The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 8, 1933, Page 3

i i « y STATE PROBE IN ALLENTOWN WILL HIDE THE FACTS Workers Are Kept Off Committee Chosen by Governor Rinchot N. T. W. I. U. LEAFLET Questions Expose Role of Mrs. Pinchot ALLENTOWN, Pa., May 7.—The notorious conditions in the sweat shops which came to light as a re- sult of the child laborers on strike, as compelled the state to make an R. ‘investigation.” The state senate ap-/ wage, it can be introduced only—on| *| the basis of the actual needs of the4 yroved a joint legislative inquiry. On the committee making the “in- | vestigation,” neither strikers nor | workers are to be represented. Threc | senators, three representatives, ‘and | hree selected by Governor Pinchot, | who was well aware of these condi- | ions beforehand, comprise the com-| hittee. In the meantime the wife of Gover- | ror Pinchot is taking advantage of | he child misery for personal pub-/ icity. She has arranged to come in| ier limousine to “picket” tomorrow. | This ostensibly is arranged with the) Paramount news reel who will be on) and to photograph her. | A leaflet signed by the National fextile Workers Union and the Un- | employed Councils distributed among | he strikers, asks Mrs. Pinchot the) following questions: 1—Governor Pinchot, the husband of Mrs, Pin-| shot, has forced the Commissary plan) on the unemployed. This plan pro: sides 47 cents a week for adults and) 27 cents for children. What do you} vay about this, Mrs, Pinchot? 2—On April 2, 1925, your husband} signed the State Eviction Law. Under} this law, we, the unemployed and) sweatshop workers are being evicted, | 3—You, Mrs, Pinchot, claim to sym-| pathize with us workers, but will you explain why your husband had| nothing to say when state troopers | were sent to Allentown to break the trike of silk workers two years ago?) Why does Governor Pinchot send | vtate troopers every time the miners) ‘trike in western Pennsylvania. 4—| Mrs Pinchot, your average income tax | for the last few years has been over 130,000.00 a year. You live on coupon ‘lipping. Your money is invested in thops and factories where workers} ke ourselves sweat and slave for low wages. The leaflet. exposes the shallow hypocrisy of Governor and Mrs. Pin- | cnot, who together with other poli- ticlans want to crush the strike with their smooth words. SKY PILOT CALLS POLICE TO DRIVE SEAMEN OUT (By a Marine Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—I arrived at the Sea- men’s Heuse, 550 W. 20th St. and got seated in the social room, when one of the heads of the house came in and stated that no seamen are al- lowed in the social room after 6 p. m, unless they have bedroom tickets or belong to the Y.M.C.A. Just as he was ‘through talking, up jumped a. fellow worker seaman and gave a talk, stating that this place is for seamen and the seamen on ships have been giving money for the last. two or three years for the relief of unemployed, and have donated thou- sands of dollars to feed the seamen out of work. The speaker made a motion to stay in the room and all the seamen ngareed, so the sky pilot called the police and down came a ear full and chased all of the crowd out. The line I was on in 1932, the Clyde Mallory Line, that year donated over $15,000, and that was only one line. Wren we were paid after a trip there was a poster stating the amount do- nated and money was coming very fast, enough to take care of every Seaman out of work. The Seamen's House don't have to pay taxes, as they have a chapel inside. The Sea- men’s House has said how much good they have done for seamen, but let a seaman ask for credit or for a meal and out he goes. TUUL Conference} With Perkins (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) nimum wage bills, meant wage cuts (for they mentioned nothing to pre- vent a cut in wages to correspond with cut in hours), His proposed R. Co-ordination legislation and thers like it meant government su- | pervision or perhaps direct govern- ment control, not removing the own- ers who ruined the industries, but subsidizing them. Perkins here interrupted to say that no subsidies were given, but Stachel proved his point, showing how the Reconstruction Finance | Corp. had handed billions to the rich in_subsidies. The Roosevelt-Perkins’ backed 30- Hour Bill meant wage cuts, while the T. U. U. L. demanded regulating the hours not at the workers’ expense, but the