The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 21, 1932, Page 3

“80 CENTS AN HOUR” SOUNDS GOOD UNTIL | YOU KNOW THE FACTS Houston Grain Trimmer Works One Hour in Choking Dust, T hen Is Laid Off Spends Two Hours On Deck and Two Hours, Going to Work, All for One Hour Pay (By a Worker Correspondent) HOUSTON, Texas.—Eighty cents an hour sounds |good, doesn't it? That is what I thought but being | @ class conscious worker I wasn’t | surprised when I found out the ac- | tual facts. | I got a job in the Houston ship) channel trimming gran, that | shoveling grain down in a ship. I) crawled down in the ship and shovel- | ed lying down, sitting on kneés and | every other way one could think of. | | Dust was so bad that everyone had | to wear handkerchiefs over their noses | We had worked an hour and ten | minutes when a man took each name &nd we went out on deck. We waited | there for two hours and the list was read off. They only needed 26 men and so vhey had three or four that | ‘ were not needed; myself being one | of them, ‘fhe trick is that the men are not } paid for the time that they are on eck and they can lay you off when they see fit. Besides you are three er four miles from the station and no way to get there unless you have @ car or can catch a ride but the company doesn’t worry about this. MASS, CONVENTION’ { It is your hard luck. | The longshoremen in Houston must | organize to fight for better con tions in the Marine Workers_Indus- trial Union, —A Longshoreman. JOBLESS MARCH IN ARGUS, ILL, | DEMAND RELIEF Smashed By Police With Aid of Spies ARGO, IIL, June 20.—Two hun- dred unemployed Negro and white workers paraded to the city hall here, demanding relief, and were rejected by the mayor. The Unemployed Council then called an open air.meeting, which the police broke up. The stool Pigeons who notified the police and kelped to smash the meeting are: Jack Borisuk, Michael Koupka and Boris Golubovich. Open Air Meeting Is) SCENES IN THE Conn. Communists Challenge Socialist Party to a Debate WATERBURY, Conn., June 20.— The Communist Party units here have challenged the Socialist Party of Waterbury to a debate on the is. |sue: “Who is really leading the | workers to a fight for freedom from the bosses’ system of society, the | Socialist Party or the Communist | Party”? | The Communists ask that the chal- jlenge be \ read at the Socialist Party meeting and an answer be sent within a week, (5,000 VETERANS ‘JOBLESS MARCH DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JUNE MILITANT STRUGGLE FOR RELIEF GROWS STRUGGLE OF THE UNEMPLOYED FOR 21, 1932 JOBLESS INSURANCE AND RELIEF ‘ ON TOLEDO CITY HALL, JULY 2nd Relief Pledge Starts Forced Labor TOLEDO, Ohio, June 20. — Un- employed Negro. and white workers and part time workers are called to a@ hunger march on the Social Ser- vice Federation and the Toledo city and Lucas county officials, July 2 at 10 a, m, The parade will form at the corner of Elm and Superior streets. The news of the coming demon- Stration has provoked a sharp strug- gle within the ranks of the employ- ers’ agencies, each group trying to white-wash itself for the starvation among the thousands of jobless in Lucas county. The Social Service Page Three. WITH UNEMPLOYMENT © Government Figures Show 3.2 ‘Percent Increase in Jobless. 2,000 Demonstrate Against Shutting Off of Relief in Kans s City; Negroes Militant’. 500 Block Eviction in Lawrence; Unemployed: Council Stops Two Evictions, Pittsburgh’ WASHINGTON, D. C., June 20.—Right in the face of a. new flood of “optimistic” predictions by General Dawes and.- various other government spokesmen, that the low point of the” crisis has been reached, comes the latest figures of the governs” ment’s own Bureau of Labor Statisties—showing that unem« ployment is still increasing, ~—H |showing that wage cuts still increasing. the Law: 2 to the crowd from the window) | 5 of Jervai; artment, calling for pers + Employment in May de-!r nization to stop all evic- |. | creased 3.2 per cent below em-| t cutting off of gas. and. ployment in April, according to these government figures, and such figures surely tell rather lass than} half the story. Payroll totals, ac cording to the same author’ dropped 3.9 percent in industry whole. In manufacturing industries alone. the fall in employment was 4 per} {cent in May, and the decline in pay- rolls was 4.9 per cent, The greater |decilne in payrolls over the decline jin employment indicates only one thing, it shows wage cuts for the workers who still have jobs. As comPared with employment in theoretically “normal” times, (that is, an average of several years before the crisis), the Bureau of Labor Sta tistics considers employment at pre- | sent to be 59.7 per cent, or just a/ little over one half of normal. ‘owd moved on only when a.