The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 25, 1932, Page 4

New York and mail all vage Four : ONE-FIFTH OF hed by the Gompredully Fubiieitee Ch, Wis, Lally Ueeept Gowter, ac WO Bese } Cable “DAIWORK* cke to the Dally Werker, 56 Beat i8te Street, New York, N. ¥. City. N. ¥. Telephone Atgonauim 46-7956, el THE POPULA-| OF YOUNGSTOWN IS ON HUNGER, By FRANK ROGERS 188 Anna M. Aled Counctl Director, reported that 5,00¢ families are now on the list for food and coal and the number of applicants is increasing from thirty to sixty families per day. The average num- ber of persons in a family ix Five”—Report in the Youngstown Telegram, March 8th. Woodward. The above report, although far from from the | correct estimate of the number depending on charity for their livelihoo& shows that the miserable hunger conditions among the steel workers and their families in the Mahoning | Valley. Let us examine the above report more closely to get its full meaning. The reported “5,000 families” means a total of 25,000 persons (five per family) and the “in crease of 30 to 60 new applicants’ means a total of three to five hundred new applicants for relief per day. An earlier survey showed that there over 3,000 si en and youths, mai of them without homes, on the ci soup i Thus a very conservative estimate that one-fifth of the whole population of Youngstown are already on hunger rations and the number is increasing at a rate of 300 to 500 persons per day. How They Lie! shows The next question is what kind of relief are the poor and unemployed getting from the city. First let us consider the report of some fat society matrons of the Taxpayers League who made a round of the seven city soup kitchens in a swell high-powered automobile to investigate the conditions of the unemployed. Mrs. Cart- wright, the head of the Committee, reports the following after “careful” investigation: “The food Is clean, wholesome, and nourish- ing (!) at the city soup kitchens.” But not one o fthe investigating committee dared to even taste the soup! And the above report was brazenly published the day after the | newspapers were full of news items by the City Health Inspector who found the meat and veg- | etables with which the soup is made to be rotten | and poisonous! Thus the day before the buxom society matrons’ round of the soup kitchens the soup had to be dumped into the city garbage dump and the unemployed went without food that. day. ‘The relief on the city soup lines, on wha men, women and children depend for their living, consists of a bowl of soup and a half loaf of white bread. When families were getting cash relief (long since exhausted) the amount consisted of $1.50 per week. This is a picture of the relief system in Youngstown. On top of hun- Ser rations the workers are faced with the brutal force of the police department which enforces the “law” of shutting off the water supply; lights and gas; and evictions from homes by those who cannot pay their bills. Scores of workers and their families are forced to live in hovels like the infamous “Hoover City”—the city garbage dump. On March 18th, the courts handled eviction cases which effected sixty children. And the merciful court (?) ruled that time vould be given to the families to place their children in the Juvenile Home before the evic- ‘ions would take place. Deprive Workers of Water The most vicious ruling and decision handed down by the Youngstown courts was the de- cision that WATER, a necessity next only to AIR, is private property just like bread, autos, | and money. Thus anyone caught turning on | the city water supply, shut off for non- payment of the water bill, is liable to a crim- inal sentence in court. In the THIRD WARD, a working-class neighborhood the water supply will be shut off in 2,000 homes, according to the announcement by the City Water Com- missioner. | Fakers Are Busy among the Unemployed Scores of fakers, some residents of the city, others just passing or visiting hoodoo-doctors, offer all kinds of fake schemes and promises for the benefit of the unemployed. At the head of the list is the demagog Mayor Moore. He and his gang in the City Hall are the biggest aggregation of fakers assembled in one city. Their election into office was won directly with promises of jobs and better relief to all who would vote for them. And today Mayor Moore and his Council have to meet behind closed doors because the angry unemployed are storming the City Hall at | every meeting demanding that the fakers live up | to their promises, Several times the doors of the City Council chambers have been torn from the hinges in a wild rush for jobs and relief. The Negro Councilman, Mr. Vaughn, who won us seat in the Council by promises to the Negro people ,is today in the forefront demanding that the unemployed be put to work on city jobs, without pay, before getting any relief, This forced labor scheme amounts to actual slavery of both the white and Negro workers, The city has also proposed a registration of all the unemployed. This. registration includes the question. “Would you consider it your duty to report any act or deed of a fellow worker, thought harmful to the city, to the police?” This regis- tration is nothing but a large scale spy system wgainst the workers. A. F. of L. Aids Bosses | The American Federation of Labor is doing its bit to confuse the workers in the struggle for unemployment insurance. The members of the A. F. of L. unions raised the question of the right of the unemployed to remain in the unions without paying