The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 5, 1932, Page 3

Police, Firemen, KKK Fail to Stifle Demands of Illinois Unemployed Masses of Citizens Rally In Support of De- mands of Unemployed Council Jobless March from Bloomington to Normal | Singing Revolutionary Songs EDITORIAL NOTE:—This story gives a good picture of how the struggle for unemployment insurance is developing in the mid- western cities, It was written by ® worker who participated in the march from Bloomington to Normal, which ended in a police attack and the rallying of masses of workers to the Unemployed Council. We | publish the story with a minimum of editorial changes, (By a Worker Correspondent) | BLOOMINGTON, Ill—The ington, Iil., had scheduled a parade with banners protesting against the holding of the Scottsboro boys, and for the release | of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings and for the death penalty | for the murderer of Harry Simms in Kentucky, repeal of the | Criminal Syndicalist Law, and a general demonstration for | freedom of speech and assemblage as guaranteed under the | American Constitution. The recognized leaders here of the Council, the rank and file of which are becoming more and more Communist daily, | is C. H. Mayer. Comrade“Mayer’ had «— - asked the authorities of Normal for permission to have the parade also routed through Normal, where speeches upon the outrages of capi- talism would be made, and advice given as to what the people must do to extricate themselves from the pre- sent dilemma and form a new and decent system of human society. A week before the beginnings of | an Unemployed Council at Normal had been stopped by the police and “hang-over” Klu-Klux-Klan residents of Normal; the latter town having at one time been the strongest K.K.K. center, per capita, in Illinois. It is a college town of some 6000 of popula- tion, and the City Fathers are parti- cularly “scared” of oncoming Com- munism. Bloomington, on the other hand, has shown a far more tolerant attitude toward the inevitable chan- ges obviously before all of humanity in the western world, and takes no drastic action against the meetings and demonstration-parades of the membership of the local Unemployed Council The afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 24, was somewhat cold, but bright with sunlight. At 2 p.m. the parade of some 200 of the jobless started from the Council Hall northward a few blocks to the City Hall Square in Blooming- ton, where speeches were made by Comrade Mayer, Chas. A Severance of Monticello, Il, and Organizer Bricker from Decatur, 40 miles to the south. Comrade Bricker had come with a dozen others of the Council at Decatur, with the express purpose of going with the parade into Normal despite the lack of permission therefor. The speeches at the City Hall Square caused others to join the march toward Normal; and about 250 comrades sang songs of revolution as they walked the two miles and a half further northward into Normal. The American flag was at the head of the parade, and two women comrades marched beside the flag-carrier with banners bearing slogans as the de- ~moustratfom parade approached the Jivision line between the two cities. Ai that point a police officer, Bill Craig, put out his hands to stop the head of the parade; but the women cried out to those following: “We are going right on through!” Police squad-cars there made no moves as the march passed them into Normal, and the marchers continued to sing their way to the center of the town. To the east they went through the business district to the end of the principal street, the:r turned and retraced their steps past the Normal City Hall, calling out to the workers on the sidewalks to join them in the march to where the speeches were to be made nearby. A block to the west was an open space at the railroad freight station, into which the marchers gathered, off the street and put out of the way of traffic. The speakers mounted the treight-loading platform, and one of the comrades began to announce the purposes of the demonstration. Com- vade Bricker was told by police and fire chief Oooper that the crowd must leave, that this was private property; and upon hearing this comrade Mayer quietly called all fol- lowers from there, proceeding a block further west to the First National Bank. corner. The leader then asked for a box to stand on, around the corner to the north out of the way of traffie. Meantime an American Legion mem- ber, also chairman in charge of Civic Relief at Normal, had been heard to instruct the Fire Chief to blow the siren and bring out the apparatus, Call