bosses, As for the minimum masses. Demand Unemployment Insurance Perkins again interjected to ask Stachel’s estimate of relief needed, and he pointed out the insufficiency of the administration's $500,000,000 relief bill. The R.F.C. was formed to | give millions to the rich—why not a} | fund—to give the unemployed the) billions they need to prevent them from starving to death? Stachel touched on other propos- als mentioned in the T.U.U.L. docu- ment. “We have no illusion—we know Roosevelt will do just like Hoover. The workers have to and will fight for everything,” he concluded. Amter, speaking for the unem- ployed councils told of what he saw in his recently completed tour of in- dustrial centers—relief cut to he bone, restrictions like the English Means Test,” discrimination against Negroes in relief; against foreign born workers; in Georgetown, D. C., right under the government’s nose the children were unable to-eat, so used had they become to starvation. He described the Roosevelt govern- ment’s forced labor. He stressed the demand for unemployment insurance. Hudson of the Marine Workers In- dustrial Union told of absolutely. no government relief given to seamen in all ports—N. Y. Relief Commissioner Hopkins said they are not citizens and have no rights. He told of the miserable handouts by the Seamen's Institute, Y.M.C.A., etc. He told of Merchant Marine orders to fire for- eign-borp seamen; of forcing seamen to donate for relief, while shipowners give nothing; of reductions to the bone in seamen’s wages (giving ex- amples). Burlak of the National Textile Workers Union, Laura Carman of the Office Workers Union, Tom Meyers- cough of the National Miners Union, Biedenkapp of the Shoe ,Workers gave examples of the effects of the crisis in their industiies, and en- dorsed the T. U. U. L. demands sub- mitted to Perkins, College Professors to Confuse ‘Then came the parade of college professors. First Perkins had Profes- sor Mitchell of Johns-Hopkins, pre- tend to be very, very radical, He said that unless recovery comes, “these gentlemen” must be allowed to have} their way. Patching up the capitalist system won't work, he said. Then Professor Willets of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania got up and made a plea for “planning.” Next, Paul U. Kellogg of the Survey Graphic, a “Christian Socialist’ Mag- azine—praised Perkins to the skies— for the “hopeful changes” she had made — “revolutionary” changes, in fact, said Kellogg. One, Magnussen, then spoke at Per- kins’ invitation—he is the Washing- ton representative of the Interna- tional Labor Offiee in Geneva, the League of Nations-Second Interna- tional organization. He made the amazing discovery that there 1s “unity of agreement between the ‘Trade Union Unity League and Miss Perkins.” Jack Stachel concluded by showing what a myth this is, by again repeat- ing that the T.U.U.L. and the workers know they will have to fight for what they want. For many a decade past the his- tory of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule,—Communist Manifesto. 1,000 LINED UP IN NEW YORK FOR VETERANS’ MARCH TO WASHINGTON Meeting Saturday Elects Allman, of Bonus March To Be Commander of Vet’s March BULLETIN. NEW YORK.—Y. E. F. marchers will leave here Wednesday from Union Square. The veterans will start assembling at 10 a. m. and leave sometime in the afternoon. * * * NEW YORK.—Over 500 veterans and dependents met in Stuyvesant Casino here yesterday and made final preparations for the Veterans’ March on Washington this week. The meeting was called by the Veterans’ Expeditionary Force, which has over 1000 veterans already lined up to march. George Allman, former commander of the B.E.F. in 1982, was elected commander with a staff of two vice- commanders and a committee to be somposed of platoon captains, A disabled veteran spoke and an- anes that two busloads of dis- al veterans were going on the march and if agreeable would leave with the V.E.F. contingent. The mesting cheered this move. A former member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars spoke and told how he had been expelled for Ac Roosevelt economy cuts in his A woman, representing the women’s auxiliary of a Brooklyn Workers’ Ex- Servicemen’s League Post, pledged the support of the women to the march. 