- whole carload of police and a squad of state cops came down, By thet. time the meeting was over anyway,/, |No one would point out leaders x}. the speaker to the police. No evit= tion took place. foe iS a ET ee t Fight Evictors in Pittsburgh — ' PITTSBURGH, Pa. June 20—A/ large number of jobless workers, led by the Unemployed Council commit~ | tee came down to No. 1822 Rylie $f. 7 last week, where they found the landiord and constable and three’, | helpers who had been paid a pint of | liquor each, had thrown out the fir- niture of a widow woman, unem= ployed, and her sick mother. When one of the landlord’s stoor pigeons pulled a knife, the crowd MOVE INTO CITY Federation declares that cases of In | flogged him with a fence picket, and Boney Chicago Principal Pay Lacking, Dies 30 Delegates Report) CHtc4GO.—Wwhile the mayor and * . | the scheol board continue their game Growing Misery |of passing the buck on the question | — |of paying the teachers their back (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) |Wages, hunger and sickness and }death continue to take their toll {among the teachers. Clarence A. Lentz, father of four {children and principal of Lincoln BALLY TO FIGHT) 9 Pat hind the Communist Party. the only rorcy whose program and candidates show them the way out. a neainonen nines moe hing Machinery Corriga: an unemployed textile worker delegate from New Bedford, told how the Department of Labor | tried to frame him for his militant ectivities in thé class struggle. “T had the pleasuré of being in- vesigeted by the Department. of Labor,” said Corrigan. “Although I have been @ citizen for years, they asked me whether I believe in the destruction of private and public property. Just think, asking me such @ question when the capitalists of New Bedford and the surrounding territery are themselves carrying oyt the wholesale déstruction of textile machinery. tm Wamsutta, where 1,800 were working before, now only 200 are working, While the mill own- efs cold-bloodedly smashed 100,000 spindles or one-half of the tote) number in town. In Nonquit, where 1,800 were formerly emplovéd, only 40 to 50 aré still working, and one half the mill, or 100,000 spindlés, were broken to pieces at orders of the owners, thus depriving the workers of \ their only means of livelihood. Wrecking Spindles “The same thing happened in Kil- burh, and out ef 1,200 previously em- ployed there, only 200 are working today. In Whitman, 4,800 looms and | 200,000 spindles weré wrecked. In Penaquit, the bosses began destroying 72,000 spindles and 500 looms. And in Bristol, 1,800 looms and 70,000 spindles were smashed, Out of a total of 35,000 thet worked in the textile mills in 127 and 1928, not more than 4,000 are working today. In a word, it is the capitalists that are the oestroyers. It is they who are the :reactionary wreckers of machinery and lives. It is capitalism that stands in our way.” John Nevins, @ Negro building trddes worker from Worcester, said they elected @ Democratic mayor in | his home town lest fall, and the first thing this mayer did was to eut down relitf. The Negro Masses, Neviris said, were beginning to fecl and understand that the Communist Party alone |stands and fights for thsir interests. June Cro!l Neminates DewSon June Croll, leader of the textile workers in Lawrence, nominated the Boston Négro worker, Dawson, in a spirited speech that roused the en- tire gudiémce and the delegates. Charles Carter, a Ne; worker of Reston, nominated John Ballam. ‘The nomination of Ballam and Daw- fon was followed by a five-minute cemonstration of singing and cheer- ing. Ballam’s Speech In his acceptance speech, Baliam gave a careful analysis of the situ- vation in Massachusetts, exposing thé Democratic Party administration. ,There are 400,000 unemployed work- érs in the state that murdered Sacco ‘and Vanzétti, Ballam said. Out of 23,000 textile workers in Lawrence, only 2,000 are working today and these only part time. The Hood Rubber Co., in Water- town, normally employing 8,600, now las a part-time force of only 600. Thé Genofal Electric Co. in Lyin, one of the biggest plants in the World, normally employed 14,000, but has a part time force