Fire Department. As comrade Meyer had announced that no violence was wanted, but that insistence upon the right of freedom of speech and assemblage would be held out for, the fire-truck arrived. Tt was pulled around the corner (per- haps this is “the Hoover corner?”) and the hose taken from the rear end. At once comrade Bricker and others called out “Get that hose!” and in a moment more the marchers had it pulled across the street away from the water plug. Here the hose was woupd around the axel of an automobile of a spec- tator who was asked to back away with it. This made the fire depart- Unemployed Council of Bloom- | corner @ block further west. A few of | the marchers upon noticing that the hose was to be connected again, ran in that direction to stop it if possible, but they were too few at that time, | and while fighting with the police, | the firemen, citizens and a number of college students, the latter “anti- freedom-of-speech” element succeed- ed in getting the water turned. Mean- time a great number more of the marchers in scattered formation, ran to the church corner, mixing with citizens of Normal who were watching the encounter. The firemen at the nozzle, not} knowing their own citizens from those from Bloomington, poured water upon anything like a group of six or more in any and every direction. The police themselves in the melee received drenchings, as did several Normal and Bloomington people likewise. A street-car became blocked at the in- tersection of the streets there, and around it fist battles took place, com- rade Bricker receiving wounds and cuts on the head, and another De- catur comrade having a little finger broken as he was holding the police- man Cooper’s gun and hand up in the air to prevent the shooting of those who managed to get the water shut off for a time. During this fighting some stones were thrown, but without any injury noticeable on either side. The crowd was so scattered and mixed that at times it appeared that the firemen were washing the streets and side- walks, not knowing where to point the stream in aggression towards the Bloomington Unemployed Council marchers. The names of the firemen and Normal citizens who engaged in this one-sided water-battle against the Constitutional rights of freedom of speech in their town, as known to several of the marchers, are: Fred Fissel, Jim Callans, Jake Lutz, Leo Lutz, Kenneth Schnebly, Sherman Dennis. Police: Chief Ed Cooper, Elmer Eads and Bill Craig. While the fracas was thus on at the corner to the west, comrade Mayer remained with a gathering of follow- ers at the Bank corner, talking with city officials; and on both sides it was being said that no violence was desired, However, in contradiction to this, the Normal officials were wit- nessing that their fire department were active trying to break up the street meeting with the water hose. What blocking of traffic occured was by the hose and the fire truck, the Bloomington leaders shouting always to allow automobiles to pass as they wished to. After the water and the fist-fight battle had been going on for several minutes, comrade Mayer, who had been warned in an anonymous letter @ week before that he was due to be murdered by the “Vigilantes,” walked down the middle of the street westward toward the battling, the rest of the marchers who had re- mained with him following. It was anticipated by the Council at Bloomington before starting that opposition on the part of the officials of Normal would be met. And, as above observed, it was. Far more important than any speaking that could have been made there at that time was the showing up of the K.K. K. minded types at Normal against the most fundamental principle in this country’s Constitution. There could haye been but one legitimate excuse for trying to stop the speaking upon the subjects outlined in the opening paragraph of this article; and that was the possibility of block- ing traffic. However, that excuse was never mentioned; the idea of the Normal officials rather being that no Americans, whether tax-paying re- sidents of their city or otherwise, can speak upon any doctrine of which they have not the intelligence to un- derstand. From additional reports coming from people of Normal since the bat- tle described, the leaders of the Bloo- mington Council learn that it will not be long before many of the “opposi- tion” at Normal will be joining in the movements now become so strong in the city to their south. For those movements are to emancipate even those of Normal from the destructive teeth of the financial dragons who now hold their final straw of power ment