The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 25, 1933, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WED) SDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1933 Page Three “MURDER” IS MASS VERDICT AGAINST LOS ANGELES OFFICIALS IN FIRE DEATH OF PARK JOBLESS LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24.—The rer oner’s jury investigating the Grif- fith Park fire, in which 100 unem- ployed relief workers were burned to death, has brought in a verdict of gross negligence and unprepared- ness as responsible for the deaths. The jury declared: “We find that death resulted from gross negligence and unpreparedness for fire in Grif- fith Park and gross negligence of the supervision of county welfare men at Griffith Park.” Caan» By H. B. LAWTON LOS ANGELES (By Mail) —How unemployed workers on county relief jobs were driven to their deaths in the flames of the Griffith Park fire by threats and beatings from their foremen, was described by worker eye-witnesses to the mass jury which has returned against Los Angeles of- ficials a verdict of “murder dut to criminal negligence.” The trial of “The Workers Against the City and County of Los An- geles” was held in the headquarters of the Los Angeles Relief Workers’ Protective Union, 741 South Wall St. The five worker-judges who pre- sided, and the mass jury of 2,500 which jammed the hall, demanded immediate removal of the city and county authorities. The defendants did not appear, but the trial pro- ceeded without them. ‘Theodore Gottsdanker, veteran Los Angeles lawyer who was selected as prosecuting attorney, was heartily cheered when he declared in his opening statement that, “This is no mock trial; the Coroner's inquest was the mock trial.” Attorney Gottsdanker, having stated that the witnesses before the Coroner’s Jury were witnesses for the defendants and that the judgment rendered at the Mass Trial would be sent to the Grand Jury, proceeded with the examination of witnesses. Saw 47 Bodies Russell Dell, the first witness, said that the only protection that could have been given to the men who lost their lives was to have kept them out of the canyon in which the fire raged. This was not done, according to’ Dell. That only 28 lives were lost, as re- | ported by the Los Angeles Times and other local capitalist papers, Dell declared was a lie. He said he counted 47 dead bodies at the scene of the tragedy. The second witness asserted that no protection had been provided by the city in case of fire, and that he, himself, helped to carry out 51 work- ers’ bodies burned black. This wit- ness also added that no “straw bosses” went down to help fight the fire and that, so far as he knew, no “straw bosses” had been burned. Knocked Him Down This witness testified that he was at a distance of two to three blocks from the fire and that it took him about ten minutes to get to it; that a straw boss knocked him down twice in an effort to force him into the burning inferno. This witness, a young Negro worker, said that he was told to “go down,” that he did so, but “went down the other way” out of the dan- ger zone. The next witness was en aged worker of 64 years, whose eyes had been injured and whose feet had been burned in the fire which, he stated, was “‘an ordinary brush fire.” He said he worked for three hours fighting the fire; that he “never saw any rangers or even any fire- men till the fire was all out.” He was not called as a witness by the Grand Jury, he declared Rangers At Safe Distance The workers were forced down into the fire death-trap, according to this witness. They were told to “get down in there or no more work,” he of a hill looking down at the fire through his field glasses! Another worker, not examine dby the Prosecuting Attorney but pres- ent at the scene of the fire, charged that a ranger declared in the pres- ence of the speaker and other work- ers that all of the relief workers in Griffith Park should have been burned up! Then the city wouldn't ing them! In addition to the mony offered at the verbal testi- | Written statements of 51 workers Li | the Communist Party and candidate | | in the last election for Mayor of Los | | Angeles on the Communist Pa | ticket, was next asked to take the |stand in connection with charges | made in an article in the Los An-| geles Times accusing Communists of | | having started the fire. | | “Communists do not believe in acts | }of individual terrorism,” declared} have to be bothered with support-| Ross. He then went on to state that| Tuesday, Oct. | the only way in which the working | | class can gain its objectives, and the} trial, sworn,| way in which it attempts to do so,| the f is by m: ction. Ss nis, he said, is said, Three hundred went down, he| present at the time of the fire, and|the belief of C nd that, averred. He testified further that} after it, have been collected, accord-| therefore, it cc have been a one worker out of his crew of 20|ing to workers’ attorney, Frankel. “Red” who set th , if it was set, was lost that he knew of; that he saw | Communists Answer Frame Up A committee of 20. added, had but one ranger and that he was} Charges | visited the Times office and had pro- standing safely far up on the top awrence Ross, representative of | tested aga a le aps P re on Commu- s offered no apols n of its false y action it took, a threat to ‘The ~ to Ross, was call the police! 