The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 20, 1933, Page 1

| | | { I Editorials 1 We Must Not Slacken Fight , Against Alabama Lynchers! 9g PE Nigger boys will get the same kind of treatment | here that they got at Scottsboro,” says a county offi- cial at Decatur, scene of the new Sco oro trial. “They got a fair trial the last time. If any Niggers come around the courtroom and start acting up, something might hap- pen. If this thing had happened 25 years ago there would not have been any trial.” As the date for the new trial nears, all the forces of fynch-law are drawn into the task of preparing a new lynching. Prosecuting attorneys, attorney-gen , judges and sheriffs and police, businessmen and newspaper writers -—all ure being assigned their part in the job of murdering these Negro lads. With. the most tender care, with the most loving precision, the Iynchers of Alabama are build- ing the gallows for the nine Scottsboro boys, long since proved innocent. The state has refused a change of venue to Birmingham. This legal move, alone, reveals its sinister intention, For there is a growing mass movement of the workers in Birmingham. Negro and white workers have in recent months struggled side by side for bread and’ work. This common struggle is dealing hammer hlows to old race-hatreds. The state knows this, and it knows that where the power of the workers is stronger, the possibility of freeing such victims as the Scottsboro boys is far greater. But in the small town of Decatur, 50 miles from Scottsboro and only 30 miles from Huntsville, home of the two white girls, there has been, as yet, no struggle of industrial workers, Negro and white, against their | exploiters. Like Scottsboro, Decatur is a tiny town of small businessmen | and farmers, still filled with the poison of race-hatred. The right of a private interview with their attorneys, a legal right granted automatically in most cases, has been denied the Scottsboro boys for two years, under every lying and hypocritical excuse. ‘The forces of the state have already made it clear that they will fight to the last ditch to prevent the inclusion of Negroes on the jury. The ac- | evsation of Roy Wright, that the militia at Scottsboro intimidated him, by physical torture, into giving false testimony, is dismissed by Attorney- General Knight, deputy of the lynchers, with the statement that “the unsupported word of a Negro prisoner is not sufficiently important to warrant investigation.” The possibility of a lynching outside the courtroom grows daily. Un- Jess the defense and the masses behind the defense can call a halt, the boys will be housed in an old jail, admittedly unsafe, from which jail- breaks are so frequent as to be no longer news. This is a deliberate, public and cynical invitation to a lynching! The local press continues to whip up lynch sentiment against the boys. This press has not changed, but has grown fiercer in its demand yor blood, since the Jackson County Sentinel announced that “a Negro juror in Jackson County would be a curiosity—and some curiosities are embalmed, you know.” i Thus, by every means at their command—denial of ordinary legal rights, the whipping up of lynch spirit—the Alabama rulers prepare the path over which they hope to lead nine innocent young boys to a horrible death, What then can save the Scottsboro boys? Time and again these boys have been snatched from the electric chair by the roar of protest from the masses in every corner of the globe. The events of the past few weeks show, more clearly than ever, that these magses alone can again save the boys. Demand of Governor Miller, of the Decatur judges, of Attorney-Gen- eral Knight, that the boys be removed for trial to Birmingham, where Negro and white workers by the thousands are fighting for bread and work and for the rights of Negroes. Negro workers! White workers! Lift up your voices! Protest! Shout into the ears of the Alabama lynchers: “MURDERERS! The Scottsboro boys shall not die!” Only a mighty outpouring of mass protest can smash this carefully-planned lynching, can swing open the prison doors and set the Scottsboro boys free. It is upon the basis of a let-down in the mass protest in the past few ‘weeks that the Alabama lynchers have been able to win their legal points. No more victories to the lynchers! Workers and farmers: NEGLECT IS MURDER! Seamen Win Their Wages in Spite of Bank Holiday © big shipping companies decided not to pay wages to their seamen, Roosevelt’s