ranging ween 700 and 1,000, ‘The Democratic Party Govertior, _ Ely, Ballam said, stands for-the same ( } | t | High School died on ‘Thursday after an illness of four days. Me had no |Money and was unable to afford medical treatment. Policy of wage cuts, charity doles, forced labor, ruthless suppression and deportation as Hunger Hoover. ‘The chief claim to fame of Ely, creature of the State Street bankers, is his work in smashing the Lawrence strike of October, 1931. For Open Autocracy Ely, in line with the fascist pro- posal of Owen D. Young, calls for a change in the constitution of the United States, to centralize authority in the hands of the executive through appointment rather than election of state officers. Mayor James M. Curley of Boston, a Repsevelt man and reputed “pro- gressive” Democrat. said in a “pros- perity day address” last Labor Day: “The most vleasing feature in con- nection with the depression is the fact that the industriel leeders of American have stood firm for the maintenance of the saving wage and have refused to cut the same,” This demagog Curley, Ballam stated, ignores the wave of wage cuts which has swept through every in- dustry of Massachusetts, robbing the workers in many cases of half their wages, Sceialist Strike Breakers ‘The Socialist Party nominated Al- fred Baker Lewis for Governor of Marsachusetts at Springfield last week. Lewis is an ex-preacher like Norman Thomas. He claims to be a militant socialist, but the party {fs judgcd by its deeds, Ballam said. and not by its werds, and he showed how Lewis associated with Governor Bly and the A. F. of L. to break the last Lawrence strike. Ballam promised he would carry en la relentless struggle against the Se- cialist Party strikebreakers of Massa- chusetts. Demonstrate For Ferd The whole audience stocd up in a spontaneous demonstration when Ford entered the hall. As soon as the workers recognized him, they began singing “The International,” and a group of young workers started to march around the hall, singing “Solidarity.” For nearly an hour, Ford told the workers of the tasks before them, He analyzed the character and the re- sults of the Republican Party na- tional convention, and showed how the workers were waiting for leader- ship to rally in wide masses around the platform of the Communist Party. Ford called on the delegates to go back to their homes and local- ities to rally the workers in their neighborhoods and their towns for the Struggle against hunger, wage cuts and war and to pile up a huge Communist vote as a working class answer to oppression, Ford stated and explained by concrete examples the six main points of the Commu- nist Party's national plpat‘orm, The nominating convention opened ithe drive for the mass collection of signatures to put the Communist Party candidates on the ballot in this state, ¢ ‘The delegates raised 12° towards the election campaign fynd here. Leave Flats, Take | Over Empty Build- | ings (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) | thonal machine guns were yesterday | brought to the Marine Barracks. | Realizing the significance of this, | Washington workers today distrib- | uted at all army posts leaflets cal< | ling upon the troans to disobey com- | mands to attack the vets in the event’ {they were ordered to do 80, 3 A number of soldiers and marines helped the workers distribute these leaflets. Fear of the growing pressure of the rank and file veterans against the “high command”, forced Waters, hand-picked chief of the Bonus Bx- peditionary Forces, to permit a rank and file veteran to speak from the Platform at a meefing held at the camp. Previously only a selected few were allowed to speak. More and more of the rank and file veterans are ‘putting forward the fighting program of the Work- ers Ex-Servicemen’s League, and pressure on their part has forced the “high command” to permit the elec- tion of company committees and commanders. A sharp fight is now on to seat Pace in the executive committee of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, “Leaders” Try Jim-Crowing. Jim-crowism raised its ugly head teday when the administration gang attempted to segregate Negro vet- erans. A bitter fight against this is being waged especially by the Illi- nois veterans which staged a sharp battle on the same issue when they first arrived in Washington, Support for the W.E,S.L.’s demand for an immediate demonstration at thé Capitol before Congress adjourns is getting wide support among the veterans. They