4 Got summed up the 20F the case by declar- ing that the fire started at 2:20 p.m., 2; that 100 lives were that the city took no precau- y measures either to prevent ‘e or to combat it. t FOOD VITAL FOR SILK WORKERS IN PATERSON STRIKE Bullets Didn’t Stop| Them; NowHungry | By CAROLINE DREW (Secretary S@k and Dye Strikers’ Relief Committee) PATERSON, N. J., Oct. 24—The sik and dye strikers of Paterson and tighten their belts another Monday was the start of the th week of the first strike in @ year which has shut down the silk and dye factories, There have been many struggles im Paterson. The silk city of many looms, which are divided among hun- dreds of lofts where weavers grow bent, old ard anemic, working many for low wages, has a militant . But in this 1933 strike the ‘workers coming from large scale lustrial undertakings employing two thousand to four thousand rkers, many of them. young native cans, add their resentment starvation wages, split shifts, le loads and unhealthy working tions. Bullets Didn’t Stop Them “Have you ever looked in a dye house?” one of these young Ameri- cans asked the government officials at the recent hearing in Washing- ton. He looked squerely at them when they answered “No,” and told them that since they did not have the experience of working with es which ruin skin, lungs, alth, in rooms with chemicals ich bring rheumatism and other Ss, since tl did not know what a worker's life was, how could they say the $13 granted by the N. R. A. was sufficient. “If $48 is enough wages, have your wife try to feed your family on it,” is what another worker said. “We go to the stores and find the prices higher every day, we know we can’t live @n it,” said a third. And they | n ec mea what they say. Tear gas, hot lead, qtubs, can’t them, They met murderous lice thugs in Lodi the first days of the strike. Bullets criticelly wougded three and woug.ced others on P¥iday, the 20th, at the National Piece Dye Works in East Paterson. That won't stop them. Workers beatem by clubs and stuck by gas bi did not run amg hide; they stayed and fought and rushed to save their buddies. They Need Food The silk and dye strikers are fight- ing for bread and butter. They need a little food to fight on. They can’t go on the picket limes every day without relief. They cannot see their children go to school hungry. Ruh donations to Silk and Strikers’ Relief Committee, W. I. &. co-operating, 222 Paterson St., Patérson, N. J. New York Must Respond Thre picket line kitchens, a kitchen for unmarried strikers, a food distribution center for families of strikers, are operating in co-op- eration with the Workers’ Interna- tional Relief. The W. I. R. js also aiding im the collection gf funds and food throughout New Jersey and in New York City. Food in the strike relief centers in Paterson has been very low during the past week. The W. I. R. calls upon all workers and sympathizers in New Jersey and New tile union, on the wrist. The “Militant” in attempting to chain the workers to the A. F. of L. burocracy, is so careless in its slanders that it contradicts itself in the same issue. Attempting to keep going the fabrication of MacMahon and the Paterson capitalist press, the “Militant” repeats the lie of “an- denied reports of the offer by the National Union of individual strike settlements and a lower wage scale” (Militant,” page 1, Oct. 7). But in the same issue the “Militant” admits that these false and slanderous re- ports circulated by the bosses and their press were denied. “The Na- tional Textile Workers Union is re- ported in the Paterson papers to be offering separate shop settlements below the demands of the official general strike committee...The dis- avowal of such intentions in the Paterson papers of Oct, 3 didn’t come too soon.” “Militant,” Oct. 7, edi- torial, page 4). The above example taken from many, suffices to expose the slan- derous methods used by the new “mass agitation” paper supporting the U.T.W. leadership. Shooting at Dead Dog Té is popular, at this late date in the strike, after eight weeks of be- trayal, for the “Militant” to come out against MacMahon, after he has already been discredited. The “Mil- itant” is shooting at a dead dog. Although its shots are by no means dum dum bullets but rather B.B.’s. But we look in vain throughout the “silk number” for the name of Frank ciated Silk Workers (U.T.W.) and