give the idea of stopping the speeches for a time; but next they | serviceable workers of the western | with our went around the block to @ church over the producers and the actually world, ‘ EW YOUR, S: ATURDAY, Mi ARCH 5. Page Three | SPEECH BATTLE IN NORMAL, ILL. Co. Rewards Scab | by Evicting Him from Co. / Owned House} By a Worker Correspondent GLEN ROBINS, Ohio. —Bill Witchulis was told by the super- intendent of the Wyno Coal Co. that if he would help break the National Miners Union strike in 1931, the company would give him a swing, fix his porch, side walk, ete. Witchulis agreed to scab on the strike. Last week amid rain and snow Witchulis was evicted and put out on the road. He moved back in the house the next day. The guard reported this. The company then sent three police to the house and again threw the furniture out. The entire family had to sleep out on the side of the road that night. The next day this miner was moved by his father and other workers to another house nearby. This is what he got for helping the bosses break up the Wyno mine strike in June, 1931. YOUNG MOTHER HAILS MINER Husband Murdered by) Gun Thugs New York. Dear Comrades:— I am here in New York raising re- lief funds for our Kentucky and Ten- | nessee comrades and I am speaking | in their behalf to help win their strike. My husband gave up his life in the same struggk, Today I am here in New York with my one year old baby girl. I left) three children in Kentucky with my | father and mother. I feel like I have work and my husband too in this| struggle against the dirty coal oper- | ators and t he bosses and their gang- | sters, I think that I have had it as hard as anyone and if I was a man I would walk till I dropped dead be- fore I would go back to work for that dirty thieving bunch at the Wages | they offer. I would rather belong to) the National Miners Union and starve than starve while working for a rich man. I will try to write a piece for the paper each week to let the comrades down in Kentucky and Tennessee know what we are doing. Comrades, stand by your rights wherever you are. Always show that you are a red blooded fighter. If any of you comrades wish to write me, adress mail to 16 W. 21st St., New York City. ELIZABETH BALDWIN. Miner Asks How to Live On $8.80 A Week | (By = Worker Correspondent) STONEY FORK.—I work at the Gurnn Coal Co. I want some one| to help me figure out a budget to live on out of what a practical miner earns at this place. ‘We load coal over a cattle guard. We must get it in the car between 2% inches of space. We are paid 55 cents per ton for all the coal that gets over the guard. The average is our tons per day. We are lucky to get four days a week in the mines, We average about $8.80 each week. I would like some one to tell me how to feed and clothe my family on this amount. Longshoremen at work loading a ship. The bosses depend upon the longshoremen to load war munitions te be used against the Chinese masses. At the same time the A. F. of L, officials and the s! owners are planning a wage cut which they will attempt to put over on the dockers April 1. Longshoremen sho the docks in preparation to strike juld organize committees at once on against the cut and refuse to load munitions to be used against the Chinese workers. g Miner’ s Wife Calls on Workers to Halt War Moves on Soviet Brownsville, Pa. Daily Worker: I would like a short space in the | Daily Worker to tell what happened here last November. On Nov. 4 the house of P, Giam- | battista was raided by the immigra- | tion officials, They arrested Mr.| Giambattista, who is my husl band, | and held him for deportation because | he would not sell himself and the Communist Party to the federal gov- ernment for a salary of $200 a month. This offer was made to my husband by an agent and it was turned down | flat. ‘The agent told my hubsand that he | was not man enough to take the money and give his family a decent | living. My husband Philip told the agent that he was man enough to earn a decent living, but he would not earn it by being a stool pigeon | and a slave to the coal operators. My husband spent four months in | Jail and the International Labor De- | fense won-a victory in the case by getting voluntary departure. Myself and children are being left behind. I appealed to the Brownsville relief fund to get help. They asked me what they had to do with me. They} said I should go to the Communist | Party for relief. But I was not scared | easily by their talk and I stayed and | demanded until I got what I was after. The head of the relief fund here is | also @ railroad bull. Jobless Drop Dead