4 Walter Trumbull, national secretary vf the Workers’ Ex-Servicemen’s League who was present at the meet- ing issued a statement today his organizati N.J. City Employes Get 75 P.C. Pay in Scrip ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., May 7. — City employees will receive 25 per cent of their April salaries next week in cash, The remaining 75 per cent will be paid in serip which re- tail merchants here are refusing to take. Since the scrip is worthless for exchange, workers are virtually re- ceiving a pay cut of 75 per cent. Mayor Bacharach claims that pay- ment of salaries in scrip will continue and will depend on the amount of funds raised from tax collections. / LOWELL SHOE STRIKE. LOWELL, Mass.—Striking shoe calling | workers stopped automobiles of scabs ion to support the from being brought o K wien | & ene Scene from country life plains of Towa never thought of. ae os By MOE BRAGIN \ NEW YORK.—More than 5,000 Ne- gro and white workers pack St. Nich- | olas Arena Friday night for a mighty) | send-off of the Scottsboro Marchers | | to Washington. They listen to Ruby} Bates and Lester Carter tell their} stories of the Scottsboro frame-up.| They cheered the delegations from| Massachusetts and Rhode Island coming in during the middle of the) meeting,, For almost five hours the hall souhds like a great drum pound- ing the militant beat of this historic march on Washington, in the fight} for the liberation of the Negro| masses. | At 9 o'clock the floor and the gal-| leries are impatient to get started, | Ushers with red bands and flaming) carnations are rushed off their feet} helping the workers get settled. Here | is an old Negro miner who says, “The | boss class hates this unity more than the devil hates holy water.” Near} the platform leans a white laundry worker, member of the Icor. On the} other side of the hall there are work- ers affiliated with the Needle Trades) Industrial Union, Negro housework- ers, ex-servicemen, a worker con- nected with the United Farmers Pro- tective Association whose hands are still raw from plowing, men and wo- men in sheepskin coats and creased | dresses without ties, the sweat of the| day’s work still wet on many of their faces. They wear tags with these de- fignt words, “The Scottsboro Boys Shall Not Die. On to Washington.” And on the gallery railings are the great demands which strike the eyes like strong bare fists, “We Demand Equal Rights for the Negroes. We De- mand the Enforcement of the 13, 14, 15th Amendment.” Tell Aim of Meeting | Louise Thompson, secretary of the | National Scottsboro Committee of Action, opens .the meeting. She stresses the character of the meeting. She shows that this is a fight not only for the lives of the nine boys but for the lives of all the exploited Ne- sro masses, for all black and white workers under the, iron heel. And then Leonard Patterson stalks up to the microphone. He is tall and lean as a whipstock. His words crack out. This Scottsboro March, he cries, is not merely a bus ride or a playtoy. This is a most serious mission we are bent on. We go to Washington not to plead, kneel or beg. We come to demand. A mighty cheer breaks out of more than 5,000 throats, And just then the delegation of Negro and white work- ers marches in from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The whole gather- ing rises as one man to its feet. Through the boom ,of applause the delegation with its lunchboxes swings up to the platform. Ovation for Carter And then Lester Carter. The en- thusiasm is so spontaneous and whis- tling and stamping and clapping so great that Carter only with diffi- culty manages to face it. He tells his dramatic story, and concludes: “These boys are framed and as in- | nocent as any of you men. Friends, |I have found out there is only one way and that is co-operate and be thousands strong. I am glad I was on the freight. I know if I was shot | down to tell the truth and go back| down to Decatur, I would do so.” Samuel A. Liebowitz, trial lawyer in Decatur, gets up on the platform. | He spikes the old lie that if not for the LL.D., the Scottsboro Boys would have long been free. He tells dra- matically how Attorney General| Three In Suicide Leap Nis When Tammany Stops Rent NEW YORK.