviet Union is sincerely interested in supoprtij any move which will prevent war. He reports that foreign opinion in Moscow sees the Soviet delegates who are leaving for the Geneva “Disarmament Con- ference” as “amenable to any agree- ment which in their government's eyes seems ‘real’ disarmament and not merely a formula to ‘mask fur- ther armaments.’ He declares: “The unmasling of any such equivocal formulas will a’ heretofore be the secial taks of Moscow.” The dispatch further admits that (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE) committee has been formed and a strike is being prepared. The strikers | are determined not to allow any vic- tions. VETCHL ‘KA AND DANCE BY UNITED FRONT COMM. OF DRESSMAKERS. In support of the campaign in the | dress industry for better conditio> | a Veteherinka and Danc2 is belt: | given by the United Front Con‘ ence of Dressmakers, January 23rd at the Russian Club “ooms, 122 2nd Avenue, third floor. The admission for a whole night of entertainment will be 35 cents. “The labor movement will gain the peace and socialism.” Lenin, i Joe Weber, 21-year-old National Miners Union organizer, bare ivot long welts and brnises which Lower picture shows Bill Dunce ville from Appalachia, Va., where they revolutionary movement in Spain, eight towns in the Llobregat and Gardenas Valleys of Catalonia in northern Spain has raised upper hand and show the way | {the red fle ews-Sentinel [41 ENING, JANUARY 19, 1932, PRICE FIVE CENTS “ARRESTED IN TENNESSEE, | TURNED OVER TO HARLAN ‘LAW, PAIR CHARGE HERE ‘Weber and Duncan, ‘Lost’ Since Friday Night, Come To Knoxville From Virginia, Where They Say ‘Good Samaritan’ Took Them. TELL STORY OF ‘KIDNAP’ ARREST Say They Were Taken To Border By Officers, | Met By Kentuckians; Organizer Exhibits Severe Back Bruises Here. ', 27-year-old National Miners Union organizer, r-old miner of Pineville, arrived in Knox- 1d a story of being arrested in Tennes- heaten unconscious, left Jying on the nd driven to Appalachia, Va. i had been sought over 1s of Beating “Hugh Ryder, depnty sheriff of Claiborne County’... .» put handoutfs on us. He called High Sheriff Frank Riley at Taze- well, ‘foun, and Harlan. He said to the persons who answered at Harian, ‘We've got your two men.’ mithe way they talked abont what was goldg to haype ‘They said, ‘This is the end of you.” “Then several gun thugs arrived, Apperently they | “bad been gotten out of bed as they were lacing thelr high top hots... Four husky guys piled in. Bach wore # leather jacket and were two pistols.» « it Te Lgncd they stopped the car... + Another car pulled wp: 1s was filled with uniformed men, we'took to be U. 8, Steel Co, sh eS Sher made us'get ont and took off oar Randcatts 5. ‘Then the beating began. While one-man held me with pistol in hts band, the other clubbed me... Then he & me in my ribs, and thon went to work on my head." parts of three statas—Kentucky, Tennessee and Viggimia—efter gthe Kentucky District Board of the N. M. U. bad: charged they swore taken from ‘a bus at Cumberland Gap Friday night. i} Here today, Weber, a slender blonde youth, took off his |shirt and undershirt. The right half of his back was black and |blue from the neck down to the waist, His neck was swollen B | and bruised. | Dunean, the miner, showed a scar on one leg. Apparently he had not been beaten as badly aa Weber. BOYD TO PROBE == 2Seasee | MINERS? CHARGE, Eaton of the United Press, Roy Hutchens of the Associsted Press, Says Sheriff Denied He Had Report of Arrest. were infli en he was beaten uncon: » miner, Weber, just after their arrival in Knox- said a frien id put them to bed after their severe and a News-Sentinel reporter, Weber told 2 detatied st of thelr experience. It toll ; “We lett Knoxville Fridey afternoon about 6:30 ins bus, headed for Middlesboro. About halt a mile this aide of Cumber- got out te eat ate road built of I Adjutant General W. Caswett |* Boyd of Tennossce, sald here te- |Tv was then about “Fifteen minutes for Cumberland Gap, walking there, and arriving about 8:46. was closed except the Gap. Hotel and the fotel. ASK HELP FOR STARVIN G KENTU ‘ te "We louked for cotldn’t find any. At the edge. of came to a filling station and sort 16 Tuesday, NM. U, WORKERS Py SUPPORT N. MINERS Weber and Duncan, Gone Since Friday, ‘Railroaded’ Over Border, They Say. (STARTS ON PAGE _ONB) “Three men rot out of the car and one of them stuck a pisto! in our riba. 1 oon learned that he! striking miners and mingrs’ wives from Bell County who were on t jadeipbia and New York to ask. for aid for the families of striki back home in Harlan “nd Bell Counties, Tho picture was taken at th Miners’ Relief Committee shortly before y members