banking holiday was the excuse. These shipping com- panies reckoned without their host. The seamen struck, demanding full payment of their wages, and won their demands. The first to strike was the crew of the British steamship Belgenland of the Red Star Line. When the crew of this steamship returned from the Caribbean cruise they were told that they could not be paid because of the bank holiday, ‘The seamen did not take “no” for an answer. Under the leadership of the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union, they struck and won their demand for immediate payment of their wages. Tir addition to the demand for immediate payment of wages they also demanded better food and that two men listed as deserters for leaving the ship without permission be reinstated without a fine. In this case the militancy of the workers, aroused by the refusal to pay their wages, with the aid of organization and leadership on the part of the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union, also resulted in raising other demands which the company was compelled to grant. A few days later the crew of the steamship Munargo of the American ‘Munson Line struck when the shipping bosses refused to pay their wages, claiming that the money is tied up because of the Roosevelt bank holi- day. The seamen demanded immediate payment of their wages. In or- der to avert a strike the company paid them immediately. In both cases we have a splendid example of how militancy and or- ganization of the workers can stop the forced hunger drive of the Roose- velt administration. ‘The action of the seamen in the New York Port must be extended to all branches of industry in the struggle against the offensive of the pres- ent hunger administration in Washington. Stop Shipment of Munitions HIPLOADS of war materials are leaving United States ports regularly for Japan to use in its war of imperialist plunder against the Chinese people. For instance, the New York Evening Post of March 16, says: “War in the Far East is having its effect on the automobile industry of the United States. Japan meds steel for the making of munitions of war and is buying large quantities of junk metal. Increase in scrap- metal shipments from Los Angeles since the beginning of the invasion of China is estimated at about 2,000 per cent. And as part of the ex- port one wrecking firm expects to send more than 50,000 outworn auto- mobiles. to Japan this year.” ‘As these shipments are being made to help Japan wage war against China, to arm it for war against the Soviet Union. It is an old practice of the war-mongers—sell war material to the enemy against whom war conspiracies are being carried out. It was Karl Leibknecht in the German Reichstag in 1913 who exposed the fact that German munition manufacturers, and the Krupps, were selling arms and munitions to France, while at the same time bribing certain French news- papers to publish provocative attacks against Germany, and in turn hay- ing their own hirelings in the Reichstag denounce these provocations. ‘There is nothing too vile for imperialist war mongers. And those of the ‘United States have not only thoroughly learned all the infamous prac- tices developed through the years, but they have invented new deceptive practices; the students have become. teachers, . . ae war raging in the Far East, the struggle for the Pacific, the out- breaks of war in South America, where United States imperialism is aggressively challenging its imperialist rival, England; the tremendous sharpening of imperialist antagonisms in every country; the launching of new provocations against the Soviet Union—all this emphasizes the warning of the Communist International to the toiling masses of the world to immediately take decisive action against the war-mongers. ‘The cargoes of war material that sail from dozens of ports of the United States are clearly a challenge to the working class to take definite action to stop them. Indignation against the shipment of arms, muni- tions and other war material from other countries is quite correctly being voiced here in the United States. But this can be no*substitute for action here. It is essential that there be developed united front action on the part of the seamen and longshoremen in United States ports to stop by strike action the shipment of war materials. Rank and file action committees to combat imperialist war conspiracies should be set up everywhere. Workers in munition plants, in scrap yards, in nitrate plants, in