The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 15, 1933, Page 1

Get Your Unit, Union Local, Branch or Club to Challenge Another Group in Raising Subs for the Daily Worker ! | | "(Section of the Communist International) America’s On ly Working Class Daily Newspaper | WEATHER: Eastern Ne Friday probably fair. w York: < % tered 08 second-class motter at the Povt Offiee ot New York, N. Y., under the Ast of Mareh 8, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1933 (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents FRICK COMPANY GUNMEN OPEN FIRE ON MINE STRIKERS Matthews Case Is Not Over! ‘HE “due attention” which the District Attorney's office promised would be given the Daily Worker's charges that James Matthews, @ young Negro, was brutally murdered in the workhouse on Welfare Island, has fuly been given. ‘This “due attention” was to have been a “thorough investigation” into the “Daily’s” charges which were buttressed by un unchallengeable affi- davit sworn by Mark Shahian, an eye-witness to the killing. On Wednesday Assistant District Attorney Saul Price summoned Shahian to his office and commenced his “investigation”—Tammany style. What was the nature of this inquiry? f * * * R, two days—instead of investigating into Shahian’s airtight story that Matthews had been murdered on Welfare Island, the Assistant District Attorney and his staff hammered away at Shahian, vainly attempting to discredit his story that he himself had several teeth knocked out by prison guards. In this way the officials shielded the murderer of Matthews. Not one question was asked about the murder of Matthews: For two days the Assistant District Attorney, aided by officials of Welfare Isiand, snarled and snorted as they battered away at Shahian, hoping to break down his story. During all this time—not one question was asked about the murder of Matthews! With Shahian being assailed by hostile questions—surrounded by Welfare Island officials, whose eyes blazed anger at him—Shahian’s at- torneys, representing the International Labor Defense, were compelled to put up a vigorous fight fo be present during the inquisition. Finally, one of them was permitted into the room where the star-chamber pro- ceedings were taking place. When prison officials and guards, however, were telling their lying alibi stories to the Assistant District Attorney, whose oodling questions showed his complete kinship with the graft-murder system at Welfare Island, Shahian’s attorneys were barred from the room. In this stage-set atmosphere and under these circumstances on one of the dunghills of Tammany Hall—this majestic farce called an “in- vestigation” was taking place. Enraged by this cynical proceeding, Edward Kuntz, I. L. D. attorney, demanded that the district attorney get down to the vital matter, namely: Who Killed James Matthews? The Assistant District Attorney's answer was to adjourn the “in- vestigation” with the defiant announcement that he would call Shahian “§f I need him again.” Thus Tammany attempts to end another investigation, in regulation Tammany Hall style. The Tammany District Attorney considers the Matthews case closed, but it is far from being closed! The workers of New York, Negro and white, roused by this wanton killing, will not accept this Tammany white- wash as an investigation. More meetings and protest demonstrations must be organized at once to force action against the killers of Matthews. Attend the Matthews protest meeting tcnight in Webster. Hall. Workers! Demand the public records which the prison officials have thus far made every effort to con- ceal. Protest against this brazen Tammany effort to whitewash the mur- derers of James Matthews! A Permanent Policy Washington Letter ROM the privately circulated Kiplinger business men) we learn the following: The auto code in fact provides open shop, with employer hav- ing right to hire and fire on ‘merit’. This probably will be the i permanent policy of NRA, after a big fight.” (Our emphasis.) How did the permanent open shop policy get into the NRA? ‘Through the skilful maneuverings of Mr. William Green and John L. Lewis. The auto bosses wrote their code insisting on the open shop, which ribed to mean hiring and firing workers on the basis of “indi- was de: vidual merit”. Mr. Green and Mr. Lewis met in conference with the auto bosses. ‘The results can be read in the documents evolved and in what is now taking place. Green said he favored the “individual merit” idea, but would find it too difficult to put over the blunt expression of “open shop”. The auto bosses were satisfied. Mr. Richberg, Counsel for the NRA, was called in. Everything was fixed up. Richberg issued a statement saying that the Labor Advisory Board (that is, mainly, Mr. Green, Mr. Lewis «ad Mr, Sidney Hillman) “approved’—that’s the exact word used—the puto code. Mr. Green's charter of labor becomes then, according to the admis- sion of this private intelligence department of the bosses, the permanent Pilicy of the open shop under the Blue Eagle. Discarding Pretense LEADING member of the Socialist Party, Paul Blanshard, today openly went over to the camp of capitalism, He announced that he would support La Guardia, the Fusion candidate, in the coming elections. It is true that he didn’t have far to leap. The Socialist Party is separ- ated from the avowedly capitalist parties by only the thinnest wall of so- cialist-sounding phrases. The Socialist Party, for example, in the per- son of its candidate for Mayor, Charles Solomon, finds the ruthless cap- italist Tammany tax program “very, very good.” What is the significance of Blanshard’s open support of the capital- ist candidate, LaGuardia? Is it that a reactionary who had accidentally found his way into the Socialist Party, has suddenly discovered his mis- take? Not at all. Blanshard has been an active and leading member of the Socialist Party for the past fifteen years. He has always been considered a “radical” in his party. H has always been on terms of the closest po- litical association with Norman Thomas. Blanchard’s action is only the logical conclusion of the political ac- which has characterized the Socialist Party for decades. He only the road which has already been trodden by some of the most “dis- ” representatives of the Socialist Second International—the Mc- Donalds, the Snowdens, the Vanderveldes, etc., etc. Let tt not be forgotten that the crafty capitalist demagogue La -@Quardia, whom Blanshard embraces, is the man whom the Socialist Party supported for Congress in 1919. The spectacle of one of their colleagues publicly engaged in the ob- scene spectacle of embracing a tool of capitalist rulers should not at all shock the leaders of the American Socialist Party. They themselves have embraced him—but not so publicly. That is the only difference between them and Blanshard. They still desire to play the part of a working class party. They still use “socialist” phrases, Blanshard has merely discarded his “socialist” pretenses. But in action, they betray the independent revolutionary political ac- fon of the workers quite as fully as Blanshard. . . A actions as Blanchard’s brings before the socialist workers the prob- em that touches profoundly the whole question of fighting the rot- {/|teness of capitalist rule in the citjes—the question of the United Front. / Between the socialist workers who feel the oppression of capitalist ex- Ay tation and their leaders at the top there is developing an ever-widen- ing gulf. The socialist workers want to fight capitalism. Their leaders, by means of every conceivable device of political distortion and betrayal, Keep them from this fight. That is why the socialist workers are, in action, making the United Front with the Communist Workers. In sincere revolutionary comradeship we invite socialist workers ‘wrywhere to draw the proper conclusions (sent to | ¢ SHAHIAN NOT ASKED ABOUT SLAIN NEGRO LL.D. Attorney Calls “Investigation” a Farce By JOHN L. SPIVAK. - Author of “Georgia Nigger” With not a single question asked of Mark Shahian as to what he had seen on Welfare Island when a guard brutally murdered James Matthews, a North Carolina Negro, As- sistant District Attorney Saul Price yesterday concluded ex- amining the eye-witness in the “investigation” of the sup- pressed murder. | Instead of probing into the |Matthews death, as he had an- |nounced following the expose in the Daily Worker, the dis- |trict attorney devoted two |days trying to discredit Sha- \hian’s story of having had his teeth knocked out by a guard. Attorney Protests | | Edward Kuntz, International La- | Part | bor Defense attorney who accom- | panied Shahian. during the two-day | examination, was so incensed at the apparent effort on Price’s part to diseredit Shahian that he pro- tested vigorously. As a result | Price heatedly returned that he did not want to examine Shahian any more. | know,” he said furiously. _The entire examination of Sha- hian yesterday, as on the previous Attend tonight's meeting at Web- ster Hall, 119 E. lth St. where Robert Minor and former Welfare Island