The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 26, 1933, Page 1

rx ~ ATTEND MOONEY-SCOTTSBORO MEET, COLISEUM, TOMORROW E EVE. orxer taynist Party U.S.A. Denials Will Not Whitewash Their Bloody Attack No more brazen falsehood has yet issued from the mouths of the misleaders of the American Federation of Labor than the statement reported today by A. F. L. officials in Washington that the “New York furriers situation is a purely local affair and that they know nothing of the plans of the A. F. of L. to re-enter the situation here,” and by Peter Lucchi, president of the defunct International Fur Workers Union, deny- ing knowledge of the murderous attack on the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union.” ‘The gangster attack on the union offices of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, which resulted in the killing of two gangsters and the wounding of 22 workers, was not a spontaneous affair. It was planned and executed under the direction of the Associated Fur Manu- facturers, Inc., jointly with the A. F. of L. leaders. Advance announcement in the Women’s Wear Daily, organ of the garment bosses, implicates these enemies of the workers in a deliberate conspiracy for the specific purpose of shooting down the leaders of the left-wing union and terrorizing the union membership. The attack was subsidized by thousands of dollars contributed through sources controlled by the Jewish Daily Forward, which now has the audacity to pretend that the gangster attack was “for the purpose of collecting money due from the Communists.” In announcing the atiack, the bosses admitted frankly in a head- line>“Right Wing Group Attempts Realignment of Fur Workers; Drive To Start This Morning.” ..The report goes on to state further that “the American Federation of Labor has definitely decided to enter the labor situation in the fur manufacturing field and to enforce its contract with the Associated Fur Coat and Trimming Manufacturers ... The first steps toward such a move were scheduled for today.” Thus, the fur bosses and the A. F. of L. officials together cold-bioodedly conspired to start a drive for the killing and maiming of militant workers. That the manufacturers are supporting the efforts of the A. F. of L. to re-establish itself in the industry in order to carry on a more vicious and determined drive to beat down the living standards of the workers, is evidenced by the following statements: “Just how to enforce this agreement, of course, becomes a problem for the International, but observers assert that the manu- facturers are apt to regard this as a problem that merely needs the application of what is termed with a wink, strenuous persuasion.” The results of this “strenuous persuasion” have already been demon- strated. “And since that time (ast July when the militant members smashed the treacherous leadership and joined the Needle Trades Workers In- dustrial Union), the Associated (bosses) have been trying to get the A. F. of L. to step back into the picture.” This completes the picture of the joint responsibiiity of the bosses and the A.F.L. leadership in the murderous attack perpetrated yesterday for the purpose of “getting the A. F. L. back into the picture” to make certain of continued onslaughts upon the workers’ conditions. This is not the first time that Greer, Woll, Kaufman, etc., were responsible for instigating attacks on left-wing union members. They cannot whitewash their bloodstained treachery to the working class by denials in the press, by their acts. Postal Widens! Join Struggle for Unemployment Insurance! Postal employees are the latest victims of the Roosevelt “new deal”. In the preparations for carrying out drastic lay-offs the leadership of their unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, in collabo- ration with William Green, president of the A. F. of L., have taken the initiative on the side of the government. Instead of defending the work- ers whose interests they are paid to represent, these leaders take the side of the hunger government and help to throw them out of their jobs and into the ranks of the seventeen million unemployed. At the conference of sixty representatives of American Federation of Labor organizations, whose members are employed by the government, a proposal was made and is to be recommended to the government for a “retirement “Wage”. It provides for a wage to each dismissed ‘worker amounting to two-thirds of his or her regular salary for as many months as his years of service. Thus, if the worker has been employed five years, he gets two thirds of his salary for five months. After that he can join the ranks of the They stand condemned before the Working class | | | | destitute unemployed. The government, with the aid of the A. F. of L. | leadership, washes its hands of all further responsibility. This sort of action is particularly vicious inasmuch as all rank and file