—Clutching her baby son in her arms a 23-year-old mother of 117 E. 105th St. att Friday by jumping in front of an elevated train at the 105th St. station. Her husband, Juan Mirando, was dragged to the tracks as he tried to stop her. The quick action of the motorman saved them from being ground under the wheels of the train. The near tragedy is a direct result of the Tammany’s “no rent” edict. Mirando came home from the Belle- vue Hospital after several months’ treatment for tuberculosis to find the Home Relief Bureau had stopped re- be! his wife had a dispossess notice. LABOR UNION MEETINGS \ Cleaners, Dyers and Pressers Union Portant membership meeting tonight at 6: pm. sharp at Irving Hall, 18th St. and Irving Place. Bring membership books and ues, Priday—trving Plaza Hali—Meeting of all Unemployed members at 10 a.m, The Hospital Workers’ League meets Wednesday night at 8 at the Irving Plaza Hall, 18th St, Irving Place, Prominent speakers, ¥ DAILY WORKER, } GRiK, MONDAY, MAY &, 1933 ee in America—something th e hardy pioneers who settled a “free country” in The descendants of these pioncers savagely driven into their own barns at the points of rifles and held prisoners by the arme d forces of the state because farmers protested against the banks taking the land away from them, | seta ‘Ruby Bates and Lester CrsteieGet Stormy Ovation at Scottsboro Send-O}f in N. Y. Knight bullyragged the Negro wit- nesses. He explains that he no longer feels that Judge Horton w fair. “Everyone all over the count! nows that Negroes are not allowed to serve on juries in the South. Judge Horton knows that full well, too, but he mad no move to have the court admit it.” During Liebowi%’s speech, Ruby Bates comes down the aisle, The whole mass meeting surges to its feet. William Patterson, national sec- retary of the LL.D., introduces her. “Nineteen years ago a white girl was born in the South. She had schooling for only, five years, As a mere child she was sent into the mills where she worked 12, 13 14 hours a day. The ruling class dared to talk to her of white supremacy! But it was only through the nine Scottsboro boys that she found her way back to a decent life. She found the courage and womanhood in a cru- cial period to take her place in the ranks of the working class.” Ruby Bates Speaks Ruby Bates is a tall, healthy look-| ing girl. She speaks simply and hon- estly. She speaks slowly and carefully as if she is searching down deep in-| side of her for the whole truth, “The Scottsboro boys are innocent. I saw the fight between the Negro and white boys on the freight. I want to say that the Negro boys didn’t say a word to either of the two girls, Vic- toria Price or me. They had the boys tied together with ropes and thrown into a truck after they was arrested. I would be lynched myself if I didn’t tell the story that the nine innocent boys had attacked me. I worked in SCOTTSBORO MARCH IN CAPITOL TODAY TO PRESENT DEMANDS. (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) were unregistered workers who came into Union Square with the necessary funds to pay their share of the trip. This influx of unexpected workers caused the delay of more than five hours, which e cepted however, seeing that New York was sending a real representation in the fight for the rights of the Negro people. Arrive Early, Several hundred workers were In the square two hours before the Har- lem contingent was due to arrive. Workers from all over Greater New York, 15 from South _ Brooklyn, in- cluding three Negro women delegates from Women’s Council Nos. 45 and 35 from Jamaica and Richmond. The Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union sent 25 representatives and the Food Workers Industrial Union sent seven. The union had been very ac- tive in raising food for the march, Bristol, Conn., sent two Negro dele- gates, and Schenectady, N. Y., sent two Negro and one white worker. Rain drove the marchers into the Irving Plaza Hall, near Union Square and there they waited for hours, many fearing they might be left behind. “I certainly want to see that man Roosevelt. I want to teil him you promised us pien I left three barefooted children at home and I want the Scottsboro boys cleared. U.S. COMMERCE CHAMBER APPROVES ROOSEVELT’S INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM Barn and Guard ed Wi innocent Negro; eryone cheerfully ac- | ith Bayonets the the mills. T got $2.75 for 55 hours’ | work. I worked at night shift. Eleven hours from 6 at night to 5 in the morning. After the trial, I began to| | be worried. I read in the papers about | | the fight the I.L.D. was fighting. So I | went back into Decatur where I was | born and raised. My life was threat- | ened. But I didn’t think