The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 27, 1934, Page 1

‘ ASK YOUR FRIENDS To Subscribe for the “Daily” Daily,<QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) AMERICA’S ONL CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER Y WORKING Vol. XI, No. 24 & -class matter at the Post Office at , Under the Act of March 8, 1879 NATIONAL JOBLESS COUNCIL URGES ACTION FOR CWA JOBS NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1934 WEATHER: Probably rain. (Eight Pages) Price 3 Cents Communist Pa Party Sounds Call for Eighth Nation ational Party Convention Rank, File Miners Flay Lewis Machine at UMW Convention Resolutions Indicate Wide Opposition to the} Strikebreaking Clique By BILL GESERT | lutions in. which t before | the 33rd Conver UM. their problems and how to solv Of these resolutions, over 400 were | printed in a pai phiet and submitted | egates; more than one thou- | on scale mati Committee, which i make a report to the Convention. Through an examination of tesclutions submitted to the Co: tion, one can easily draw a plc! and understand the moods of the minezs. The overwhelming majority | of all the resolutions are directed | against John L. Lewis and the Inter-| national Board. The resolutions deal| with practically every problem facin the miners and the American wor! ing class, There are 90 resolutions | from all parts of the coal fields| against the appointive power of John! L. Lewis and the International Board | and against “provisional govern-!| More news on Struggles Miners on Page Threc. of | ments” which John L, Lewis set up | in different districts. Sixteen dis- tricts of the U.M.W.A. at present are functioning under provisional officers appointed by John L, Lewis. Demand Referendum Local 5509.of Westville, Tl, resolution, demands: “. . . alt ap- pointive power be abolished, all of- ficials, committees, etc.. to be elected by referendum vote.” ‘The local union of Pursglove, Ala.,| demands that miners have a right not cnly to elect their officials and com- mittees but also the right “. . removal by membership at any time.” Lecal 4385, Sweetwater, Wyoming, points out in its resolution that in District 22 of the U.M.W.A., despite | Bs | (Continued on Page 3) | Sharp Fight for \ Jobless Insurance at Mine Convention By DAN DAVIS tance Ind., Jan. 26.— ssion of the U. M. W. A. ion was thrown ‘ussion into a when John F, delegate of j|* urged heated Sloan, young milita: Local 5509, Westville, IIL, the miners to endorse a resolution calling for enactment of the eee Unempioyment Insurance Lewis, chairman cf the session, paced the floor as Sloan spoke and held hurried consultations with Phillip Murray, International Vice President. The Lewis machine pro- ceeded then to introduce a substi- tute bill which would discriminate against the Negro workers and youth and which would give in- surance for a period of only 15 weeks of the year. In the Daily Worker Today Page 2 Consolidate Fighting . Forces pa Hunger, by H. Benja- Jobless Convention to Fight for ance 5 i Y. Hotel § : } cause of illness. |ganizer of the farmers in the West, Bill Gebert | District Organizer of Winois Com- munict Party 800 Delegates at First Session FSU Nat'l Convention Hear Greeti ngs from Gorki; Hathaway, Bloor to Speak NEW YORK, Jan., 26.—Over 800 delegates, and hundreds of visitors have gathered, according to the latest | | reports as we go to press, at the first | session of the. National Convention of | the Friends of the Soviet Union, now being held at the New Star Casino, 107th St. and Park Ave, Greetings from Maxim Gorky, lead- ing Soviet writer, have been received expressing his regrets at not being able to attend the convention be- Clarence Hathaway, editor of the \Daily Worker, Mother Ella Reeve Bloor, veteran labor leader and or- Justine Wise Tulin, Herbert Gold- frank, acting National Secretary of the F.S.U., are scheduled to speak to- night, Friday. A message from A. Troyanoysky,| first Soviet Ambassador to the United | States has also been received express- ing regrets that pressure of work pre- vents his being present at the con-} vention, The sessions of the Convention will continue all day Saturday and Sun- day. es eh On Sunday morning, the speech of Corliss Lamont to the