prisoners will lead the pro- test against the James Matthews murder. | day, was held in a stage-set room with wardens, guards and district | attorney officials present when the |eye-witness to the murder was | questioned Kuntz, however, was not permitted to be in the room when prison officials were being suppos- edly questioned. It was apparent when Kuntz | (Continued on Page Three) Strike Shuts Atlas Steel Plant; 10 Per | CentRaise Rejected BUFFALO, N. Y., Sept. 14—In- spired by the victory of the strong steel foundry workers, who won wage increases from 20 to 30 per cent and recognition of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union, the work- ers of the Atlas Steel Casting Co. walked out 100 per cent Tuesday, al- though bosses offered a 10 per cent raise. At a meeting held September 11 the men put forward demands for 40 |cents an hour, and 20 per cent in- (crease for all chippers; abolition of the 27.3 per cent of the piece work | price for the molders, and 20 per jcent increase on the hourly rate; | recognition of shop committees, and no discrimination against any of the workers, A motion by the Strong Mill work- ers to support the strike demands of the Atlas strikers by a strike if neces- Sary was carried unanimously. Pat Cush, national chairman of the $50,000,000 More jto Build U. 8. Army WASHINGTON, Sep President Roosevelt has the appropriation to build up and reorganize the land ‘forces of the United States, it was announced at the White House yesterday. The plan involves the concentra- tion of army posts at the most strategic points. Some obsolete army posts will be established to | carry this out, 14, — ordered “Tf we need him I'll let you ; against intervention. S.M.W.LU,, is on the picket line with | of $50,000,000 | | End Prison Quiz W ithout P Cuban Masses Build AFL. robing Mu rder HEADS 10 Seriously Hurt; Huge Resistance to CALLING OFF, Roosevelt Acts to Intervention of U. S. SILK STRIKE Break Strike Again National Student League Calls New York! Demonstration for Saturday Noon, at | South and Whitehall Sts. (Special to the Daily Worker.) HAVANA, Sept. 14.—The mass protest against American intery. is taking tremendous forms. | Hundreds of wires are coming in every day to the newspapers, to the | Workers’ Center, and elsewhere from trade unions, shop organizations, strike | committees, and student organizations in every part of the island, declaring | opposition to the pressure of U. S. - — Sober woe backed by 30 warships distributed in every Cuban R It Att d | harbor. All declare they are ready to | ooseve: ends | defend Cuba with arms against any | } landing of troops. Anti-Intervention Conference A oy oe reae against interven- | eye tion will open tonight in Havana’s | B nk¢ d t | largest theatre, the Teatro Nacional, | onba ONATONS called by the Anti-Imperialist ention | 5. | /Rumors Grow That! NEW YORK-—Led by the National / Bank Act Failed to/ Student League, a demonstration | against U. S. intervention in Cuba will be held at 12 noon Saturday at | South and Whitehall Sts. The line | of march will be past the Sub-Trea-| WASHINGTON, Sept. 14—From a} sury building on Wall Street, symbol | S°¢ret conference at the White House, | of U. S. imperialism, The Nationa) | 4t Which leading government finan- | Student League calls on all students, | Ci@l experts attended, rumors leaked | workers and intellectuals to take OUt today that all is not well with! : | the country’s banking structure. | The National Student League will) That the Roosevelf mergency | also conduct 2 symposium on “Re-| Banking Act recently passed by Con- | yolt in Cuba” tonight at their head-| gress has pot fulfilled:the rosy .prom- | quarters, 583 Sixth Ave. Mike Gold.| ises made by the Administration has Oakley Johnson, Frank Ibanez and | been evidenced in the last few weeks Stop Bank Crisis | ‘Secret Conference « Allentown Union Votes to Continue Strike PATERSON, N. J. — As the silk strike continues to spread to plants in Bayonne, Garfield, Rutherford and East Paterson, A. F. of L. officials in a secret deal with the employers at strike conferences in Washington agreed last night to call off the strike on the basis of a so-called five weeks’ truce. After delegates of the National Textile Workers’ Union were barred from the conferences the deal was effected by Mr. McMahon of the U. T. W. Although Ann Burlak regis- tered a protest with Senator Wagner against the arbitrary exclusion of | the elected representatives of nearly | 23,000 silk strikers, McMahon was) firm in his insistence that