MacMahon’s representative in Pater- son. In the many columns on the silk strike we find the name of Eli Keller, chief Paterson organizer of the silk strike and purveyor of Mac- Mahon’s policies only once, where he is mildly criticised for a “buro- cratic” letter. In the following issue of Oct. 14 we find not one mention of the sell-outs of either Schweitzer or Keller, Is there any difference between the leadership of the Associated Silk of Paterson, which is a local union of the U.T.W., and the national policy of the U.T.W.? Is there any strug- gle between the two? What About Schweitzer and Keller Schwietzer and Keller are foltow- ing MacMahon’s line in the silk strike. They refused to call out the dye strikers; they told the workers not to picket; they refused to spread the strike; they tried to break up the strike by sending the ribbon weavers back to work; they sent no one into New England, let alone the South; they agreed to the five weeks truce in Washington; they agreed to @ separate agreement with the Jac- quard workers; they tried to send the dyers back to work under a dis- graceful U.T.W. agreement on two separate ions; they both refused to make public statement even York to contribute. Two pounds of food, coffee, canned goods, beans, rice, etc.,, from 1,000 thizers would mean a ton of food a week for heed tet Fi cmos We call upon Ww Tespond call. Bring food, funds, shoes to the W. I. R., 870 ———_—_— STATIONERY and MIMEOGRAPH SUPPLIES At Special Prices for Organizations WORKERS PATRONIZE CENTURY CAFETERIA 154 West 28th Street ;Pure Food —Proletarian Prices Breathe Your Cold Away | VILOPEX Obtain From Your Netgh¥orhood Druggist Or THE KAY-FRENCH CO. 984—39th Street Ambassador || the mildly criticizing MacMahon. And now these leaders as well as the “Militant” are trying to block the or- ganization of one united rank and file union of the dyers, which was Proposed by the N.T.W. and enthu- Siastically received by the rank and | file of the A. F, of L. “Militant” Doesn’t Expose N.R.A. Role The “Militant’s” line, the line of the employers, is seen again in the handling of the question of the N. R.A, by the “Militant.” The fact that Schweitzer on numerous occasions has praised the N.R.A. is suppressed.) Also the fact that Keller has made no statement against the N.R.A. The role of the N.R.A. is not brought out, by the “Militant.” The “N.R.A. trap” is spoken of. But why is it that the Blue Eagle heads all official parades of the Associated Silk of Paterson and is not seen on the N.T.W.U. Picket lines? Because the N.T.W.U, has explained to the workers that the N.R.A.-Roosevelt Government, in cooperation with the Paterson Asso- ciated Silk leaders as well as Mac- Mahon, has chained the workers to the $13 cotton code and had a hand in all sell-out agreements so far ne- gotiated. To criticize the N.R.A., as “Militant” has done, without bringing out the fact that the N.R.A, relies on the Associated Silk leaders of Paterson to cook up strikebreak- ing agreements in secret conferences still going on, is to hide the strike- breaking role of the N.R.A. as well as to protect MacMahon’s Paterson lieutenant, Militant Repeats Lies About Forces, The Militant has also spread the lies of the manufacturers regarding the relationship of forces in the present strike. The Militant says “The Allentown workers have affli- ated to the National strike commit- tee” (U.T.W.). In Allentown, the Al- Jentown Silk Workers’ Union is af- filiated to the United National Strike Committee, with which the N.T.W.U, “Militant” Supports Silk Strike Betrayers Trotskyite Sheet Conceals Schweitzer-Keller Strikebreaking Deals With NRA By CARL REEVE. NEW YORK.—The “Militant,” organ of the Trotsky group in the U. 8., announces in a recent issue a “special silk strike number,” a “new policy” of “transforming” itself into a mass agitation paper. The “Militant” thinly covers its main purpose, to defend the United Textile Workers’ Union, A. F. of L, leadership, with some mildly “progressive” phrases, slapping WmMacMa- hon, president of the A. F. of L. tex- @& - is affiliated and the U.T.W. represents nothing in Allentown. The elected delegates of the. Allentown workers proved this at the recent hearings be- fore Wagners’ N.R.A. Board, and Washington N.R.A. hearings. The Militant has taken the line of the employers on its deliberate falsi- fication of the role of the United National Strike Committee. This committee, led by the National Tex- tile Workers’ Union, unites a full half of the strikers, including the entire strikes of the Allentown and Easton area and hundreds of silk workers in Paterson, as well as a large per- centage of the dye strikers. Unity of the strikers regardless of their organization, in one strike committee, to negotiate one settle- ment, is essential to 2 complete victory. The Militant, like the U.T.W. opposes the demands of one