government workres are paid miserably low salaries. ducement they have hitherto had was the expectation of a life pension upon retirement. With this recommendation the pension vanishes— just as the soldiers’ bonus vanished and their pensions are vanishing. Those directly affected are the National Association of Letter Car- riers with 65,000 members, the National Federation of Postal Clerks with 40,000 members and the Railway Mail Clerks’ Association with 20,000 members. Every act of the government and the agents of capitalism at the head of the American Federation of Labor is a challenge to the rank and file of all the A. F. of L. membership and to the whole working class Fol- fowing four-years of wage cuts, increasing unemployment and mass , hunger comes the most smashing offensive of all in the form of infla- tion that is already skyrocketing the cost of living. As againsi this fierce drive there must be developed the most de- termined struggie for immediate emergency relief and for unemployment and social insurance at the expense of the government and the employers. A government that finds billions for bankers, industrialists and rail- yoad owners and spends hundreds of millions on war equipment can be ompelled by mass action to come through with food, clothing and shelter fix the starving. Workers and Farmers Unite Against the Food Trusts! A militant strike movement of the dairy farmers occurred in New + York State recently. It was marked by courageous determination on the part of the farmers to refuse any longer to accept the low prices of a penny on a quart of milk. The resentment and bitterness of the farmers expressed itself in an | elemental form. They resorted to dumping thousands of quarts of milk along the highways. The movement was assuming first class proportions, the large dairy farmers and the milk distributors being closely allied with the state in sending troopers to quell the militancy of the farmers. But the starving farmers were roused and could not be stopped in this way. It was then that the enemies of the farmers considered it necessary to head off the struggle by so-called farm relief legislation. This, the leaders together with Governor Lehman, planned and executed in the passage of the Pitcher Bill. Mass action of the farmers forced the New York legislature to take speedy action. But the small farmers lacked militant leadership and organization and their business men and banker leaders were able to put over a bill which they were led to believe was farm relief legislation but which was above all for the benefit of the milk trusts and the big dairy farmers. The Pitcher Law established a State Milk Control Board on which not a single representative of the poor farmers and the city workers Among its first acts was that of establishing a minimum price for milk to the consumer, forcing milk prices up in many sections of the state. The bill was supposed to establish a minimum for the farmer, but the farmer's interests were not considered. The capitalist press is compelled to admit that: “In its inal form ... the board’s orders are to be in subtler form, They establish a minimum to be charged to the consumer and though the power to fix a minimum for the producer is retained in the act, it is intended to use it only as a last resort.” Clearly the legislation was concerned with bolstering up the milk trust’s profits. While the milk trust will continue to pay next to nothing to the farmers, it will mulct the toiling masses by steeper prices. The farmer and the worker are equally victims of the banks and big trusts who rob them both mercilessly, The farmer and the city toiler have a common interest in the struggle against these exploiters. There is no con- flict in the demand of the farmer for higher prices for his product and the demand of the worker for lower prices for food. Both demands must. de. wrested at the expense of the common enemy, the banks and trusts vhich sweai their profits out of both the worker and farmer, | were represented. The one in- | ally Central Organs (Section of the Communist International) Enterea econd-class matter at the Post t Office ae 7 Vol. ». No. 100 = New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8 1878. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, “APRIL 26, 1933, The special May Day edition of the Daily Worker will contain articles on many of the prob- lems facing the w today An eight-page tabloid size supplement will be Included besides the regular four pages. Rush orders immediately 50 East 13th St, A short time is left to Daily Worker, Bus'ness Office New York, N. Y. Price 3 Cents’ CITY EDITION Socialist Leader Gerber, at Police Conference Boasts Unity With Police; RejectsWorkers’ Unity onstration, Gerber made his statement tonight at a meeting in his office at which were present, besides Gerber, Joseph Tuvim, Secretary of the Labor Committee, August Claessans, S. P. organizer, and to which representa tives of the United Front May Day Committee had been invited. These included Marcel Scherer of the United Front May Day Committee; Carl Trade Union Unity Council; H. D. Sizemoze of the I. W. W., Winter, of the Unemployed Councils of N. Y.; Andrew Overgaard of the and Louis F. Budenz, of the Conference for Progressive Labor Action. cae NEW YORK.