Along Cal. Highways | (By a Worker Correspondent) LOS ANGELES, Calif—In San Joaquin and Santa Clara Valleys thousands of men are walking the highways and the railroads and sleep- | ing in the jungles. Many of them walk until they cannot walk any| more, going without food and shelter | for days. When the motorcycle police come | to investigate they find many of the workers dead on the highways and railroad right of ways. Those still | alive the police carry away to a near- by jail. National Miners Union I ask all workers reading the Daily Worker to put more strength and | energy into the fight against the cap- italist system. Let us all defend the Soviet Union and Soviet China| against the imperialists. MRS. ANNA thump ts MINERS’ KIDS 60 WITHOUT PROPER CLOTHES IN PA. All Must Join Fight, Says Wife of Negro Mine Worker (By a Worker er Correspondent) | wife. We poor people here are suf- fering from lack of sufficient food. |My husband goes to the mine and | works all day and only loads one car | of coal. Some days he does not work at | all Gay and receives no pay for the work. | | The work is so bad, and, owing to| | the low wages and high cost of food, | |I have been unable even to buy un- | derwear for the children. | nakedness. | It is awful when I go into my kit- chen to try to prepare a meal. don’t know how to start. (LOVERDALE, Pa.—I ama miner’s| T have to take old pieces of clothes| He holds dis-| and pin them together to protect the} crimination against members of the | children from the cold and hide their Red Crass Supplies f for ners Rane (By LAS Vi a Worker Correspondent) GAS, ¢ here Ne otied «with te do kind of are s For this work the meals con- work, workers receive two meals. The sist ef four thin slices of bread and a “late of beans. The “Rancho Grande,” owned | by a rich Eotlywood movie é!zec- to: of iis area covered with mesquite trees. It also has a large herd of cows wheth a good amcunt of the creamery products used here. There are also veg- et: . alfalfa, ete. on the ranch. The owner is sufficiently rich to hire labor at good w s to clear the land. Instead he is supplied with truckloads of unemployed, hungry men by the Red Cross to work for ¢ meals. Cross is also using a as grave diggers. The Red gang of men WORKER TELLS ABOUT USSR, Asks U. SW orkers to W rite MOSCOW, U. R—I am 20 | years old. After work I attend eve- | ning courses for preparing editors of | the press.. I work 7 hours a day. Our | factory works in 3 shifts. Iam a me- chanic of average qualification, re- ceive 150-160 roubles a month. In case of sickness or injury at work, we get full pay for the time we are unable to work. Besides, we get our regular 2 weeks vacation. Work- ers who are ill and udarniks (shock worker) are being sent to sanator- iums and homes of rest. This, for instance, is how I spend a working day. I work from 8 to 4. | In the factory dining room at lunch hour we have very often reports, lec- tures, concerts. After work I go home, look through the newspapers. From 8 to 10 I am in school, from | 10 to 12 I read books. In the eve- nings when I have no school hours, | I go to 9 meeting of the young work- | ers league or to the club. This is how I, as well as other workers of our factory, spend their | time. I am very much interested in the| | life of your workers. Does it re- 8. | and sometimes he loads tock all| semble ours? Mechanic Fedorow. | Bosses Fear Daily | Worker in Waukesha Motor Co. Factory | (By a Worker Correspondent) WAUKESHA, Wis—In the Wau-/ , | kesha Motor Co., one of the leading | committees ‘The cup- | concerns of this city the boss tried} locals to resist the betrayals of the |of the company they had w {men to go out on sympathy | with them.. Police | diately and called the strike off BALTIMORE BiTKAY ED BOsSES PL national Long tu Police to B Inte Marine Workers Ind Dockers tc (By a Worker BALTIMORE, Md.—A sr by the steamship cor es a tne companies will be aide dicated by the unw ditions forced on the Seamen are speed-up that on the unloading disregarded complet at the mercy of the Lonshoremen Promised Wage on April Ist ly ship owners Rumors among the longs. Ryan has sent a letter timore locals of the Longshoremen Associatio by for a wage cut to take April 1. A propaganda dished out by the officials is being in: the men { nothing are to stand place or illed among 1 be c do; about the wage cut, that times a bad and it would be futile to fight the wage cut during this period of on and unemploymer Strike Called off by I. Officials The Moore and McCormack Stea ship Company had two ships at docks. On one of the ships they had I. L. A. men and