united union in the dye strike, which would win the strike. Militant Opposes Unity. This unity has been demanded time and again by the United Strike Com- mittee and has been refused by the Associated silk leaders in Paterson repeatedly. On the question of unity, MacMahon and his representatives in Paterson, the leaders of the As- sociated Silk (U.T.W.) and the Trots- kyites and Lovestonites have 2 com- mon line—to refuse to recognize the demand for unity by the workers, especially for one united dyers’ union, and keep the workers solely under the strikebreaking A.F.L. leadership. All demands and demonstrations of the workers’ solidarity and unity are carefuly kept out of the Militant, in line with the policy of the manufac- Schweitzer, secretary of the ASs0-) turers, The N.R.A., the manufacturers, the U.T.W. in Paterson and MacMahon haye a common line toward the N.T. W.U., and the United National Strike Committee to isolate them and smash the strike. The line of the National Textile Workers’ Union has been fol- Jowed in the silk strike by the rank and file workers inside the A. F. of L. Unity has been achieved on the picket line by N.T.W.U. and A. F. of L. members, at the call of the N.T. W.U, Mass picketing has been car- vied on by A. F. of L. members, vio- lating earlier instructions of the U. T.W. in Paterson, at the call of the N.T.W.U. The strike has been spread under the leadership of the National Textile Workers’ Union and the U.N.S.C. It was the N.T.W.U. and the U.N.S.C. which went into Rhode Island, and successfully called on the U.T.W. members to sirike over the heads of their leaders, It was under the leadership of the N.T.W.U. that the strikers of Easton’and Allentown were united into united front district strike committees. It was under the N.T.W.U, leadership that joint action between Allentown, Paterson and the anthracite was achieved. It was the N.T.W.U. that proposed the organiza- tion of one united rank and file dyers’ union. The N.T.W.U. called out and led the Paterson dye strike. The N.T. W.U. defeated the five weeks’ truce perpetrated by the U.T.W. The leadership of the N.T.W.U. defeated the two attempts of the U.T.W. Dy- ers’ Union advised by Keller and Schweitzer, to sell out the dye strike. The N.T.W.U. leadership guarded against splitting the strike by the sending of the ribbon weavers back to work and later the jacquard workers, The Militant has nothing but praise for the U.T.W. leaders in Paterson. Only in one point is there a semblance of criticism. “Let them (the mil- itants—Ed.) watch such people,” says the Militant, speaking of people who “tend” toward the reactionary U.T.W. policies. The Militant does not say develop a huge mass defense, Of- who these people are. And it does fices are being established within not call for a fight against them. They should be watched while they break the strike. “Such people” are the leaders of the Associated Silk in Paterson, the there, to The Militant, with the same policy Lee the Hreebatpe yp peers ,nothing ut praises on “such people,” saying “The Associated Silk, barring minor errors, here and there, has done itself proud in the present strike situ- ation.” The policies of the N.T.W.U. are leading the strikers of Paterson to- ward unity and victory. The silk and dye strikes, with almost unexampled militancy and solidarity, are on slogan of one powerful united rank and file dyers’ union, and unity of the silk workers under the banner of the United National Strike Com- mittee, the Paterson strikers will be able to continue to defeat renegades and traitors, and win the strike, \ representatives of |started, on the main issue of the _|fense comes as a result of the .. | popularity achieved by the I. L. D, Model NR.A. City Cuts Relief to Jobless 26 P. C. Cleveland Workers Demand Jobless | Insurance CLEVELAND, Ohio, Oct. 24—Cleve- land, which has been boasted about far and wide by the Roosevelt gov- ernment and the employers as the leading N.R.A. city, has come for- ward, under the leadership of the! democratic administration of Mayor Miller, with an announcement of cuts in. unemployment relief ranging from 10 per cent for families of two, we see the N.R.A. policy in operation to 26 per cent for those who have six in the family, starting today. Here; as far as the unemployed masses are concerned. ‘While the steel mills in the city of Cleveland are cutting down on the number of days per week and thus throwing larger and larger masses on a shorter part-time week with absolutely no re-employment at all and the fifth winter of unemployment facing the Cleveland unemployed Mayor Miller, who is claiming he represents the Roosevelt administra- tion, comes forward boldly with the policy of the big steel companies and bankers of Cleveland—with a new attack upon the workers, The Unemployed Councils have immediately reacted to this challenge of the ruling class and have decided to mobilize the masses of Cleveland's unemployed to fight relief cuts at demonstrations in front of seven re- lief stations on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m, The Unemployed Council is also sending a mass dele- gation to the regular meeting of the City Council on Monday night, Oct. 28. The main demands that the unemployed workers under the lead- ership of the Unemployed Council will present before the city and coun- ty authorities are: 1. Immediate withdrawal of the relief cut, 2. Immediate increase in unem- j Ployment relief to meet the higher cost of living. 