say they will force the demonstration ovér the head of the “high command”, as they did before the Senate when police raised the Eleventh Street bridge which spans the Potomac, in an effort to prevent the spontaneous omrush to the Capitol on Friday. * By HARRY RAYMOND, ‘Tents made of carpets, old rags, {awnings and odds and ends of can- vass; leaky wocden sheds covered with tin; shanties and miniaturé cow sheds floating on a sea of mud. This is Anaccstia Camp, home of 8,000 unemployed working men who fought to make the world safe for Wall Street. Six cents a day per head for food. Mighty slim diet. Yet a steel worker from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, said, "That's more than I had to eat at Home.” Hoover, the government, Wall St. got hell here today, “Congress and Hoover aré aaginSt anything which would benefit the working man.” A Negro vet from Louisianna said this. A metal worker from Youngs- town: “I’m getting sick of this talk about reds. I’m not a red yet, but I'll be damn soon be one, 1 read that red hand bill this morn- ing and it’s o. k. The reds are fighting for the vets and the work- ers.” The Workers x-Servicemen’s Léague fs illegal hére, but it is here just the same. The best sections of the veterans from the big industrial cities are forming themselves around the W. E. S. L. groups. These grouns Played havoe with Jim-crowism, 'Thé Chicago contingent, two thirds of which are white, elected Gardner, Negro veteran from the Ninth Car alry as their commander. t The bugler blew assembly shortly y starving families are a city problem, and the city passes the buck to the Federation. Expose A Demagog. Mayor Thatcher of Toledo was elected on the basis of a lot of dem- agogic promises to prevent unem- ployment and relieve starvation. The Communist Party of Toledo has is- sued a statement exposing the mayor, | as follows: “Thousands have beeti cut off from the city, more are losing what little they have been getting. Rations are being cut down to amount to $1.15 to $2.13 pet week, forcing recipients to work a whole day for it, Reg- ular city wages are supposed to be 60c per hour or $4.80 per day. Forced Labor. “Fair and square,” ‘Thatcher ap- proved a city ordinance forcing every worker to work all day for his groceries! How long will it be be- fore every city employee will be forced to work on 2 forced labor ba- sis? The ‘Fair and Square’. mayor's finance committee asked council on June 10th to purchase riot guns, tear gas bombs and hand grenades, so that the police can take care of the unemployed workers. “Workers! Employed and Unem- Ployed, if the mayor can foree you to work for the city for 60c a day, how long before John Willys can force you to work for him for the same amount?” after I arived in Camp Anacostia yesterday. He blew and blew until his face became all purple, but only a few hundred assembled in front of the pletform where stood Waters’ lieutenants. “What's the matter?” I asked a vet who was sitting in an open front, one reom apartment made of cracker boxes. “Why don’t the boys assem- ble when the bugle blows?” “Assemble, hell. We're just tired, most of us—to tired to assemble up there in the mud and listen to the bull of the canm commander and the ‘chaplain. It’s the same story all the time and it’s not getting us the bonus or help for our hungry families back home. We need action to win, friend. And the action of those lads up on the platform is not the kind for winin'.” I went to see what was taking placé on the platform. ‘There were only only about three | se “ih Upper left, a mission sign. N othing is really free at a church; they try to buy you with a bow! of soup. Upper right, great mass dem- onstration of Pittsburgh workers, on March 6, 1930, the beginning of the growing fight of the jobless. Below the Pittsburgh pict and bottom pictare, how t! delphia shack town, called “Hoove JOBLESS FIGHT IN ROCHESTER Cop’s ‘Victim Framed While in Hospital ROCHESTER, N. Y., June 29—A} demonstration planned by the Unem- ployed Councils to protest against the rian revolutionary paper in this shutting off of gas and electricity and / country, has been ordered to be de~ reduction of relief was attacked here | ported June 29 to fascist Roumania. by 180 policemen whose orders were} Comrade Bebrits last year exposed } to “keep ‘em moving.” Among those| before the Hamilton Fish Commit- | arrested is a militant woman worker, | tee the close relationship between the | Nancy Ventrella, whose husband was | bloody fascist government of Admiral | framed-up on charge of felonious as-| Horthy of Hungary and the bloody | sault, | boss class government of the United | ‘The method of making these frame | States. Since then, the American) ups is easily seen from what hap- government decidad to get rid of this | pened. Comrade Vito Ventrella was revolutionary leader of the Hungar- clubbed that he was taken |!2n masses, {ox hobs for treatment. While be-| Only last week, another revels | ing treated, a cop started to abuse tionary worker, Alex Szilagyi, was aI him with the most vile profanity Be- | rested in sates Ohio, on é fake | coming angry at this abusive language | charge of “illegal entry, an ! od the Comrade told the cop, “If anyone Prutally beaten up by agents of the is a... it’s you!” Whereupon the cop; department of justice, He is now punched him in the nose. Comrade being held for deportation. Ventrella in attempting to dodge this| This is in line with the boss class is. a demonsttation in Rockford, ML ed, homeless jobless live in the PI ORDER UJ ELORE |Try to Ship Bebrits to Fascist Roumania CLEVELAND, Juné 20.—Louis Beb- rits, editor of Uj Elore, the only Hun- a r nt policy to terrorize and vi y y rea¢hed out his hands | overnmen ee COE OT a ened to strike a deport foreign born wotkers, Edith tabl San wets there was a scisors.| Berkman, the courageous leader of able v1 e BCLS | $ . : ‘The cop immediately seized on this Le ee bite spon, is now Opportunity to charge him with “as-|Pelng held for deportation, Ae nae p i The International Labor Defense at} | has demanded that Comrade Bebrits be given voluntary departure, Flood the offices of the Department of Labor and President Hoover with de- mands that this murderous policy of sault, second degree.” aBil was se! $2,000 property. All except the woman had to spend | the night in jail until bail was raised the next morning when they all plea- | ded “Not Guilty.” Their cases were ‘EDITOR DEPORTED hundred men out of the eight thous- ladjourned until June 29th. ‘The or- | deportation be stopped. and who are camped in the muddy!genizer of the Unemployed Council, | flats gathéred around the speakers’ |Genovesee, Had his bail raised to) position it was retracted. However, platform. Sure enough the camp commander was there and the chap- lain. I remembered the chaplain. 1 met him the night before posting for the cameramen on the Capitol steps. He told me his name was T. W. Evants, that he was a preacher in the army at Camp Tayolr during the war, that he is now helping the police department ferret out reds in Camp Anacostia as well as acting in the capacity of official sky pilot for the “Bonus Expeditionary Forces.” He is obviously a psychopathic case, The camp commander was speak- ing. One thing we have got to do is to drive out the disruptors. If you find a red in the camp run him out.” “It’s a lot of bunk”, said a Né- sro vet from Mississippi. A white vet who was walking be- side him said, “sure.” Against Hunger and War. There are twenty thousand veter- ans in Camp Anacostia and Camp Bartlett and the buildings in Wash- ington. Here is a section of the American workers upon whom the Wail Street government depended as a reservoir for fageist. shock troops. Three thousand of them sat on the Senate stepe displaying their misery to the werld. They asked the gov- this action will probably result in re- stricting the use of the floor to others than the U. C, Although the Associated Gas and Electric Co. gets most of its power from the Genesee River and made $112,000,000 last year from this river, the company has persisted in an out- rageous attempt to deprive everyone | except the rich of gas and electricity. lution to prevent the La apeed seeing apépations to the | has resulted in forcing the unemploy- ity. uti op- (ed to use oil lamps for light and coal City Council. The resolution was op: lr rite eae eat posed by only one councilman, g so- |!" Cooking in the hot summer, |small amount of relief given to the | Gelléd. Uberpl, and because of his Op- | moved is made to cover the cost | for oil in the lamps. | ernment for their back wages to keep | Grocery Graft. them from starving. The government) All grocery orders are made out to! told these men to go and starve. stores which are owned by contribu- | Great sections of these men are \tors to thé Republican machine. Ex- disillusioned. Illusions remain in the $1,000 by order of Poilce Inspector. Fight for Floor. In the City Council the committee which