—Julius Gerber, executive secretary of the Socialist Party, yesterday admitted at a conference called by the Police Department, in the presence of the represen- tatives of the United Front May Day Committee, that-he sent the letter printed Monday in| the Daily Worker, making a united front with the police. He boasted that the Socialist Party had always been on good terms with the police. In face ot the Roosevelt administration’s attacks upon the conditions of the workers, the Communist Party and diverse other organizations have joined hands in a great May Day parade and demonstration. As each day goes by, the urgent necessity for a genuine show of unity and soli- darity on the workers’ holiday is becoming evident. The executive of the Socialist Party has refused to enter upon this sincere united front of all labor forces. Its executive secretary, Julius Gerber, has written to the police, making common cause with them and suggesting that the police keep the Communist Party from coming to Union Square. He has now added to that infamy by personally urging that the police department act as the “arbiters” of the place and time at which workers’ organizations shall parade and meet on May Day. “He has furthermore stated that “The Socialists should have-no control over the streets of New York; neither should the Communists. The police are the ones who should control the streets of this city.” The committee of four, representing the United Front May Day Committee, who were present at the conference with the police at which Gerber madeyhis statements, ex- pressed their indignation today in a written statement denouncing Gerber’s attitude. The committee, composed of Carl Winter of the Un- employed Councils, Louis F. Budenz of the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, Andrew Overgaard of the Trade Union Unity Council, and A. Secco of the Industrial Work- ers of the World and the Provisional May Day Committee, were called to the office of Deputy Police Commissioner Walsh. There they found Gerber, who was called into confer- ence on his request that the Communists be excluded from Union Square. The committee of the United Front May Day Committee insisted that a permit for Union Square had been written for as far back as February 13. They also emphasized that their line of march for the parade had been outlined well before the Socialists had gotten in touch with the police, and pointed out that Gerber had then set his parade for much the same area as the route of the United Front parade. They further insisted that workers’ organizations should settle their own problems among themselves, and that the police could not be the judges of any such dispute. Gerber, however, persisted in attacking the Communists to the police, praising the police profusely for “their generosity in letting the Communists have Union Square in the past.” He contended that the Park Department was the agency that should grant permits for Union Square, and stated that he had secured such a permit. Therefore, the United Front May Day Committee, he asserted, had no right to Union Square. Asked point-blank by the United Front committee if he and his associates would confer on the question instead of making the police the judges in the case, Gerber obsti- nately refused to do so. He reiterated that the police should rule the streets, that the Socialist Party deserved consid- eration because it had “always cooperated with the police and had nol attacked them.” Under pressure, he finally agreed reluctantly “to try to get the Socialist Party Committee together,” to discuss the question with a committee of the United Front. “T stand by the letter which I sent you,” Gerber told the police. He kept on appealing to the police to be the arbiter. The representatives of the United Front committee finally compelled Gerber to promise to call a meeting of the Socialist Arrangements Committee to take up the United Front proposals of the May Day Committee. The S. P. City Central Committee will meet tonight. Socialist workers and locals are urged to send telegrams to the city committee urging it to repudiate the actions of Gerber and adopt the proposals of the United Front Com- mittee. The proposals are: A united front May Day dem- onstration on the basis of a program of immediate struggle. If there are to be separate parades they should merge on Union Square in a United Front mass meeting. Statement by Committee The statement issued by the committee from the United Front May Day Committee reads as follows: “We were called