of my life. I want to say to you all that I'll go ; on with the fight for the nine Scotts- | boro boys.” Gen. Chamlee Cheered It is about midnight. General) | George W. Chamlee, gets up to speak, | | The loudspeaker is out of order. He! has a bad cold. His voice is hoarse. His face is pale and drawn. But he} | has come hundreds of miles from} Chatianooga with a message from 500 | Negro and white workers. He paces up and down the platform, his voice | only above a whisper, Workers stand, so that they can hear him. Others come down from the galleries. And so this tremendous mass meet- ing surges to the street. Each Negro worker knows now full well that in | William Patterson’s words: “If not for the white workers of America and | Europe the Scottsboro boys would | have been rotting for these two years in the lime pits of Kilby Prison.” Again in William Patterson's elo- | quent words: “It won’t be a De Priest | or a Booker T. Washington, who was | supposed to represent the Negro} | People, it won't be even a William) | Patterson, but it will be you repre- senting 1,000 times 1,000 and more j that will free yourself from this | system.” The march to Washington [is on. | | | That's why I'm going”, declared Mrs. Myra Reid, a delegate of the | Navy Street, Brooklyn Block Com- mittee: Alberta Ruffin, who has two chil- dren, and Maria Walker, who has three children, came with Mrs. Reid, representing Women’s Council “45. | The Spartakus Greek Workers’ | Club and the 5ist St, Block Commit- tee brought their own truck into the Square, with over twenty workers going to Washington to carry on their fight. They come from a local- ity where Negro and white workers have /already learned the value of united struggle in rent strikes. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the com- mittee announced that only 500 would be able to go. A committee of cap- tains met to decide who would have to be left behind. Not a person left the hall, all hoping to go. The selec- tion was made and still they stayed Later, however, the necessary number of trucks were obtained. Will Report Wednesday. NEW YORK. — The Scotisboro marchers who by that time will have returned from Washington, will re- turn to a mass meeting in Rockland Palace, 220 W. 155th St., this Wed- nesday evening at 8 p, m. | Representatives of the marchers |) who will describe the events in Wash- ington, and Joseph R. Brodsky, chief ‘counsel of the International Labor | Defense in the Scottsboro case, will ‘discuss next steps in the fight. Chief Wage Cutters Hail Him as Their Friend; Are Not Fooled by His Promises to Labor WASHINGTON, D. C., May 7.—The United States Chamber of Com- merce consisting of the most powerful industrial interests in the country passed resolutions Saturday endorsing Roosevelt's proposals for "govern- ment regulation of industry to aid in The United States Chamber of rotherhood Officials Accept Roosevelt Bill to Lay Off 250,000 WASHINGTON, May ~The “op- position” of the Railroad Brotherhood officials to the Roosevelt railroad program which will admitedly throw from 100,000, to 250,000 more rail- road workers into the streets has now boiled down to the demand that railroad workers be given “a modest amount of economic protection,” it was announced today. It is reported that they will ask that the Robinson-Rayburn Bill in-| elude provisions for a “dismissal wage,” some small sum to be given to railroad when they are fired. —-®drive against the masses throughout the last three years of the crisis. It | posed restoring economic recovery”. Commerce has led the wage-cutting fights for the interests of the manu- facturing and commercial interests of the country. It has always fought every attempt of the workers to im- prove their living conditions. It found nothing in Roosevelts speech about “National planning” and “inereased wages wherever pos- sible” that was against the interests of the capitalist manufacturers and | industrialists. It approved Roose- | | Many of the workers who are slated |for dismissal have been working for the roads over 15 years. The Brotherhood officials are op- posed to Federal unemployment in- surance at the expense of the em- Ployers and the COVERED 147 FARMERS IN IOWA ARRESTED; KEEP UP FIGHT Attorney General In Slander Campaign to Excuse Militia Terror LEMARS, Iowa, May |147 farmers have been |the National ds } Schultz, president of the Farm Holiday, who had been