he will not arrive at any agreement unless the | N.T.W. delegates are barred. | ‘The deal to break the strike made by the A. F. of L. is based on Senator Wagner's promise that action will be \tcken on the silk code within five | weeks. In the meantime the A. F. of |L. agreed to abandon its demand of | $36 as a weekly minimum wage and accepted a minimum scale of $22 a week. The A. F. of L. also forgot its | demand for a 30-hour week and the | 40-hour weex will continue. The general strike committee of the Allentown Silk Work: representing 4,000 strik meeting today, yoted against tie deal, which / betrays the national silk strike, and decided to continue out on strike for | ‘'s’ Union, | Rushing “Thru Code in Effort to Get Men Back WASHINGTON, Sept. 14,— With miners being shot down by U. S. Steel | Co. gunmen at the Frick mines, Roo- sevelt today again stepped into the coal situation as he did a few weeks ago when he sent 70,000 miners back to work with fake promises. He was reported to be ready to make 2 statement on the labor clause of the N.R.A., and at the same time s rushed investigaiors to the Penn- syivania strike fields to make “re- ports” on the situation. Reports from his representatives are expected tonight. Roosevelt will use this report to rush through a coal code, giving the operators an oppor- | | tunity of driving the men back to work as he did before without grant | ing their demands. Governor Pinchot, who during the last strike sent the militia to the mine fields where they slugged the miners, is in Washington conferring on the coal code. He said the H. ©. Frick Coke officials were “swine.” At the same time, Roosevelt has been meeting with John L. Lewis, Wil- | | liam Green, and other officials of the Labor Advisory Board of the NRA on | the question of issuing a statement On the labor-claure, Section 7 (a) of the NRA. Reports coming in from all over '40 Strikers Injured at Morgan--Owned Coal Mines PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 14.— Ten miners were dangerously wounded and 40 slightly wounded by gunfire and clubs when gunmen of the Morgan-controlled U- 8. Stcel subsidiary, the H. C. Frick Coke © opened fired with shotguns at stri ing miners at Gates, 12 miles from Uniontown, Pa., today. Severe fighting took place at an~ other Frick mine at Edenburn, in Fayette County. Strikers came to a hand-to-hand clash with company gunmen. Strike pickets at both mines sought to prevent scabs recrui by the Morgan-controlled min from entering the pits. The com- pany thugs levelled their shotguns | at the men and fired point blank. Over 35,000 miners are on str The coal fields are alive wi dignation over the shooting of strikers. | U. M. W. A. officials sought to keep the me from picketing and wanted to permit the scabs to get into the mines, but the men them- selves formed picket lines. Martial law faces the coal fields, with Governor Pinchot, nov <in Washington, wiring for the sending | of trops to the strike area, n- the others will speak. | by what seems to be the beginning of a new wave of bank failures. Four large banks in Ohio and Connecticut | the union’s demands. Delegates from all sections of the country are being | | called to a national silk conference | |to mobilize against the sell-out agree- | the country show that with the open shop clause, the lowered wages, the! atrack on pickets, il: shooting of | strikers, the worters are begin to see 2500 Iowa Miners League. The Confederacion Nacional | have collapsed, involving many mil- Obrera, de Cuba has launched the slogan of a general political strike | Meetings are being held in fac- tories and unions to carry out the strike. The capitalist-landlord press is attempting to head off this move- ment by organizing “No Interven- tion Committees.” These, however, being made up mostly of workers and intellectuals, are joining in the strike movement, Striving to please Washington, the government is feverishly pressing to settle all strikes. Army sergeants are ordered to intervene in all strikes. However, the rank and file of the army, when it intervenes, forces a settlement in favor of the workers in most cases. 