in by the police department to discuss the request of Julive Gerber to deny the Communists the | THE “FORWARD” POINTS WITH PRIDE TO | GERBER’S LETTER. \| Yesterdays Jewish Daily Forward praises Gerber’s letter to the police | | |department. It has the gall to say: “The application that Julius Gerber | | sent to the police department for the May First permit, which was printed | |in yesterday's Daily Worker and Freiheit for the purposes of slandering | the Socialists(!), is of such a nature that every class-conscious worker can | | sign it with pride. | The same story in the Forward reveals the fact that the application | |for the permit was sent by Gerbert is dated February 28, and that he |received from the Park Department a permit dated March 2. As it was |announced in Monday's Daily the application of the Communist Party | | was sent of February 18, and the police department acknowledged the | | receipt of it on February 23. Hhe facts are clear. - right-to-Union Square.on May.Day: “When we arrived at the office of Deputy Police Commissioner Walsh, we found Gerber there. He was asked to sit in the meeting with the police, as also were several police captains. | “Gerber immediately launched into an attack upon the Communists to the police. | police by stating that it was streets, and decide who shoul Square. “Our committee insisted | together. Gerber, however, p judges of a dispute between workers’ organizations, that such organizations should work their problems out He stated that the Socialists should not control the streets of New York. neither should the Communists. He openly sought to curry favor with the they who should control the d meet and not meet on Union that the police could not be but ersisted in attacking the Com- munists, stating that they should ‘have thought of this fourteen years ago.’ He told the police that the Communists ‘have to sober up’ before th anything to do with them. iterating that the police shou | “Finally, under pressure of our committee, sented reluctantly ‘to try to’ get his committee together for | a conference. diate this shameful alliance S. P. with the police. We i demnéd in a public manner. “Our committee is deter parade and demonstration in UNITED FRONT 108 East Trade Union A, Secco, | Industrial W Carl Winter, “We declare that Socialist Party w | had wrecked and ruined everything, and that they would e Socialist Party would have “He even went so far as to refuse even to discuss the question with the United Fr ont May Day Committee, re- Id control the situation. he con- of the city secretary of the nsist that such a servile and lickspittle attitude should be speedily and severely con- mined that such tactics shall Union Square. MAY DAY COMMITTEE. 14th Street. Andrew Overgaard, Unity Council. Louis F. Budenz, Conference for Progressive Labor Action. orkers of the World. SECRETARY OF CITY SOCIALIST EXECU TIVE SAYS: “I STAND BY MY LETTER TO SAN FRANCISCO WORKERS THE POLICE”; PROUD OF IT: SAYS FORWARD’, S. P. ORGAN United Front May Day Committee Issues A Appeal to Socialist Workers for Joint United Action; Repudiate Gerber’s Call to Police, Send Committees to City Executive! RULLETIN NEW YORK.—As we go to press representatives of the United Front May Day Committee report to the Daily Worker that Julius Gerber, City Secretary of the New York Socialist Party, yielding under the press ure of the united front movement for May Day declared that he “would call a conference of the heads of the socialist organizations and trade unions in the May Day committee and recommend a joint May Day dem- kers should repu- | not prevent the holding of a giant United Front May Day Unemployed Council of Greater New York. {or the rele: TO WELCOME TOM MOONEY ON WAY TO SECOND TRIAL Frame-Up V ietin War arns eae iat Provocateurs Seeking to Provoke Violence Thousands of Delegates on Their Way to the Free Tom Mooney Congr ess in Chicago "BULLI NEW YORK.—The International L: yesterday against the attempt to exclude w original trial from the hearing. The telegram, sent by William L. Patterson, of the I. L. D., also attacked Superior Court Judge “attempt to make the trial a star chamber hearing”. The I. L. D. appeals to all labor groups and sympathizers through out the country to deluge Judge Ward with telegrams demanding that he make the trial an open hearing and permit the full history of the Mooney ease to be put on court records. SAN FRANCISCO, April —Determined to demon- | strate on behalf of Tom Mooney, despite the attempts of the court and the police to balk this, thousands of workers are planning to gather at Portsmouth Square both tomorrow and Thursday. From his pri x Defense protested by wire sses and evidence of the national Louis H. secretary Ward's on cell in San Quentin pe tia’ Tom ——» Mooney expressed indignation at the action of Judge Ward STEEL WORKERS in ordering the stponement of his removal to county jail in San Fraricisco. “I want to be present when pre- liminary arguments are made,” Mooney declared upon hearing that Ward had ruled that the famous labor prisoner’s presence was “un- durng the earlier ses- IN YOUNGSTOWN OUT ON MAY DAY Will Deionstrate Against Poisoning of Jobless Negro Worker YOUNGSTOWN, O., April 25.