arms plants, must be alert to find out the destination of these products, to ex- pose the facts connected with their manufacture and shipment. In every one of these industries. and on the water-front there should be organized cops of worker correspondents that will inform the DAILY WORKER and the rest of the revolutionary press of these war moves of the enemy class so that the press can fulfill its role as agitator, propagandist and ‘Must Give Again and Again!” Sending $10, J. Kollar, of Cleveland, writes: “J donated $1 before. but when I see that the ‘Daily’ is in dan- ger, I must-help again and again.” * Dail Central Orga (Section of the Communist International) Vol. X, No. 67 <p: Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N, ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879. NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1933 OF HITLER -HINDEN Pittsburgh Increases Quota Nearly 50 P. C. MUHE Pittsburgh District has gone over the top in the financial drive and has raised its quota from $350 to $500. This is its reply to the appeal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party for quick aid Accompanying a contribution of $49.66, which put Pittsburgh nearly $50 beyond its original quota, was a letter which to the Daily Worker. declared: “We expect to be able to raise the quota for our district to $500 in- stead of the $350 that you originally set for us. As it looks now, we will accomplish it.” Readers, think what this means. among the worst hit by the crisis of any in the country. The Pittsburgh District has been In the two chief industries, coal and steel, tens of thousands of workers are totally unemployed and most of the rest are working only a couple of days a week at starvation wages.. Yet it is this district which is the first to fulfill its quota. And it is this dstrict which is the first—and so far the only—district to increase its original quota, rasing it by nearly 50. per cent. i” ie * 2 n do they, do it? Here’s how: “Dear Comrades: “Enclosed please find list and money order to the total of $2.55 from the workers and sympathizers in the Turtle Creek Valley (Pitts- burgh District). As one worker puts it: ‘If the Daily Worker fails, it will be the fault of the workers of the Turtle Creek Valley.’ “You shall hear more from the Turtle Creek Valley Un funds to save the Daily Worker.” “Daily” alive now. Fraternally, Oscar Grumet. This is the spirit that has kept the Daily Worker alive for over nine years. This is the spirit which, if repeated a hundred, a thousand times throughout the country, will raise the full $35,000 needed to keep the Which district will be the first to follow the example of Pittsburgh? in Saturday’s- paper we told you how the money contributed so far has been spent and why the full $35,000 is needed to keep the “Daily” going. Quick action is essential. Ask every worker or sympathizer you come in contact with today for a contribution. Get together a group of friends for a house party for the “Daily.” Speed every cent tothe Daily Worker, 50 E. 18th St., New York City. RECEIVED SATURDAY $403.72 NEW YORK.—The story of how a white reporter for a number of Southern Negvo newspapers narrowly escaped lynching in Scottsboro two weeks ago when the change of venue was being argued there, was told yesterday to the International Labor Defense here, ‘The newspaperman, who has just come up to New York from the South, in relating his experiences, gave further confirmation of the lynch atmosphere which is now care- fully being prepared for the Scotts- boro boys. Sounding the alarm, Willlam L. Patterson, national secretary of the I. L. D,, in a wire sent Saturday to workingclass organizations all over the country and to every district of the I. L. D., declared in substance: “Immediate mass action must rouse millions to save the Scotis- boro boys. Let up in mass action is responsible for the present si- tuation in which the nine inno- cent Negro boys are faced with an infinitely greater danger of lynch- ing. Neglect is murder.” The wire also called on all or- ganizations and individuals to wire Gov. B. M. Miller of Alabame, de- manding a change of venue for the Scottsboro case from the lynch- town of Decatur, in Northern rural Alabama, to Birmingham, where ® wide working class population of Negro and white would make it more difficult for the authorities to make lynch-preparations. Describing how he narrowly avold- ed death at the hands of a lynch mob in Scottsboro, the reporter