at- tending the National Convention of the Holiday Association in Des Moines was sted upon his re- turn, The militia is investigating a society of farmers called “Sons of the Picketers Working hand In glove with the militia is another tool of the big interests in Iowa. Attorney General Edward L. O'Connor is laying the blame of all the trouble on lead the holiday movement and on munist agitators.” His charge is that “racketeering methods” have been used in forcing the farmers to join |the holiday movement. Farmers have | | been “forced” to pay 75 cents to join) and bave~been threatened with the} burning of their barns and stra | stacks. Even Milo Reno has been compelled to shove the lie down the attorney. general's throat. The farmers know full well this charge is. for the pur- pose of covering up intimidation used by the militia to get evidence to frame-up the militant farmers and smash the growing mass movement to better their conditions Board Rejects Farm Minimum Milk Price BULLETIN SYRACUSE, N. ¥., May 7.—One } hundred and fifty farmers, repre- | senting 30,000 farmers, met here yesterday and voied to go-out on strike, beginning May 12, unless they get 3!4 cents a quart.for their milk, They flatly rejected the Zone Plan which the board intends to establish. ALBANY, N. Y., May 7.—In order to fool the farmers and stop them | from striking for fair return for milk, the Milk Board announced yesterday that it would act this week to estab- lish zones for minimum prices to be paid to the farmers. The board will hold a hearing Wednesday. It in- tends to make these new prices for the farmers effective May 15. The board does not intend, however, to give the farmers 312 cents for each quart of milk. Many farmers are getting half a cent a quart. moye to create zones is for the pur- pose of splitting the ranks of the farmers, who are threatening a state- wide strike. Thomas Parran. Jr., State Com- missioner of Health and a member of the board, told the farmers that @ general strike would “ruin” dairy industry of the state. He stated that the consumers would be antag- onized if the farmers went out to dump milk on the roads. “Strike or no strike, the Milk Control Board will not set a uniform minimum price for all milk produced in the state. A few lives and the loss of property would not amount to a row of pins com- pared with what would happen if we established 2 state-wide uniform minimum price for the producers.’ N. Y. TRADE UNION NEWS — The | the | Railroads Vage Lice Pleading Poverty to Excuse Firing and Pay Cuts Wall Street Jou ral ‘of A tremendous smoke screen is be- ing laid down at the present time | concerning the poor financial condi- tion of the railroads in order to put | over, with as little resistance sible, a whole seriés of “emer measures whose purpose is to mai! tain railroad profits at the expense | of the railroad workers. The spectre | of immediate dictatorship of the en- | tire railroad system of this country and with it of the million railroad workers still in the industry, faces us A bill, known as the Emergenc Railroad Transportation Act, cal | for a railroad coordinator, emp: ered to changes effect a whole series in railroad operation, to prevent all avoidable expense and | promote financial reorganizations to reduce fixed charges in the interest | of carrier credit and the public.” | There can be no better assurance of the power to be conferred on one | man who will act as railroad coor- | of { |of $3,396,261 | four million for these months. Bankers Hails Plan for Who Can Throw Another Quarter Million Out of Jobs The Southern Railway increased its net income from 879 to $5,472,- 140 during the same months. The Southern Pacific drew $13,- 907,004 in idends from the Pacific Fruit Express in 1932, This was a | gain from this quarter of almost four | million dollars over 1931. The New York Central reports a net income for the three months ended March 31, 1933 while the Bal- timore & Ohio earned a net of almost Net income means income after interest and fixed charges (taxes, etc.) h been paid Swollen Surpluses But the most startling evidence of hidden loot can be found in the huge surpluses which the roads have beer piling up for future dividends or mergers. Thus we find that the De- laware, Lackawanna & Western has a surplus of $62 million on hand. The Southern a surplus of $93 mil- dinator than is given in the Wall|lion, the Pennsylvania one of $208 Street Journal, spokesman for the | million, with railyay income for 1932 railroad bankers and bondholders.