dues. The business agents (and | nothing but business—F. R.) rejected the pro- | posal. But so many dropped out due to unem- ployment and inability to pay dues that today the business agents are running after the unem- ployed members begging for them to remain in the unions. With the union leadership close}; connected with the city officialdom there is much discrimination in giving out jobs. ‘The political line up includes the A. F. of L. leadership. Local preachers, too have done their share to prevent the unemployed from fighting for sub- | unemployed. Many unemployed who supported | fense Groups to defend the work of the block RATIONS 1 relief from the city. Many of thent are leading committees for relief and turn the thoughts of the unemployed to prayers in- stead of bread. Prayers for relief and jobs for the unemployed are the schemes of the preachers to prevent a militant movement of unemployed. And after the usual Sunday “rellef™ prayers the preacher hurries to his chicken dinner and the unemployed go hungry. Many of the churches have also gone inte the restaurant business. With Tree food contributions from their congregation | and other sources they prepare meals at “cost’~- | charging practically the same as the restaurants. Unemployed who have applied for food at these church dinners have been driven out and told to | go to the soup lines. Terror and Discrimination Against Unemployed ‘There has been house to house canvass in many working-class neighborhoods by city of- ficials warning the unemployed “not to have anything to do with the Reds or we will starve you to death.” At meetings of the unemployed the police openly tell the workers if they listen te the speakers, they will not be permitted to get relief at the soup lines. The American Legion in its drive for “jobs for the unemploycd” are more interested in the recruitment of new mem- bers into their fascist band and campaign against the Communists than in getting jobs for the the program of the Communist Party against hunger in the last elections have been told to starve and wait till a Communist wins the elec- tions. Militants have been singled out and used as an example to terrorize the unemployed. Immediate steps must be taken to counteract the moves of the enemies of the unemployed: a) The abolition of mass meeting and branch appeals for the struggle against hunger and evic- tions but rather taking the program of the unemployed council to the homes, soup lines and flop-houses. The registration of the endorsers of the Unemployed Council program and election of block and soup line committees will insure immediate reaction of the unemployed te fight against evictions and the general program of the unemployed councils. b) Immediate organization of Workers De- committees and the councils. c) The activization of the Red Trade Union and Communist fractions to win the support of the unemployed for the program of the TUUL and the Communist Party. The masses of unem- ployed must form not only the basis of unity of the unemployed and employed for economic strugggles but also the strong support for the Communist program in the coming presidential ——SSS Da Contre elections. ANE WORD y Ry AE SOVIET WE io’ RATE SUBSCRIPTION By mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattas and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. By GROPPER ROUMANIA Daily Worker Fund Growing too slowly. Suspension danger | advances by leaps and bounds. Rush every possible penny to, save the Daily Worker. Japan’s Plans for Reactionary War Against Socialism By CYRIL BRIGGS Article No. 3 The monstrous counter-revo- lutionary plans of Japanese imperialism for armed inter- veniton against the successful | building of Sociatism in the Soviet Union are openly stated in the pamphlet “Presenting | Japan’s Side of the Case,” pub- |lished by the Japanese Asso- ciation in China. No longer daring to pretend eon- tempt for the Soviet Five-Year Plan, world imperialism, with the Japanese imperialists in the role of spearhead, | are now preparing to start the most | reactionary of wars—war against the proletarian dictatorship, war against the rising, flourishing world of So- cialism, of working-class emancipe- tion, of liberation of the former op- pressed nationalities and national minorities. The pamphlet admits a tremendous improvement in the material and cultural conditions of the Soviet masses asa result of the overthrow of Tsarist-capitalism and the estab- lishment of the proletarian dictator- ship. “The people of Russia have | the satisfaction of knowing that the profits from their toil are being ex- | pended for the betterment of their living and working conditions and for national defense. The billions that roll into the state treasury from of- ficial enterprises and co-operative farms are used to purchase all man- ner of railway, textile, electrical, mining and other industrial ma- chinery; to erect houses, lay out new cities; to build roads, waterworks, sewers, public utilities, schools, social and amusement centers and other betterments designed for public wel- fare.” And for this reason it is necessary to wage a war of annihilation against the workers’ fatherland because the success of the Soviet Five-Year Plan “will bring a revolution in world economy,” “a new and better out- look will be created for the other workers of the world,” and. this will result in “disaster to other industrial nations, and overturn the existing social order” (p. 11) “Japan sees the handwriting on the wall and her military leaders have appealed