for the Negro press said: ™T asked the way to the fail, when I came in,” he told an I. L. D. re- presentative.” “I was immediately surrounded by a mob of armed men, who took me to the sheriff's office, demanding that I be lynched. There was no indication that the sheriff opposed this idea. Certainly the mbo didn’t expect real opposition. The sheriff, however, wanted to be care- ful. The Scottsboro trial was still to come with its greater lynch possibi- lities. They kept me in the sheriff's office until eight o’clock in the ovgenizer and immediately aim decisive blows against the imperialist war- NOMZETS. morning, with the gang baiting and heckling’ me. ane for the nine framed-up Negro youths | “The charge against me, though I was not arrested, was, as nearly as I could figure out from the talk, that I ‘had come to help them “niggers” some way.’ They couldn’t quite figure me out, so they kept me in the office j until eight in the morning, and then put me out of town. the gang ac- companying me on the road. I had walked down the road a long way, leaving the Scottsboro people behind before I felt sure I wasn’t going to be strung up or shot that day.” charged, are directly connected with the condition of the jail in De- catur, which is such that, as a de- puty described it to the New York Times reporter: “You could get out of there with a spoon.” The same applies to getting in, the I. L. D. pointed out, and this was one of the factors which influenced Knight and Hawkins to select Decatur for the scene of the trial. Threaten Militia In further preparation for the lynching, Sheriff A. W. Davis of Morgan county, in which Decatur is located, has announced he will ask for militia to be sent there, and May- or James A. Nelson said he will mo- bilize the American Legion. Decatur, I. L. D. investigators have revealed, is the headquarters for cri- minal gangs which opearte thruout the state. The leader of one of these gangs is quoted as having said of the Scottsboro case that “if he had been on that train, there wouldn't have been any trial, there wouldn't have been any. arrests, and there wouldn't have been any of the ‘nig- gers’ alive.” Gang Murders Suppressed Immediately following the lynch- trial of the nine boys in 1931, an un- known number of Negroes were mur- dered on freight trains in northern Alabama. The number has been con- servatively estimated at twenty, The Decatur gangsters are re- vealed by the investigation as claiming credit for these murders. In a further statement today, the I. L. D. repeated its warning and its charges, growing out of investigation of lynch preparations for the Scotts- boro boys and their defenders in Northern Alabama, that “vigilance committees” have been set-up, cen-! ‘The lynch-plans, te I. L. D. has; TOTAL TO DATE $20,435.36 Try to Lynch White Reporter for Negro Press at Scottsboro Hearing Charged With “Helping Niggers” ; Decatur Gangsters Claim Credit for Murdering Negroes; Prepare Lynchings at Trial tering in Huntsville, which is half- way between Scottsboro and Decatur, for the organization of a lynching party in case the boys are acquitted. These “vigilance committees,” called originally in an open letter in the Huntsville Times soon after the an- nouncement of the U. S. Supreme Court decision, have spread their murderous tentacles all over north- ern Alabama, and are now tighten- ing their organizations in final pre- Parations for the trial which is to open on March 27. (See additional Scottsboro News on Page 3), SOUTH SLAVS SCORE HITLER CHICAGO, Il, March 19.—The National Committee of the South Slav Workers Clubs has wired an en- ergetic protest against the Hitler Terror, to the German embassy in Washington. The resolution de- mands release of Thaelmann and all arrested German Communists. orker the-Cominynist Party U.S.A. CITY EDITION Save the Nine Scottsboro Boys Speed funds immedi« ately to the Daily Worker, leader in the struggle to save the nine innocent Scotts< boro boys! .. o» 0 « Price 3 Cents New York District, urges a DEMAND A HALT TO THE FASCIST ATTACK BURG MURDER REGIME! THAELMANN TORTURED DAY AND NIGHT: IN NAZI PRISON; INTERNATIONAL RED AID REPORTS HE “LOOKS LIKE A CORPSE” / Also Torture Torgler and Pieck, Communist Deputies, in Attempt To Get “Confession”; Police Give Ultimatum Prisoners Will Be Shot Unless They Say Reds Burned Reichstag NEW YORK.