|of more than $49 million. The sur- “If the emergency rail bill goes| plus of the Denver & Rio Grande through in the form now described,” |is more than $12 million, the De- says this paper, ‘the czar (applied to | laware & Hudson, owned by the not- the coordinator), is just about right. | orious labor hater, D. F, Loree has Selected by President Roosevelt, he would come pretty close to being a railroad dictator...there isn’t much | he couldn't do with the railroads.” | | “By preventing and relieving ob- | structions and burdens thereon re- | sulting from the present acute eco- | |mnomic emergency,” the bankers and | | their government expect to bring | back the golden days of prosperity | for the railroad stockholder. They | expect to do this by still further | | reducing the “burden” of railroad | wages, and throwing another quarter | of a million men out of the industry. Half a Billion More for the Bankers Between 1929 and 1932 the rail- | roads saved in wages almost a bil- | lion and a half dollars, This repre- | sents wages saved through laying off | 719,336 railroad men PLUS the 10 per | cent wage cut in effect since Febru- ary 1932. This billion and a half} dollars, taken in the form of jobs and wage cuts, has made it possible | for many of the roads to make pro- fits, in spite of business stagnation, | for some to pay dividends, interest | and principal on their debts to the bankers, and almost all of them ts! add to their tremendous reserves | which they can use to gobble up the | little roads under the helping hand | of the rail czar and his three re- | gional boards, which will be selected | by the réads themselves. On prac- | tically every road, during these past | three years, the severe drop in oper- | ating income (revenue), has been |made up by drastic reductions in | operating expense, and these drastic reductions came mainly from cutting \ the payrolls. |_ For the last six months, ended | | February 1933, the Louisville & Nash- [ville Railroad showed an operating | income of more than $8 million dol- lars compared with an income of three and a half million for the cor- responding period the year before. more than $82 million in reserve for its stockholders, even after buying $10,000,000 of New York Central stock this year. The Wabash, the Erie and the Illinois Central have been able to pile up more than a hundred million in reserves. The Van Sweringen Roads were able to maintain their profits in 1932 at almost the same levels as those for 1931. The Chesepeake & Ohio had a net income in 1932 of twenty- three and a half million, while the Chesepeake Corporation, a holding company reported a net income of $6,129,778 for 1932 as against $6,404,- 510. Government Waters the Watered Stock The Reconstruction Finance Cor- poration, which was supposed to abolish the depression by “making” work, gave the railroads almost $6 millions in March alone, making its “loans” to the railroads, many of them in receivership, over three hun- dred million dollars. Almost all of this money has gone right back to the bankers for bond interest and the payment of maturing obligations. $62,000,000 more from _ increased freight rates (increasing the price of necessities for the workers) has found its way into the same pockets. The new ‘bill will add another $400 mil- jon owed the government by the roads, through the repeal of the Recapture clause. But this is not enough, The billion and a half taken in payrolls in the past three years is not enough. The roads want an- other quarter of a billion dollars a year. They expect to get it through additional wage cuts and the drop- ping of at least another 100.000 men under the contemplated “elimination of duplicating facilities.” and the “prevention of all avoidable expenses under the rail czar. NEEDLE WORKERS PROTEST IN UNION SQ. WED. AGAINST THUGS, RACKETS Toilers Cheer Newly Elected N. T. Ww. I. U. Leaders NEW YORK.—Preparations for the needie workers’ demonstration May 13 in Union Square, led by the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union against gangsters and racketeering, is in full swing, At a joint meeting of the newly- elected trade boards last week it was| decided that each department inten- sify its work in rallying all its mem- bers. A committee of 35 was elected at the meeting who will be respon- sible for carrying out a series of open-air meetings in all the needle wades markets, * . NEW YORK.