on a coastwise ship dept L. A. ized stevedores working for an hour, A delegate on the shi that was being worked by the I. L. A. men found out about this and called out the I. L. A. men on strike and went over to the other ship and got the surike and detectives were brought down to the water- front immediately. The I. L. A. of- ficials stepped into the affair imme- by merely telling the I. L. A. men to go back to work and agreeing to allow the unorganized stevedores to work on the other ship. These methods are being instituted on all docks, and | will be the means of forcing lower wages. The Baltimore not passive; longshoremen. are however they feel help- A. betrayal machine. The I. L. A. | longshoremen of Baltimore will no | be able to answer the bosses atta so long as they allow the whole ap- paratus of their organization to rest | in the hands of the “officials The immediate task of the long- shoremen is to organize rank and file right inside of their board is bare, the lard is all gone| | to terrorize the workers by putting a | officials and to fight the wage cuts and when I look for flour I find tha’ there is only a cupful left. to cook. ‘Then I send to the scrip office at the store. The man there shakes you, your man has not enough.” Now what must we do? I have ji4 in my family. We are colored |note on the time clock stating that/ | baking powder, no meat or nothing | to do with workers’ organizations or | Negro and white workers. | attending meetings would lose their | jobs. I visited workers from the Wilber they have read the Daily Worker. | ‘They say that they are not reading | le now because the boss told them | and non-union conditions. There ‘No | any workers caught having anything | must be complete unity between the There must be unity between the organized and unorganized longshoremen, this to be established by organizing rank | his head and says: “I can’t give it to| Lumber Co. These workers say that | and file united front grievance and strike committees. The Marine Workers Union headquarters at Industrial 720 East | people. My children get hungry the|he would fire them if he caught | Thames street, calls upon the unor- same as children of another race, I think we should all get together, | white and colored, all creeds and nationalities and fight against this starvation. | them reading it. We are, however, bringing the | Daily to these workers—they are | [Pal it where the boss does oy see them. WORKERS AWAITING DEPORTATION PLEDGE TO DEFEND USSR ELLIS ISLAND, N. ¥. — Condi- tions of the foreign-born workers de- tained on this island by the U. 8. government for deportation are ter- rible, There are hundreds of us in @ room packed like sardines. There -—— ist and imperialist exploitation. The countries to which we are going await us with unemployment, starvation, the same that is sweep: ing America. Déath awaits those | , of us who are aio sent to the fascist countries. We all stand ready to offer our services to the defense of the Soviet Union. We are ready to defend the | Chinese masses against the robber | Japanese imperialism which is now waging a war against them, We will fight imperialism wherever we go. —149 Signatures. is very poor ventilation in thepe rooms and we are allowed only a half an hour recreation in the open. But many days we don’t even get that. Everybody is getting sick and the diseases are multiplying for the rea~ son that the air is full of microbes and germs. There are not even spit- toons and those who have to spit must spit on the floor. We have no clothes and baggage are full of them. The food they give us is not fit to feed pigs. | When the workers are brought in they are kept for weeks before they even see their clothes. hospital. ‘When I was arrested three drunk The authorities refused to Ellis Island awaiting deportation from the land labor volt against every ee ERS! Foreign born workers being herded from railroad ¢ cars to the ferry which takes them to Ellis Island, a hell hole of American capitalism, Militant workers are kept on this prison island for months awaiting deportation to fascist terror countries where sure death awaits them. American workers must raise a mighty protest demanding the release of the foreign born militants from Ellis Island. Fight the vicious de- portation campaign! mIUP THIS VENGEA CE! jing them a 24 pound sac {and a bucket of lard for their votes. | ganized and organized longshoremen to build joint rank and file commit- tees of action against the wage cuts and non-union conditions on the water front. ey Votes in Cloutierville, La. (By a Worker Correspondent) CLOUTIERVILLE, La.