3, Single men to recieve relief at the local relief stations instead of being sent to the wood-pile. There are 13 relief stations in Cleveland but the demonstrations on Thursday will gather at the seven jmost important. These are as fol- lows: 1. Denison Branch—West and Denison. 2. 33rd and Lorain, 3. Doan Relief Station—Hast 106th and Superior, 4, Broadway—Broadway and 5éth St. 22nd | 5. 13701 Kinsman Road. 6. 40th and Broadway, 7. 140th and Ha: The Unemployed Council is de. ing not only the return of these to the impoverished workers, but the immediate passage of the Work- ers Unemployment Insurance Bill, and that the city council shall in- dorse the bill and demand its passage by the federal government, Ford Strikers at |Meet Vote to Seek Aid of Labor Defense PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 24.—At a general membership meeting of the Ford workers of Chester, Pa. at which over 1,000 workers were pre- sent, they unanimously voted to accept the International Labor De- fense as their defense organization, The vote was taken as a result of the demands from a large number of the workers for endorsement of the I, L, D. The I. L, D, has already defended a number of strikers. Prepara- tions are now going forward to ;the union headquarters, A broad jtank and file committee is being established and a fight for the rights of the strikers is being tights of strikers to picket and a stop to police terror which is now worse than at any time, The demand for the I. L, D. de- through its militant mass and legal defense of many other strikes un- der A. F, of L. and independent leadership, together with its de- fense of the violated rights of the Negro People. Natienal Events Browder to Speak in Cleveland Recognition of Soviet Russia will be the subject of a lecture by Earl Brow- der, general secretary of the Com- munist Party of the United States, Thursday, Oct. 29, 8 p.m., in the South “B” Hall of the Public Audi- torium. Earl Browder has been to the So- viet Union several times and will dis- cuss the issues involved in recogni- tion in a thorough-going manner. The public is invited to the meet- ing. Admission. is 10 cents, | state recognizes on paper the n The Fighting vets By H. E. BRIGGS TAPS IOMRADE ANDERSON of Post 169, W.ES.L., Chicago, went West this week. He was murdered by thugs. The Post participated officially at his funeral. The Workers Ex-Servicemen are sorry to lose a good comrade but we want no tears. The best way to honor a comrade is to build big- ger and stronger posts and through militant organized action win the support of honest workers and vets everywhere. Disciplined mass action is the best defense against gangsters and their ilk. Rats don’t attack bulldogs. Hang on, BUILD, act now! Keep the Workers Ex- Servicemen’s League on the front line of the class struggle. Another “Typical Revolt” Siam’s miniature navy went in for one of those infectious “typical” re- volts. It was a comic opera, dress rehearsal revolution run by a prince against a crown. Nothing serious. Don't believe the capitalist papers. However, these dress rehearsals give the rank and file much to think about, and plenty of practice for the Great Day. Me he Byrd Ship Takes On Beer Thirty-one thousand bottles of beer were put aboard the “Jatob Ruppert,” flagship of the Byrd Antarctic Ex- pedition. Colonel Ruppert is spon- sor of the expedition. No doubt science will benefit by this load of beer. Among the animals on board are 25 husky dogs, 2 contented cows and the “Blue Buzzard.” During the long winter nights the boys might find relaxation in throwing empty bottles at the South Pole. A new continent may be found, bounded on the north by the “Blue Buzzard,” on the south by contented cows and the east and west by 3.2. ie Saar Are You Getting Reilef? If not, then read this and fight for it. Article 14, Veteran Relief, Section 117 says: “A person, male or female, who has served in the Military or Naval service of the U. S. and has been honorably discharged from the ser- vice, 4nd his or her family, includ- ing a dependent widowed daughter and the families of any who may be deceased, when in nced of pub- lic relief and care, shall be eligible for Veteran Relief, if such a person or persons, have resided in the state