—About 700 needle twades workers were present at an enthusiastic meeting at Webster Hall, , Saturday afternoon, to greet the newly-elected officers and trade boards of the Needle Trades Workers’ | Industrial Union. Bouquets of flowers were on the stage and telegrams were read from workers in various shops, greeting the newly-elected workers. J. H. Coehn was chairman.\ Ben Gold, national secretary of the N. T. W. I. U.; Andrew Overgaard of the Trade Union Unity Council; Zamora, a Negro rorker one of those elected; Ruth Miller of the white goods department and Malich Epstein of the Anti-Fascist Committee were some of the speakers. Gold made a fiery speech, a rally- ing call to fight the miserable condi- tions in the trade, Zamora spoke on the Negro prob- lems in the industry. Overgaard greeted the officers in the name of the T. U. U. C. He ex- the Roosevelt-Wall Street pro- gram of inflation, wage-cuts and forced labor and pointed out to the newly-elected officers that it was against this program they should ori- entate the union. THUGS BREAK Ray Gordon was sentenced to 6 months probation in the Bridge Plaza Magistrate's Court Friday for hor ac tivity in picketing during the st of the workers of the Equitable Pi per Box Co. NEW YORK — The cases of 37 workers of the Equitable Paper Bag Co, arrested dufing the recent strike ange phen Asks Workers, Friends | (By a Foltis-Fischer Striker) Fellow-workers:; The Willow Cafe- teria chain has gotten out a per- manent injunction against the Food | Workers Industrial Union, the union | that is helping us Foltis-Fisher strik- | \ers financially, morally and physi- | cally and every other way in their | | Power to help win our strike. | We, Foltis-Fischer strikers in soli- | | darity appeal to everyone of you, to} please not patronize the Willows and | tell your friends neighbors and whom Foltis Striker Appeals for Solidarity Against Willow and Neighbors Not te Patronize Stores ever you may happen.to meet, not to patronize the Willow Cafeterias Although, there is no strike or picket lines on at the Willows, they want to be secure in keeping the conditions . of the Willow workers miserable sc they got a permanent injunction against the F.W.1.U Every member of the Trade Un! Unity League is in danger of pa graph 600 by sitting in these places with a leaflet that might in any way deaf with Willows. ir THOUSAND BAKER SHOPS SETTLE | Strikers Greet Communist Party Speakers ‘The bakers struck May 1 against wage-cut on them, settlement by arbitration and a collective agree- ment. One boss after another quickly bowed before the militant determina- tion of the strikers, backed by masse: of sympathizers in the Bronx. Saturday a mass parade, led by the Young Communist League, marched through the neighborhood: | morning. The strikeyended on Satur- ‘day when the workers intimidated jster attacks planned by the owners, returned to work. Ten active strik- ers. were blacklisted. Judge Hirschfeld who heard the cases of the arrested workers released all but one worker, Ray Gordon who jwas held for investigation until Pri- day morning. Gordon, a worker in Blyers Paper shop was one of the leaders of the strike were heard in court on Tuesday ¥ }and terrorized by a series of gang- | PAPER STRIKE | NEW XYORK.—One hundred bakery shops, or 85 per cent, have settled in the strike of Local 507 of the International Bakers and Confectionery Union. the attempts of the bosses to force a. —_- $$ _______——_ where strikes are still on, enthusing the picketers and showing the bosse: their mass support. The night before, 1,000 bakers anc their wives and children crowdea Royal Mansion in a strike rally. Smith, speaking for the Communis' Parity and touching on the Daily Worker, and E. B. Balon, speaking for the Freiheit, Jewish workers | paper, were cheered by the workers \for their support of the strike. | ‘The Mid-Bronx Unemployed Coun- | cil has also co-operated in the strike , A cominittee of various A. F, of L lccals and attorneys for the worker: protested to the Commissioner the police brutality against the strikers and the mass arrests last week. Bo- j lan “promised” to investigate, but meanwhile the strikers and support- ers will continue their militant ac: | tions A conference of workers’ organiza- tions will be held this week t sup. _ port the stri?