was to present resolutions was cut short in its attempts to spéak by an irate councilman who stated that} “Communists should not be granted the right of the floor at the City Council meefings.” Raising the false issue of the “impossibility of the U. C. orbitant prices are charged the un- | breasts of many, but they are being @Mmployed at these stores for old, stale | uprooted. Communists in the ranks |Merchandise. | of the veterans are on the way to| The Unemployed Councils are foin- | perform a real Bolshevik deed. New ite with the LL.D. to help fight the) fresh cadres of American Commu- |frame-up charges. Mass protests are | nists are breaking through the ut- being arranged and plans are being | most fascist terror, are consolidating |laid for the day of trial. A mass meet~ & united’ front from below of the |ing will be held in Washington Square veterans and the working class for jon Saturday night to protest against revolutionary struggle against hun-~the police terrorism. ger and war, By Milton Lewis. ’ ee -Lne ‘ — May a year ago, it was 75.2 per cent, Needless to say. these figures are ernment admits, anyway. Payroll totals for May of this year are considered by the Bureal of La- bor Statistics to be 42.5 per cent of |normal, and for May of last year, 87.6 per cent of norma 2,000 Demonstrate. KANSAS CITY, Kan.. June 20.— In response to the call of the Unem ployed Council of Kansas City, Kan sas for a demonstration against the jimmediate émergency relief, 2,000 workers turned out, right in the heart of the business section of the city at 7th and Minnesota over was made up largely of Negro work- lere, Wes apparent tight from the plauded and cheered. Over 300 |signed applications for membership [in the unemployed council, A corn- mitte of a dozen workers was elected |demands before Mayor McCombs. The mayor's reply was a lot of cheap But h the suffering poor. said he | Was “powerless to do anyth for | them.” Speakers pointed out that the county in which Kansas City is lo- cated had collected $443,000 for “charity” and thet of this only $60,000 had been alloted to the family Service. The rest went into big sal- aries and graft, and to the bosses’ patriotic organizations, the YMCA, the .Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, etc A speaker for the Communist Party called on the workers to sup- port the Communist ticket in the élections—including the Kansas State ticket, for which signatures are being collected. The Communist Party de. mands for unemployment and social insurance at the st of the state and employers, was unanimously en-~ | dorsed. Organization meetings of the 5 who signed up for memb being called in the vario igh- borhoods during the next few days | 500 Stop Lawrence Eviction LAWRENCE. Mass., June 20.—The attempt to evict the unemployed mill worker, Jervais, at 58 Oxford St \ brought a call for demonstration \from the Unemployed Council's Neighborhood Committee, of 500 men women afid children assembled at |10 a. m, The sheriff, who had served evic- tion papers came down, and left Much faster than he came. A motor cycle cop charged down, took a look at the masses of workers pouring into the street from doorways, side streets and up and down Oxford St., and the cop left too. The landlord ‘and the moving van never showed up at all. Joe Figuerda, a strike organizer in or about three quarters of normal. | fclosing of the family service and for | ‘The militancy of the crowd, which | start. The speakers were loudly ap- | | by the demonstrators to place their | | in English demagogy and hot-air sympathy for made him carry the stuff back in Unemployed workers and a cdm-~- mitte of the Unemployed Courieit too high, but this is what the gov-|held a meeting and heard speechés * * }for a few minutes at 611 Kirkpatriek ~ 8t., June 7, then put all the furniture back in. When the police got there, they found the temper of the crowd so high that they did not dare mate arrests. Instead, they carried off te jail for their own protection, the men who were doing the evicting, 2 Build a workers correspondence group in your factory, shop oF neighborhood. Send regular letters to the Daily Worker. M3 Wherever You Are YoU | Can Have the Only working class papen}-- Send in Your Sub for the Summer gs $6 a year ($8 in, 50c a month DAILY WORKER” 50 E. 13th St. N. ¥. G ¥.0) Vote Communist . BUTTONS Are Ready for MASS SALE and Distribution Send Check With Ordersej Or Will Send C. 0. 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