—“It’s be good enough for niggers!” Thi | what the storekeeper who sold the rotten meat to Claude Stoudmire on his order said. The putrid meat killed the 47-year old Negro worker. And that sentence has grown into a boomerang. The West Federal St, market had | been selling meat a year and more \old. So good was his political pull, that even after the Negro’s death he | was not touched by the authorities, and the story was hushed up and not a word printed until three month: later. But indignant workers spread the word from block to block until it couldn't be hushed any longer. Twelve hundred and fifty of tainted meat was confiscated fi- | mally by the city inspector. Even then, no arrest. Under the auspices of the Unem- ployed Council, the Steel and Metal) | Workers Industrial Union and the | Communist Party, a series of prote: | meetings were held throughout th | city. Today, finally, the store owner | was arrested. He will probably be le off easily, if Mayor Moore thinks he can do it without arousing the ire of | the workers. But there are scores of other si selling bad food, forcing unemr workers to take it on their relief or ders. On May Day, the workers of Youngstown will demonstrate at Watt and Federal Streets, and arch across the Public Square car banners. One demand will be t! those selling bad food and pois workers should be immediately p secuted. It will be especially rains the brutal or on the Negroes, and e of the Scottsboro boys tores pounds | workers agent pro- to discredit ‘ing to call off the t entirely ° of the mass protest Mooney Con- gress’ in Judge Wa of 37 fo: that the trial. However, it 2 been an- nounced that M . Brady, San Francisco at once move for dism e unused in= dictment agaii It is clear rial proceeds, every be made by the court and limit the evidence of the Mooney e highest fin- es of Califor- the court re- that even if t effort will prosecution to that the ex; That plan: ‘or provocative acts and bloc en in frene zied scare-h Francisco press that “ ve been mo« bilized to prevent ri courthouse.” ts before the (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) Mooney - Scottsboro Meeting Tomorrow Night at 8 P. M,, at BRONX COLISEUM East 177th Street WASHINGTON, April 25—A move to oust Federal Judge James A, Low- George Crawford, young Negro whom Virginia authorities are seeking to frame up on murder charges, was made known today. ccrat of Virginia, announced that he proceedings against the judge. By freeing Crawford on the writ, Judge Lowell thwarted the attempt ‘of the Massachusetts authorities to ell of Boston, who yesterday freed | Congressman Howard Smith, Dem-) | extradite the young Negro. In mak-! jing his ruling, Lowell based himself ; on the fact that if convicted Craw- ford would be unable to get a fair trial, inasmuch as Negroes are not al- lowed to serve on juries in Virginia, This is a direct repercussion of the fight of the International La- | bor Defense in the Scottsboro case, and is a drect consequence of the | tremendous mass movement that is developing around the issue of fundamental rights for Negroes. Not only in the Scottsboro case, demanded that Negroes serve on | juries, and exposed the system of at Middlesburg, Va., last year. but also in the Herndon, Orphan | Jones and other trials, the I. L. D. | would at once ask for impeachment that (Neer Word comes from Boston that the Frank Spector, prosecution will seek to get a Su-|retary of the International Labor De- a S saat preme Court decision on the action of Judge Lowell as soon as possibl To this end, it appears, no con will be made before the U. S. Circuit) s the case | t Court of Appeals—instead, will merely be certified to the Su- | preme Court, . « 500 Pledge to Join March. BALTIMORE, Md. {electric chair in Decatur, Ala., iv no Sihih sn en harietstion and} Scottsboro by: asistant national sec~jing the acti ‘Move to Oust Judge Who Freed Negro Victim of Frame-Up; More Support Scottsboro March fen when they y for “unity of erg in a joint ruling class of h Spector took issue Leibowitz and officials systematic exclusion w prevails | dreds were turned as; 'n most states, especially in the Dight when 2,500 Negro and white | South. ' workers, professionals and | Virginia authorities had indicted, Packed the Sharp Street C at reached high Crawford, charging him with the|® Scottsboro meeting. poi: L iopted a reso- murder of Mrs. Agnes Illsely, a| Janie Patetrson, mother of Hay-! lut to Govern Miller of Ala- wealthy sportswoman, and her maid,! wood Patterson, just sentenced to the|bama demanding the release of the , and another prais- ties of the IZ, Tay