to the right of self- defense” (p. 34). , Already the triumphant advance of Socialism in the Soviet Union ts stir- ring the oppressed masses of “Asia to throw off thelr chains, to overthrow their native and imperialist oppres- Sore. sf “The Soviet philosophy has pere meated all of Central Asia” (12), Dying capitalisin must defend tts | loot, its “right” to rob and oppress the toiling masses. Revolutionary China must be destroyed, China dis- membered, victorious Soclalist con- | struction im the Soviet Union inter-| circulation? masses of the whole world, based on the glorious achievements in the building of Socialism in the Soviet Union, destroyed; the lives of tens of millions of workers sactificed. All in order to postpone the inevitable de- | struction the insane, accursed capitalist system. That which was secretly stated in the notorious Tanaka Document of 1927, in which was laid down the tupted, the hopes of the toiling , program now being faithfully carried out in the present robber war of Japanese imperialism against China and the fast maturing plans for an armed attack against the proletarian state, is now openly stated in the present pamphlet, “Presenting Ja- pan’s Side of the Case.” But it is no longer a question of words. Japanese troops are already mobilized on the Soviet border. Tsar- ist White Guard elements in Man- By N. HONIG PART I. Serious consideration must now be given to the building of our trade union papers into mass agitational organs. Just as serious consideration must also be given to the establish- ment of union papers in those im- portant industries which have no union papers, such as metal and steel, railroad, textile, etc. The underestimation of the neces- sity of the revolutionary union press is glaringly shown bythe fact that the Mine Worker has not appeared once during the Kentucky-Tennessee strike. The Needle Worker has not appeared during the dressmakers strike. In industries where there is a vital necessity at the present time of reaching scores of thousands of workers with agitational material against the sweeping wage cuts, such as railroad and steel, we are without union papers, The revolutionary union papers at present existing are few in number, ‘The Mine Worker, the Food Worker, the Marine Workers’ Voice, the Needle Worker, the Office Worker, the Shoe Worker and the lst is ex- hausted. Few of them appéar reg- ularly; when some of them appear it is an event. None of them come any- where near to serving the purpose fc which they are intended; none of them’ has rea) circulation. Let us take them paper by paper, and examine them critically. Must Build Miners Press ‘The Mine Worker has not appeared tor three months. Last summer dur- ing the strike of 40,000 Penn-Ohio- West ‘Virigina miners, the Mine Worker uppeared perhaps ance. ‘The paper has been suspended sev- eral times in tts career from the old “Coal Digger” days to the present. When it is printed there ara prac- tically no sales, no financial Tsturns. Yet the ininers and egetaiy the | growing National Minera Union inem- want @ real revolutionary sev, Why hasn’t the Mine Worker The Revolutionary Trade Union Press First and foremost, because it has not been a real voice of the miners. It does not present the every-day problems they are facing. It does nov reflect their every-day life in the mines and in the mining towns. It has been more or less. a one-district paper a Western Pennsylvania paper. To the miners of the Anthracite or of Southern Illinois, it has offered but little. It has given no reflection of the ever-growing rank and file opposition movements inthe Anthra~- cite and Illinois. It has been more less of a sectarian paper, almost an inner N. M. U. paper, of many statements and resolutions. It has made no attempts to reach the un- organized miners, The problems of the unemployed miners, the fight for relief and un- employment insurance, the conditions in the company towns have not been reflected in the Mine Worker. As a result its role in the mass unem- Ployed movement in such places as the McKeesport area, in New Ken- sington, etc. has been nil. No real apparatus has been set up to build the Mine Worker into a mass paper. No responsible comrades have been seriously entrusted with the task of editing it, getting it out, or managing it. No real attempt has been made to set up agents in the | mine locals. The case of the Marine Workers Voice offers a close parallel to that of the Mine Worker. We have stated that the Mine Worker is «1 Western | Pennsylvania paper; the Marine Workers Voice is mostly a seamen’s | paper, with little to ofier the long-}) Paper, with little to oller the lone shoremen. It must be remembered that the longshoremen can be made | the backbone of a mass circulation for the paper. This is the biggest shortcoming of the Voice, its almost | pure seamen's orientation. Wilh thoawands of seamen on the beach ky every port, wilh wuemploy- | ment Niv among the longshoremen, | the fight for unemployment insur- | ance aad reels is not reflected te churia are being organized and armed by the Japanese. Japanese War Minister Araki has openly stated in the Japanese Diet that Japan is to send more troops into Manchuria, that Manchuria is to be converted into a military base against the Sov- jet Union, and,’ moreover, that the situation arising out of Japan’s rob- ber aims in Manchuria is “more seri- ous than the Russo-Japanese War” of 1905. And the American imperial- ist press has hailed Japan’s decision to send more trpoos into Manchuria, towards the Soviet