20,000 Demonstrate The demonstration of the Anti-Im- perialist League has produced a tremendous sensation. More than 20,000 attended, and cheered when the slogan of a general political strike was raised. A Negro soldier created a sensation when he pledged the help of the soldiers in the fight against the landing of troops. Leo- |nardo Sanchez, former secretary of the Julio Mella Club of Harlem, New York, spoke for the Central Commit- tee of the Communist Party. ‘The appeal of the Communist Par- ty and the Young Communist League to the U. 8. marines to refuse to fight the Cuban workers is posted in all conspicuous places in Havana, and has drawn a great deal of favorable comment, More Than 150,000 on Strike An incomplete compilation shows that 150,000 workers are on strike. In Camaguey province alone, 56,000 sugar workers are striking. Only four sugar mills and plantations are work- ing, and in these all the workers’ de- mands have been won. Workers are holding seven sugar centrals, and have set up workers’ and peasants’ lions of dollars of deposits. | Thousands of smaller banks are | either entirely closed or are being | artificially sustained by government | subsidies ‘Minor to Defend Self |At Picket-Right Test ‘Case in Court Today | NEW YORK. — Robert Minor, who goes on trial today for picket- | ing against an injunction taken out by the Progressive Table Co., an NRA firm, will defend himself at | the Pennsylvania and Liberty Ave. | Court, Brooklyn, at :30 A.M. Minor, Communist candidate for Mayor, will be assisted in his de- | fense by Attorney Kuntz of the International Labor Defense. } Workers are urged to attend the | trial. } | | councils irr two of them. | Almost every organization in the city is represented on the committee for the funeral of Julio Mella, whose ashes will arrive tomorrow. The ashes will lie in state for a day at Communist Party headquarters, then for a day at Trade Union headquar- ters, and at the University the third. Special delegations of armed workers on horseback are coming from the sugar centrals which the workers | have seized, to take part in the fu- neral. As a reply to the organization of armed groups by the ABC, the ABC radical, and the Directorie Estudian- til, reactionary capitalist-landlord organizations, the Young Communist | League has undertaken the organiza- | tion of armed self-defense groups, to | be called the Young Red Front. Such groups have been functioning fo: | some time in the interior, particular- ly at Cienfuegos and at the Horm! | gere sugar central, | ment on Sunday, September 17, at |1 pm. at 326 North 2nd St., Allen- | town, Gov't Expects to “Dump” U.S. Wheat WASHINGTON, Sept. 14. — The government will soon launch upon a ) policy of wholesale wheat “dumping,” Secretary Wallace of the Agriculture | Adjustment Administration an- | nounced yesterday. | The government intends to export from 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 bushels | | of wheat to foreign countries at prices|_ HELPER, Utah, Sept. 14.—Fright- | the prices pre- | ful fascist terror is raging here | at least 20 cents below : - d vailing here in this country. This | @Sainst the miners striking under the |“dumping” procedure, it is exvected, | leadership of the National Miners | will cost the government least | Union. Every home in Helper was | $7,000,000 in losses. | Searched without warrants. The The losses will be made up by a; armed thugs broke into ihe miners’ government processing t of 30| homes, broke open trunks and suit cents a bushel on wheat milling. This | 25°, searching for arms and sirike | processing tax will fall directly on | literature. | the consumers who will have to pay| Many arrests are being made daily. higher prices for bread. | The coal operators’ gunmen are con- ‘The government is, therefore, not | tinuing to smash local relief and de- only embarking on a policy for which | fense apparatus. it unjustifiedly attacked the Soviet| A statewide search is on for Paul Union, but is making the workers in| Crouch and Oscar Larson, strike the cities shoulder the burden of | leaders, with threats of lynching be- subsidizing the richest wheat farm- |ing made against them if they are ers. | caught. | Sylvia Crouch was brutally beaten Riot Squad ‘Captures’ |after her arrest, and the fate of * * others taken is unknown, 3 Boys Asking Relief | sany were seriously injured at ee | Price, Utah, where the miners NEW YORK.