for the year preceding the application for relief.” All veterans should read this cai fully. “Legislative bodies shall make appropriations and raise money for Veteran Relief in the same manner as for the care and relief of other persons in need of public relief and care.” You see, buddy, we vets are We are just without not a@ privileged class. I ith or work: And w unifc for Veteran Relief. But how many are getting it? Very few. Why? Be- cause of lack of organization, be- cause they are too lazy to get off the park bench, because they do not know the law, because they believe the Red Cross, and the buzk passing officials of the American Legion, V.F.W., and D.A.V. But since we are entitled to it, and, I am sure, in NEED, it is time we did ORGANIZE, It is time we got off the park bench. It is time we DEMANDED that the state live up to its paper promise. How are we to get this relief? One way is through joining hands with your buddies in that Big Relief March on Oct. 27th, when the needy veterans of New York will march to City Hall and demand what is coming to them. SECTION 119. “In the city of N. ¥., the Commissioner of Public Welfare shall include in his an- nual estimate the amount necessary to carry into effect the provisions of SECTION 117 and the officers charged with the duty of making the budget of the city of N. ¥. shall ®nnually include therein the sum necessary for this purpose.” In the city of N. ¥., the relief to persons Provided in SECTION 117 of this article SHALL BE PAID DIRECT to the beneficiaries by the commis- sioner on a written recommenda- tion signed by the relief committee, the and the quarter- master or treasurer of such post, garrison or camp. Hefe it is in black and white. If you want this Relief then Set behind the March on Oct, 27th. * « « Dear Mike, What a World Waddaya mean, musclin’ in on my territory? and stealing that English admiral story under my nose? How- ever, I'll have to forgive you as the writeup was splendiloquent. And since you too are a fighter in thate great- est of wars, the Class Struggle, you many use my skirmish line any time. N. R. A. PLOT WEARING THIN CUMBERLAND, Md.—The Tin Mill here is closed down, that is, the hot mills. The rumor is: No Orders. Many of the Celanese workers are dissatisfied, and the same condition is at the Kelly, Springfield Tire Co. The high fever that boosted the N. R. A. is now cooling off and much talk, by a big number, is now tell- ing how the joke work- Merger of Two A. F. L. Hat Unions Not CarriedThrough Meet Tonight, Hear Gold and Minor NEW YORK.—The power between the officials of the United Haiters of North America and Cloth Hat and Cap uled amalgamation of the two A. F. when the national conventions of both unions closed here. The Mil- linery delegates voted to authorize their General Board to bring about “peace” between the two officialdoms after they learned that negotiations were broken up. Max Zaritsky, president of the Mil- linery Workers, in his report to the convention delegates indicated what the officials of both unions expected to gain for themselves by bringing both unions together. A secret agree- ment had been reached by the offi- cials of the two unions in which it had been settled that Max Zaritsky | Was to be president of the union, } Michael Green of the United Hat- ters, vice-president, and Martin Law- lor, the aged secretary of the hatters, was to continue as secretary with the provision that one of the millinery officials was to succeed him as secre- tary. This was defeated by officials of the Hatters’ Union, who want more of the spoils. Rank and file millinery workers are organizing their forces to bring about real unity of the workers in both unions with the purpose of exposing and defeating the plans of the offi- cials, who seek to gain greater con- trol to enable them to sell out the workers more effectively. The Millinery Rank and File Com- mittee calls all headgear workers and all other needle workers to a mass meeting at Bryant Hall tonight, Oct. 25, to hear a report on the conven- tion, The meeting also is called for the purpose of hearing the issues of the election campaign. Ben Gold, secretary of the Needle Trades Work- ers Industrial Union and candidate for President of the Board of Alder- men, and Robert Minor, Communist candidate for Mayor, will speak, | Millinery Workers} struggle for} Makers Unions prevented the sched- | of L. unions, it was revealed yesterday | Fists Fly as Newsboys, Demand $1.50 Gypped| by Boston Transcript) BOSTON, M Oct. 24. e staid offices of the Boston Tran-| |script were thrown into an uproar | today when from twenty to thirty newsboys stormed the business of- fice demanding their full pay of | $4.50 a week instead of $3 a week| have been paid for the past | The boys only recently dis-| overed that the agent employed by the Transcript to employ the be been pocketing $1.50 