—The Communist Party American Federation of Labor, and all other organizations of workers, to join in an anti-fascist demonstra- tion before the German Consulate this Saturday, March 25, at 10:30 a.m. MW workers, the Socialist Party, the Workers and mass organizations | will assemble at South and Whitehall Streets and then march on the Consulate. | VIENNA, March 19.—The Vienna Socialist “Arbeiter Zeitung” published a statement ‘ yesterday from the International Red Aid with a.call to the workers throughout the world to organize powerful protest actions to save the life of Thaelmann and other victims of Nazi terror. 1 out the day and night. TAKE THE LEAD AGAINST HITLER! IT.U.U.L. Calls To All| For United Struggle NEW YORK.—The Trade Union | Unity League, central organization of | workers in militant unions and oppo- sition groups in other unions, yes- | terday issued a call to fight for the release of Thaelmann, Torgler and all other Anti-Fascist fighters and to protest the bloody Hitler terror in Germany. The call, signed by Wil- liam Z. Foster, General Secretary of | the Trade Union. Unity League, states: | “Call meetings of the revolutionary unions and leagues to discuss the question of the fight against terror in Germany. The role of the Social- ist leaders who voted for Hindenberg and paved the way for Hitler must be exposed. “We must save Thaelmann, Torgler and the other German working-class leaders, and the tens of thousands of workers imprisoned in Hitler's jails, from the claws of this vicious cap- italist bird of prey. “The American working class must| organize powerful mass demonstra- tions against the terror in Germany —in every city, and before the em-/ bassy and consulates of the bloody | German government. In these dem-)| onstrations the revolutionary trade} unions. dnd leagues and oppositions} and all their members and sympa-| thizers must take the fullest part.| NEW -YORK.—Louis Marshall Lodge, 404 Independent Order of Odd Fellows, passed a resolution de-| manding that the U. S. government | protest the Hitler terror against the German workers. PARTY MEMBERS, ATTENTION! All members of the Com- munist Party, District 2, are to come to an important membership meeting tonight at the New Star Casino, 107th Street and Park Ave- nue, at 7 p.m., SHARP. The situation in Germany and the United Front tactics will be on the agenda of the The statement reads as follows: “¥rom the first day that Thaelmann, Chairman of the German Communis arrested, he was subjected to the worst tortures. “The Hitlerites also tortured Ernest Torgler, Chairman of the Communist fraction in the Reichstag, who app-ared be- fore the Berlin police author-| ities to expose the burning of | |the Reichstag by the Hitler- | Other Communist Depu-| among them Wilhelm Pieck, are also tortured. “The political police with their leader, Diehls, want to compel the arrested deputies to admit the lies and provocations of the Nazis against the Com- munist Party. They told Thaelmann to wrii- a confes- sion that the Commynist Party is financed by the Soviet Gov- ernment. This is the reason for torturing him day and nigi.t Diehls gave Thaelmann an ultimatum that if he would not sign such 1 confession, he, a Party, was The Hitlerites have tortured him through- At the present time Comrade Thaelmann looks like a living corpse ——®and is in danger of death. Sens es (2,000 PROTEST AT CONSULATE Philadelphia Workers | Assail Hitler Terror PHILADELPE esterday demonstration was Pa., March 19, re the y surpr filled surrounding the Consulate. streets The workers carried many bann with slogans demanding the release of Thaelmann and all arrested work- ers and intellectuals. The police attacked the demon- stration. In spite of the police at- tack, a number of speeches were made which lasted about 15 minutes. Three workers were arrested. Torgler and Pieck will be shot “This was the situation on the 11th of March.” ROOSEVELT IN WAR AND DEBT MANEUVERS TO WIN SUPREMACY BULLETIN PARIS, March 19—Gas warfare between armies and against the civilian populations is here to stay, Prof. Jacques Parisot told a group of high French Army officers at Nancy today. Prof. Parisot is a member of the special poison gas commission of the League of Nations. He stated that the League is urging the imperialist powers to prepare for chemical warfare, and cited the following declaration from a resolution adopted by the League’s poison gas commission: “Technically, no means for the prevention of chemical warfare exists. ‘Therefore the risks of chemical warfare will not disappear until the risks meeting. Admission by membership book only! of war