—Officials of the | marched to present their demands to Jewish Social Service yesterday aft-| the County Commissioners. ernoon called the riot squad to! Prelimi hearings of the arrest- remove three homeless boys who | ed strikers ked relief from their office at 799 fuse postponement to await lawyers |for the miners. through the promises of the NRA. All Strikers’ Homes ‘Are Raided in Utah by Company Thugs | Sylvia Crouch Beaten, Many Jailed in Raids | at through the halls. Trade Unionists, Support the $40,000 Drive OAL miners of Pennsylvania, realizing the tremendous value of the Daily Worker in the present bitter strike, are making special efforts to help the Daily Worker in its drive for $40,000. Whether working or unemployed, the miners siarve. of them are scraping up pennies to Yet thousands help maintain the six and eight-page Daily Worker. When the first coal page.in the Daily Worker was printed recently, they found it so helpful in their strike, they demanded another. Now there will be a coal page every week. The National Miners Union is distributing the Daily Worker by fields. the thousands of copies in the coal In the present strike wave throughout the country the Daily Worker is playing-a prominent part as agit: * ator, propagandist, organizer, * * VERY worker who has participated in a strike has found that the Daily Worker is a powerful weapon, censoring strike news, the Daily Worker is indispensable now in st With the capitalist press deliv: ke struggles and in organizing the workers into militant trade unions. Steel workers around Pittsburgh state that it was the reports of the victorious strike struggles published by the Daily Worker from Buffalo that led to strikes in the Pittsburgh area that were won. Now, in this critical situation, when the Daily is needed as it never Ee i was before in strike struggles, the paver is faced with a serious finanotal i ely | situation. We make this appeal especially to trade union members, to those in the revolutionary trade unicns as well as to the members of the A. F. | of L. unions. | You krow that the Daily Worker goes with you on the picket lines, spreads your demands to all workers, whips up an enthusiastic spirit of | struggle, comes to your defense, leads the smashing atteck against the } NRA and its strikebreaking policies. It is up to you to bring before your fellow workers in your union the financial plight of the paper. You must tell them of the dangers that confront the Daily Worker. * * * ICU must collect contrizudons now. At all strike meetings, the Deily Worker drive for funds must be brought up. In all union meetings, it should be made a point on the agenda, and contributions made citner from union funds or by special collection. This is not a hard task for those union members who have felt the force of the Daily Worker in their struggles. The unions should contribute the largest part of the $40,000 needed to keep the Daily Worker going, to make it the best weapon in the strike struggles of all workers, Do your share now, gin today. They will re- | Still Out; 500 Are Tricked to Return J ail Farmer Because He Helps Striking Coal Miners DES MOINES, Iovw: Five hundred miners a mines, out of 3,000 who voted to return to work yesterda: Confused leadership is sh weakness in organizing picketing and relief. | The strike started against the or- ders of the U.M.W.A. officials when the promises of a code that would raise wages fell through. The mines formed their own strike leadershtp. Burke, chairman of the ding strike committee, tells the ners f i ing that “we can not get by with it. Twenty-five hundred are yet out, Albert Garling, retired farmer. of. | Madrid, was given one hour to leave |town. When he refused, he was ar- |rested charge€ with “spreading {Communist doctrines.” He is being held incommunicado at the Boone County jail. Big Cleveland Bank Collapses, Freezing | Over $10,000,000 4 CLEVELAND, 0., Sept. | Broadway. Despite the promises of Roo: | The three youths,.one of whom{ The telegraph and post offices are that the recently passed caid he from Mascachusetts, being guarded by gunmen to prevent). Hank Act would: cl | were arrested by police who sur-|the sending out of stories on the Seney maven 6 i nah “ounded the building and swarmed {strike and to confiscate literature and bank failures, the City Saving: | strike relief funds. {and Loan Company, one of the largest banking institutions of its | kind in this City went into bank- ruptey today. It will be taken over by the | State Department of Banking for | liquidation. About 24.000 depositors and $10,186,000 in deposits aro i+ volved. Several weeks ago, three large banks failed in Connecticut, trying jup deposits of about $15,090,000. || Mine-Marine Edition of | | “Daily” Tomorrow. 10-PAGE CITY ELECTION | EDITION Special mining and marine materic! will fexcure tomerros |Election Plat‘o-m will be distri uted in Greater New York. The} city edition will also coniain an| i article on La Guardia, the Fusion | | \candidate for Mayor, and elect‘on | information for workers. |