a from each pay en 2. | flew as one slender boy resisted his boss. Tran- cript business executives sepa-| |rated the two but the verbal battle raged on, the Transcript executives | king the side of the thief and trying to whitewash him with var-j ious exc! The boys continued to shout their demands for nearly an hour refusing to leave until the man was ousted and they got their full pay. youth | Minneapolis Workers Join Nation-Wide Protest on Lynching MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Oct. 24. |—The Minneapolis district of the {International Labor Defense yes- terday called on all Negro and white workers and their organiza- tions to join in a mighty protest against the brutal lynching of George Armwood in Maryland Wed- nesday night. Protest meetings are being organized throughout the district. | Meanwhile, the district I. L. D. wired a protest to Gov. Ritchie of Maryland demanding in the name of its hundreds of Negro and white members the death penalty against all participants in the lynching, including the officials re- sponsible for the presence of! Armwood in the Princess Anne jail | and failure to defend him. Section 9, C. P., of Boston, raised its original quota of $30 for the Daily Worker to $100. Section & doubled its quota of $30, and prom- ises to go over the top, | (CONTINUED FRC PAGE ONE) attempts of the workers to raise them, as the daily costs of living were steadily jerked upward! It was, in other words, the delib- crate grinding out of extra profit for through the widening the cost of pro- , throrgh R, A. mechanism Through the N. of fast rising prices and stationary, or lagging wages, Roosevelt has de- liberately im:>>:-4 @ uniform, masked wage cut on tne entire American working class! And the result is only too vividly mirrored in the letest data on t amount of gocds that the American masses have been able to consume under the Roosevelt N. R. A. The A. & P, Grocery Chain reports sales running from 6 to 12 per cent below last year. The N. R. A. has meant less food for the American workers! The Federal Reserve Bank reports that dollar sales, of the country’s de- partment stores, despite every effort of the Johnson N. R. A. ballyhoo, de- spite the stupid, hysterical drum- ming of the “Buy Now” campaign, are running more than 2 per cent be-~ low last year. And the bank points out that since retail prices have risen at least 15 per cent, during this peried there must have taken place a 17 per cent drop in actual amount of goods sold! This is the most demning proof that the Roosevelt N.R.A. program has, not only failed to fulfill its promise of alleviating the poverty of the masses, but has, on the contrary deepened and degraded it still further, Roosevelt promises to increase the purchasing power of the masses. But his N.R.A. program has choked off the buying power of the workers by the deep cut in the REAL wages ef- fected through the N.R.A. mechanism of rising prices and lagging wages! And it is just this poverty of the masses (the glib “underconsumption” of the Roosevelt vocabulary), that is the basic cause of the crisis, and that is being intensified, not dimin- ished. The Roosevelt N.R.A. thus stands revealed as utterly incapable of get- ting the Wall Street rulers out of the crisis, as nothing but the uncon- scious instrument for deepening the crisis by still further destroying the domestic market, by driving the people deeper into poverty and hun- ger, certainly has not escaped at- tention that the N.R.A. publicity is being quietly and swiftly eased off the front pages of the capitalist press. The press can no longer conceal the GOV'T GROW AS N.R.A. DEEPENS CRISIS: FASCIST TENDENCIES IN ROOSEVELT that American econor temp shot of by Roosevelt is wholly pl plunging downward with speed. Steel production, now at a point 150 per cent below the seasonal peak de during July, is now at 34 per fact | | 1 out celerating e of the leanest winters in the history of the industry. | The steel backlog of unfilled orders, a sensitive index of future business has just broken downward through the lowest point ever recorded, the) 1910 level. Railroad carloading? Never pene- trated to any appreciable extent above last year’s levels. And the less-than-car loading figure, the in- dex to RETAIL buying never even went above last year’s levels! Building construction? Plunging downward to new lows all the time. Now at the lowest levels of the crisis. Foreign commerce? Still remains at the low crisis level, over 60 per cent below 1929. Re-employment? Despite the delib- erately vague reports coming from Washington, it cannot be hidden from the workers that the vast army of jobless remains around the 17,000,000 of the peak unemployment in March. Production? The New York Times index shows a drop of 30 per cent in the last eight weeks, After six months of the Roosevelt N.R.A, economic program, the