itself disappear.” A move to utilize the developing war situation in Europe for the pur- pose of forcing the debtor countries to accept Wall Street’s program for concessions on the uncollectable war was initiated by Roosevelt on debts, Saturday, The President held a series of se- cret conferences with Cordell Hu! Secretary of State, and Norman Davis. ‘These were followed by con- ferences separately with the French The and German Ambassadors. usual imperialist pretext of “promot- ing peace” was offered to explain the} which are shrouded in} | conferences, the greatest secrecy. Norman H. at-large of the Hoo" Administra- ion, is to continue to represent Wall | epresentative- ences and at the approachin economic conference.” He tinue to maneuve for U. S. supremacy and concessions on the war debts. He will offer a counter-plan to the latest British “arms reduction” proposals, Meanwhile, the “Journal des De- bates” significantly comments on the British proposals: “Under the pre- "| text of saving the conference and putting an end to Europe’s troubles, MacDonald is taking the road which leads to the most perilous crisis.” The concessions offered to Italian imperialism by the British plan and Rome steyday th Mussolini have cially strained Anglo-French tions. The French also fight the British proposal for the re-arming of espe- | Street at the “disarmament” confer-! Germany, Rally Vets tor United Front Struggle Against Cuts, tor Bonus Now As Bigger Slashes Loom NEW YORK.—New York vet- erans will protest against the cuts in veterans’ benefits and will de- mand from the city immediate cash relief at a mass demonstration and parade Friday, March 24. The vets will rally at 10 a. m. in Union Square and march to the Board of Estimate. An open hearing on the veterans’ demands and mass trial of Com- missioner of Welfare Taylor will be held Wednesday night at 8 p. m. at asked to be present to defend h'm- self. This meeting, as well as the demonstration’ Friday, is being or- ganized by the Workers Ex-Service- men’s League. Veterans’ administration officials throughout the country are busy making preparations for the drastic eutesins its-that-will start as Roosevelt Plans $600,000,000 Reduction; Elect Action Committees, Force Him to Retreat! soon as President Roosevelt signs his Wall Street-dictated economy bill, passed by the House and Senate. Plans are already under way to cur- tail the facilities of the 48 veterans’ hospitals, with the possibility that some of these will be shut down en- tirely. On March 1 there were 46,387 veterans under care in these hos- pitals. At the same time it is beginning to be openly stated in government circles that the cuts for veterans and overnment employes that Roosevelt ‘will put through will total not $500,- 000,000, but $600,000,000. Since the bill sets no limit as to the extent of the cuts, but gives Roosevelt dicta- torial powers in the matter, it is clear that the president will try, to put across as big a reducion as he can get away with. Protests are continuing to pour in at the White House and in Congress from veterans throughout the coun- try denouncing this robber bill that is designed to kick over 400,000 dis- abled vets completely off the pay- ment list and to drastically reduce the benefits to more than 1,000,000 other ex-servicemen and their de- pendents. Among the rank and file of the American Legion and Vet- erans of Foreign Wars there is es- pecial bitterness over the open be- trayal of their leaders. The chorus of praise issuing from the throats of the misleaders of the Legion and Veterans of Forei, Wars continues to grow.Among the {.atest warblers for the bankers’ pro- gram are Maurice Stember, adjutant of the New York Department of the |Legion, Hugh Galleher, commander jof the Willard Star Straight Post, James H. Donaldson, commander of the John Purroy Mitchell Post, John Dwight Sullivan, New York county commander of the Legion, and Dr, Leonard J. Harmon, county com- mander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Workers’ Ex-Servicemen’s League and the Veterans’ National Liaison Committee appeals to the rank and file of the American Legion, V. F. W., Disabled American Vet- erans, etc., as well as to ex-service= men not affiliated with any group to elect committees of action in a broad united front fight aginst the cuts and for payment of the bonus now. Get in touch with the Liaison Committee, Box 1212, Washington, D. C., or with the W. E. S. L., 799 Broadway, New York City, | " §