—tThe elec- | Boss | tlon here has just closed. Those who | Tan went around before the election to the starving share croppers offer- of flour Cut © less ‘Grider the leadership of the I. Li") nay BY A. fe AN PAY-CUT sremen Officials Call sreak Strike ustrial Union Calls ) ‘Seages Correspondent) hing attack is being preparec ainst the longshoremen. The ffi I, L, A. as in- o fi st non-union con- n winches. A terrific r has been inaugurated f ships. Safety conditions are gshoremer left completely and stevedore bosses. MCKEESPORT TIN. WORKERS LAUNCH FIGHT ON CUTS Begin to Build Group in Mill to Fight for Demands By a Worker Correspondent) MCKEESPORT, Pa—The condi- n the McKees- bad. Our union a program of imme- mands around which we are organizing the workers for struggle. The demands are: Take back the Oct. 1 wage cul ) No wage in any form. 3) Give back the 10 per cent extra on long orders (over 14 1-4 square feet) and on orders 20 wide and | below. 4) Guaranteed minimum wage $5 a turn for every man in the mill— including both tonnage and day mer es on tonnage fall below t pany to pay the differenice 5) Company to hire extra men to deliver grease to the mills, polish the bottom rolls, bundie and carry scrap, charge the pair furnace Sunday nig! nd, deliver iron to the pair furna 1» va) Switches for each heater to turn overhead air on or off, 8) No discrimination against Negrc workers for holding any job in the hot mill. No discrimination against young workers either. ) Company to have mills in work able condition Sunday night anc throughout the week. (If necessary hire more millwrights). In case of hot neck company to put on extra man to grease up. 10) Cumpany to under the grease-pots. 11) Company to build a dry house outside the mill with showers, wash- room, and private lockers for every worker—providing man to keep it clean : 12) Company to start to pay at 7 a. m. instead of 7.30 so we don’t have to wait around after finishing work. We think that around these de- mands we can rally all the workers in the mills—especially when we com- bine the fight for these with the fight for unemployment relief and une:nployment insurance, Our union in t tin mill is growing. We are establishing groups on each turn in the hot mill and in each of the other departments, with a mill branch executive committee composed of representatives from each group. We call upon all McKeesport tin mill workers to join the new fighting n and fight for the above de- Write to Room 518, 611 , or come to 1300 Railroad McKeesport install steam Ave., _ Tammany in New Scheme to to Workers Subjected t | Stop Relief for Unemployed o New Grilling; Must Supply Letters from Last Employer (By a Worker Ooereepenkant): || NEW YORK. The Emergency |Home Relief Bureaus have just de- |veloped another method of stalling | off those workers who have become so desperate that they are compelled |to expose themselves to the insulting treatment and investigations that go with an application for relief, The newest stunt is a ruling that no ap- plicant can get relief until the inves- tigator has written to and received an | answer from the last employer of the | applicant, | ‘Two weeks ago I filled out an ap- | Relief Bureau. I was investigated and promised help in paying my rent. At that time the investigator, a wom- and told me that I didn’t have to landlord gave me until a man came | with awarrant of eviction, Lies to Buldoze Workers. | When the landiord came to my house yesterday and said he would have me thrown out the next day if | I didn’t pay up, I went to the Home Relief Bureau and asked how about | plication in the Emergency Home | my rent check. They told me that they couldn't give me any aid until they got an answer to the letter they sent my last employer. The purpose of the letter is to check up on you | and see if you're worthy of relief, I happen to know that my former boss is in Florida and will be there all winter, so I raised hell. They told me I was disorderly and ungrateful and they wouldn't give me a penny if I didn’t shut up. I insisted on have ing some action immediately and I | got it in spite of their threats. | Even for that I had to hang around all day and I saw about seventy-five other people who are just as bad off jas Iam but they didn’t get any action because they were quite and meek. I guess if they all spoke up they would all have gotten something, but it’s hard to speak up when you have nobody to back you up, Every- body was just as angry as I was, too. If they’d all get together they could back each other up and then may | be we could all get some action out lof thesé so-called “relief” bureaus.