capi- talist solution to the crisis so glow- ingly heralded by the Roosevelt prop- aganda experts—American economy is. headed precipitately downward, after having accomplished only the brief- est of seasonal spurts in a few indus- tries, Asi ei ee Drive Toward Fascism 'UNDAMENTALLY, the Roosevelt program has for its purpose the strengthening of monopoly capital, the guaranteeing of its profits. Roose velt wants to reduce the cost of pro- duction for big monopoly industry so as to give it advantages in the home market and in the fight for foreign markets. The Roosevelt program is thus a dual affair—the tightening of the monopoly grip on the home market, and the aggressive imperialist expan- sion outward for foreign markets. It is the central proposition of this article that the failure of the N.R.A. to allevite the crisis, the consequent necessary for increased reduction in the living standards of the workers, makes inevitable the development of more and more open Government violence, more and more fascist re- action against the rising struggies of the working class, more and more preparation for imperialist war, (To Be Continued) | fraternal ‘|improved Daily Wo |to exceed and faced with a|/i¢ WORKERS FROM 14 STEEL MILLS MAP UNION BUILDING Industrial Union Holds Calumet Conference INDIANA HARBOR, Ind., Oct. 9%. eel workers from 15 mills in this district gave a spirited response to the call for a conference of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union: The conference held Sunday at Ru- erican Hall was attended legates from the Calumet steel regio: There wi e representatives from 24 organizations, five unem~ ployed organizations, two indepen- dent unions, and 13 locals of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union. Ten per cent of the delegates, coming from 12 steel towns, were Ne~« gro workers. Joe Weber, District Trade Union Unity League secretary, reported to the conference, drawing the lessons of the Standard Forgings strike which? | has just been called off because of the strikebreaking carried through by the N.R.A. and the A. F. of L. All delegates spoke of wagecutting carried through under the N.R.A. | Every one called for action against it. A Provisional Organizing Commit- tee of 20 members was elected to put’ the decisions of the conference into action. It was decided to begin mass meetings immediately to open the campaign, to be followed with confer ences on local and mill scale and the preparations of actual struggles. Mass meetings are to be held this week in Indiana Harbor and in Gary, strong- hold of the U. S. Steel. The conference endorsed the pro- posal of the Chicago Workers School (already endorsed ty the S.M.W.L.U. District Board), for the establishment of two schools in the Calumet region for the steel workers. The conference also endorsed the building of the Women’s Auxiliary of the S.M.W.1.U, and cheered the talk of Mrs. Jenkins, who spoke for the Women’s Auxil- lary. Reports of the Standard Forgings workers points out that although tak- ing a temporary defeat, they intended to go back into the shop and carry on organizing work so that in the near future they can come out with the workers of other mills and foree the steel trust to give in to the de~ mands of the steel workers and to recognize the union of the steel workers, the 8 M.W.LU, ENGLAND CONFERENCE CE, Mass——New Eng ct Convention of the orkers Federation held ard, Ma last week, hails er and pledges its $225 quota before Nov. Circulation doubled al- ready. We pledge to go forward to build “Daily” among Finnish Ameri es of textile, gran- ers and farmers, NEW 1 OUT OF TOWN AFFAIRS FOR THE Daily, Worker Boston OCT. 28th: District Daily Worker Dance st the National Textile Workers Industrial Union Hall, 10 Beach St. Adm, 5c. Philadelphia OCT. 28th: Dance and Entertainment given the Office Workers Union at Pen and Hammer Club, 138 8, St. Adm, 20c, Wilmington, Del. OCT. 27th: Lecture and Entertainment given st the Workmen's Circle Hall, 223 Ship- ley Street. David Levinson, Phila, recently returned from the and Germany will n Fascism.” John Reed Club of Philadelphia will stage a new play and chalk talk, Frel- helt Gesangs Ferein will sing. Ad- mission 25c. Cleveland OCT. 28th: Dance at the Lithuanian Workers Hall, 920 E. 9th St., at 8 p.m. Gary, Ind. OCT. 28th: Banquet given by Unit 3 (Tolleston) at 1948 West 10 Place, at 9 p.m. Admission free, Very elaborate and fine dinner will be served. Los Angeles Extraordt oe ot Music, En- nary Concert, tertainment and Drama to be held at 214 Loma Drive at 8 p.m. California ‘The great Soviet film “1905 adapt- ed from M. Gorki's famour novel “Mother” will be shown in the fol- lowing cities on the dates listed be- low for the benefit of the Daily Worker. Comrade Ed. Royce is touring with this film, Oct, 27-28—San Jowe, Oct, 30—Berkeley Nov. 2 to 12 inehwive—Los Angeles,