of the > ennessee vse, This headquarters, at 506 National Bulidin g Union, In the front row, left to right, aré: Dan H. Brooks, Mrs. Maggie Lawson, Mrs, 7 ell, Anna May Wallace, Joe Lawson, and Matthew Knox Back row nur Campbell, Claude Woolum, James Wailace, N jomer [i slo. Rescue Squad, Without Gas # Masks, Brings Out Bodies, Lawson, 7) Tnited Press PARROTT, Va—Bodies of stz By men killed In an explosion deep in the Puleskt antbrai were recovered early t rescus squad which hi a Ana Th uv ~ Wine Strikers Will Tell '§ ast Of Kentucky Strife , re 8 hereby declared all acting against it will be shot immedia lr ° rety «i . | Tho districts frori Manreca icwns;. ioclaim Them oviets| se seers oer: a Bee. leiinds nat ci} Cardona, Suria and Navasares has been seized by workers and all com- munication and railroad lines con- necitng with other Catalonian cities cut. The Iberian Potash works at Sal- MADRID.—Comi on top of a mighty upsurge of the and declared the establishment of a Soviet Republic. ed everywhere declare “a republic of Soviets is was p {CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE? “NO DEATHS “OF HUNGER’, PRESS LIES |Proof That Boss Sheet Lies Given By Daily Worker |All Out February 4th! |\Suicides On Increase | As Hunger Spreads | | | | NEW YORK.—No wonder the capitalist press begins a cam- paign to make the ‘ R ‘ 12,000,000 hungry and starving unemployed believe that their conditions are not at jall bad! Feb. 4th is approach- ing with militant workers and | working class organizations in | every. industrial center in ‘the coun- try preparing to rally thousands of thousands to fight against the hun- ger program of the capitalists, locally jana federally. | The crassest piece of propaganda is | the following statement in the editorial columns of the New York “Mirror,” Jan. 16: | _ “So far as we know the economic depression hasn't caused a single death by starvation in these United States and there is no likelihood anyone will be permitted to suffer hunger.” Nearly every page of the capitalist newspapers, carefully guarded against. stories of starvation, shriek the answer to this lie. Senator Carraway declaretl in the Senate last year, and was never contradicted, that at least 1,000 people starve to death in the United States every day. Conditions are worse today. Below, culled from the capitalist press and from special reports to the Daily Worker, we give but a tiny part of the day's news of the hunger, starvation, suicide of the F | unemployed. mY ere KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Unemployed and starving, Willlam E. Brant, 25, took $2 from a cash register to buy himself some food, was arrested and given a 10-year jail sentence by Judge Thomas J.-Seehorn, When Brant stole the money he told the proprietor of the store who had $11 in the register. “I am only taking $20f this money. I haven't had anything to eat for several days and all I want is enough to buy a meal.” * ST. LOUIS, Mo.—Alexander Bick- hammer, unemployed, died of star- vation here on Jan. 18 at the Muni- cipal Lodging honse, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat declared in its issue of Jan. 19. “Extreme malnutrition,” was given as the cause of death at the city hospital, ee Hunger Is Widespread OLYMPIA, Wash.—Acute destitu- ‘tion, families w it food for days, children buddling together like pup- | pies to keep warm was revealed when the “relief committee made a report | about conditions in Thurston County, | Washington. | The committee reported.that there {are 600 families that are without } food, some cases for weeks. Children huddled together rm in homes es to keep where there was no a stove and bunks, Wore str:.med® @xpressions ” the ave Workers report that the committee jis deliberately understimating the | Sopesiing conditions of the unem- | ployed workers and their families in |this county, that there is twice six hundred in dire need. Evicted fam- | lies are leoking for'ghelter in old |skanconred barns and sheds. But the lords are driving “the workers even from these mise¥able refuges. In one ease a worker and his family was evicted from an old shed which |had only three walls, | The relief being given by the Re- lief Commiitee hardly. geratches the | surface, distributing aesording to eheir own own statement $700 a week for 600 families they. were forced to cmit that “it was x needs of the destitute amilies ia county (were! not being that there were homes where dren wore always hungry. Unemployment is’ thereasing, the lumber mills in the district prac- tically closed down, the ‘committee forecasts a stop to the entirely in- adequate relief they are giving now in a statement that funds are dim- inishing.