frontier, as a “re- turn to the big objective’—armed in- tervention against the Soviet Union. Defense of the Soviet Union is de- fense of the interests of the whole world working class! Workers! Rally to the fight against the Japanese robber war! Against the imperialist war inciters and war criminals! For the immediate withdrawal of all im- perialist troops and gunboats from China! Against the partition of China and for the defense of the Chinese Soviet districts! For the defense of the Soviet Union and so- cialist construction! For brotherly solidarity with the Soviet Union and for social emancipation of all ex- Ploited masses and oppressed colo- nies! any extent in the Marine Workers Voice. Seldom is space devoted to the problems of the Negro seamen and dock workers, who get the worst deal of any in the industry. Where the Marine Workers Voice excels is in its international news, and compared to the other union papers, in its worker correspondence. On the question of war, on the question of halting the shipment of war material, even the seamen readers of the Voice have thus far been left all at sea. Mass Paper for Marine Workers ‘The Marine Workers Voice can be built into a mass paper if the com- rades in charge of the Marine Work- ers Industrial Union will get their idea that it is impossible to get sub- scriptions for the paper. They have not tried to get criptions. For subscriptions and the longshoremen offer a fertile field. Unemployed members of the Union should canvass the homes of the longshoremen for subscription, and hey will get a pleasant surprise. The practice of shipping huge bundles o/ | the paper free (o the different ports and clubs should stop. Bundles should be shipped to ports with the under- standing that the Voice is to be sold on the docks. ‘The Marine Workers Voice has only once in the past year, carried an ar- ticle on how to organize ship and dows committees. This was last June, snd characteristically enough, the erticle dealt entirely with ship com- mittes, and ignored the question of dock committees, (To Be Continued) Interests of United States Capital in Salvador By Labor Research Association Wall Street controls the Central Amierican republic of Salvador as it controls all the others in this region. At least 60% of the total imports of the country come from the United States. Most of the outstanding foreign loans of the country have been contracted in Wall Street. The American investments in the country amount to at least. $50,000,000 and include the following companies: The International Railways of Central Amer- ica, which controls 300 miles of lines; the Central American Mines, Inc., operating gold and silver mines; the Occidental Bank, organized by Cali- HOOVER TOWN By MOLLIE PRAGER. T the edge of the industrial section of Los Angeles, one hundred and forty families are living on @ large barren tract of land, in the crudest makeshift tents and shacks that a hu- man being can live in and call by the name of shelter. These workers’ families, many of them 100 per cent Americans, are the ones who have toiled all their lives producing the tremendous wealth of this country. These are the people who have built the railroads, mines, factories, palaces, mansions, estates of this country. They and their ancestors fought America’s wars and were mur- dered and mutilated in them. Now the capitalists no longer needing their labor have cast them out of their industries and forced them to join the ranks of the unemployed. ‘These workers, who for the last year or two, have been frantically looking for work, are now reduced to the state where they have lost their homes, their furniture, every possession for which they sweated and toiled. Now these people are living in Hoover town. Hoover town, model city, has no water, no toilet facilities, the crudest kind of latrine patched together from pieces of boards and scraps of tin. Bathing is an unknown lux- ury. No lights. Night finds the people in Hoover town huddled in their tents and shacks, which are lighted by candles, oil lamps or by an auto’s headlight. Some are completely dark. Water must be carried in pails from a gas station on the outskirts of this piece of land. How do they Uve here? What do they eat? One woman said: “The children here do not know what meat is, They have never tasted it.” The men go out with a truck and make the rounds of the wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, and the stuff that is thrown away as unfit to sell they are very magnanimously permitted to take. They say they went to the wholesale groceries hoping to obtain some canned goods, but were not able to get any, Sometimes, a bakery, hav- ing a large stock of stale bread on hand sends it to Hoover Town and the bread is doled out— one loaf to a family per day, for as long as the supply lasts, I said to one woman lying on a bed sick, “The capitalist papers say you have enough to eat get.” In the box was some molding cabbage, rot- ten lettuce and four apples that were so decayed that when we picked them up they oozed from our fingers. Bugs, ants and flies are everywhere. ‘Tiny babies lying in stuffy, crowded tents are ex- nosed to them as well as the adults. The sick By Jones Wanted: Encouragement | y “Conditions in the furniture and departmern§ stores are near the breaking point. Furniture i salesmen are working only on commission, no be sales no salary. And a real live salesman these days is lucky if he averages $25 after working three days from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and three dayg ' from 9 a.m. to 6 pm., with a week's vacation i each month. If things do not pick up during ‘ April, there will be plenty of salesmen walking the streets.” H So writes ©. K. of Chicago, who, enclosing g dollar for the Daily Worker fund, says he is “a man too cowardly to take an active part in the struggles”, but qualifies that a bit by identifye ing himself with “many others who like p! of attention, written and oral, before we help. And when we do help, we want @ pat om the back.” Well, C. K., from the conditions you speek of (we take ‘for granted that you are one of those , furniture salesmen), the bosses are giving you , right smart a “pat on the back”, And that, of course, while not being exactly encouragement, ) ' a oe 2 is one factor among others necessary In the arousing of your kind to participate in the mas struggle. It is up to our movement to furnish another kind of encouragement, @ conviction to workers like you (to doubt most of you have never thought of yourselves as -“workers"—but now you're begining iv), c° (>> fact that, while there is a capitalist “way out of tho cvicis” If you don join the struggle in some way with the mass of workers, that capitalist way out will not help your kind one bit, but on the contrary will his you harder; but if you join the mass struggle and make it successful, your kind, too, will gain by this “revolutionary way out of the crisis”. Whad about an interview with the Chicago Trade Union Unity League organizer to see what to do? There isn’t any third alternative at all, so you better make up your mind which of the two “ways out of the crisis” you will support, The fact that you give a dollar to help the Dally is a small beginning in the right path. Anybody want any more encouragement at @ dollar a throw? Cee er rae Those “Wealthier” Chinese:—An Associated Press dispatch of March 7, from Shanghai, gives us an idea that we must not forget in thinking about China: “Canton is taking care of thoue sands of destitute refugees from Shanghai, the wealthie rrefugee-going to (British ruled) Hong Kong, which one of them said had more night life.” A Chinese capitalist remains—a cap italist. eo © e@ The Wonderful Mind of a “Progressive”:—Cani be seen in the article of Senator Brookhart, in the N. Y. American of March 7, saying in part? “We have advanced far since the stage coacty days. Yet with all our progress, our industria} ‘skill, our system today has serious defects. We need only to look about to see the millions of unemployed. Their plight is the result of @ combination of complicated causes.” Causes which Senator Brookhart neither explains nor offers a remedy for. What does he recommend? Building some roads! When a jobless printer in Seattle and an unemployed stenographer in New York will be offered the great boon of building roads in Loulsiana, they will have Brookhart, the “great progressive,” to thank for it! fornia commercial interests and the San Sale vador Electric Light Co. Other companies are engaged in the exploitae tion of. the agricultural workers. It is these companies which control the local government which has been recently massacring thousands of workers and peasants. 2 woman lying on the bed said, “Today everyone got fish. Aimee sent it.” Aimee Semple McPherson, who works for the salvation of the workers’ souls, and more so for her profits filched from the worker’s pockets can afford to send occasional barrels of food to the starving workers of this “model” tent city. Her meals are riot composed of rotten cabbage and uneatable lettuce. Her wealth is steadily increase ing. For Aimee there is no depression. She is planning a new limit height apartment-hotel building, to be built on the latest architectural designs and containing all the newest convenie ences. In her hotel-apartments will be found soft, luxurious furniture, but in Hoover City the only furniture to be seen is beds. Beds that sometimes ? must hold entire families. Chairs and tables are scarce. Stoves, even the camp variety, are rare. Most of the workers do their cooking on scraps of tin, or in tin cans. One woman had none of these but was cooking on the earth near her tent. Inside her tent it was dark and close. One young woman was lying on a bed, a bed which was not in a shack, not a tent, but in the open with merely a tarpaulin stretched over it, She is an expectant mother. For months her husband has been out of work. Evicted from their home, they slept in their car for weeks, S At last they came to “Hoover’s Haven”. Still they had no tent, not a table or a chair. Due to the them. But they had no shelter for it. They have only a piece of canvas stretched over the bed. They,too, had no stove, but cooked the little food they got on a strip of rusty tin. This man at his wife and said: “What am JI going to Iam a war veteran, Was wounded in the war. But what did it get me? My home everything gone, everything taken away me. Why don’t they give me a chance to for my wife and the baby we're going to soon? That is what I want—work—not chart Another woman, also pregnant, cont pneumonia and was finally taken to the Hospital. Through the complications of her ness she had a miscarriage and—three days later was sent back to camp in this weakened con. dition. x isk EEE EE H ? ‘This ts the city which one of the Los Angeles | papers facetiously describes as the only tawn which knows no depression. With the stark mise ery, glaringly obvious everywhere, the paper treated Hoover town in a smart-alecky, wise~ cracking way. Of all the monuments, bridges,