Convention will be broadcast over WJZ at 10:30 am., Eastern Standard Time, The exhibition on Soviet progress will be open to the public on both Saturday and Sunday. Pictures of Oliver Sayler, theatri- cal producer, and Margaret Bourke White, puppets belonging to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, and Julian Bryan have also been loaned the exhibition. Arts, crafts, pottery, | Sives—defeated the most important | the cost of living in the United States. | This was the Administration’s answer | publican craw is that the bill will | must Senate Keeps Secrecy Part Of Gold Bill Defeats Amendmenis; “AQ Per Cent Wage Cut,” Senator Says By MARGUERITE YOUNG (Daily Worker Washington Burcau) WASHINGTON, Jan. 26.—The Sen- | ate neared passage of the Roosevelt | inflation bill today as the Democrats —suppcrted by the one Farmer-La- borite and tne Republican Progres- amendment proposed. By a vote of 54 to 36, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have placed control of the proposed 2,000,000,000 stabilization fund in a board of five instead of solely in the hands of the Secretary of the Treas- ury. ‘Action followed debate in which the Democrats unblushingly proclaimed the trade-war purpose of the meas- ure as well as its other chief object, to increase prices and thereby boost to a concerted attack by Republicans. The latter poured out bleeding-heart protests against the efiect the bill will have upon the middle classes and the working people because the facts of this matter are handy political weapons at this point. Although the real bone in the Re- also temporarily penalize certain creditors, as securities and big bond holders, the assauit served to bring hous that, as Senator Reed of Pennsyl- leans put it, “this bill is a 40 per cent wage cut.” Silver Inflation The silver-coinage issue came into the debate also, Senator Wheeler| (Democrat, Montana) presenting his amendment proposing to add to the already tremendous inflationary pro- visions another to provide~tl the government buy silver up to a bil- (Continued on Page 2) Harlem I. L. D. Will Parade Today for Scottsboro Boys NEW YORK.—The Harlem section |’ of the New York District of the In- ternational Labor Defense will hold @ demonstration today in Harlem in protest against the vicious treatment given to the Scottsboro boys by the Alabama authorities. The demonstration will begin in a parade from 131st St. and Lenox Ave. at 2 p.m. White workers are especially urged to attend this dem- onstration en masse as a proof of | their solidarity with the struggles of |the Negro people. Organizations bring their banners and | slogans. |First Day on Job, CWA Workers Get Wage Cut NEW YORK. — Hiring C. W. S. iployees at high salaries, then shing the wages the same day, is the new game which Civil Works Administration officials played with workers today, when they hired 2.000 hopeful white-collar workers in the morning at salaries running up to $30 weekly, and then directly after lunch proceeded to hand the same 2,000 a vertical 23 per cent cut. Workers who had been hired as craftsmen for $30 found themselves reduced to $23.98, while others were porcelain, wood carving, handicraft cut to as low as $15.38, “This cut is nationwide,” said Mr. work, books on Russia and books from| Mangum, C.W.A. official, “and any- Russia will go to make the exhibition|one here who does not like it, can one that is of real educational value.| quit right now. We won’t stand for Visitors are invited. any squawkers.” Thomas to Be Added to N.Y. Charter Revision Committee Socialist Party Leader to Work With Fusion to Fix Charter to Suit Bankers Machine. ALBANY, N. Y., Jan. 26—Norman Hard Coal Miners Spread Strike, Thomas, Socialist Party leader, will by Carl Reeve, . be among those added to the pro- Chieago Workers Meet Feb. 5th | posed charter revision commission, gas ed announced ere yesterday. Olher Bat annot ere lay. ad- “Wall Street's Capitol,” by Sey- | ditions to the commission, which in- mour Waldman. cludes among other things, the name “Too Many Parties—,.” by Earl | of John W. Davis, wealthy attorney Browder. for the Morgan interests, are Samuel Seabury, Leonard Wallstein and Raymond Moley, former head of the Roosevelt “brain trust. Under the guise of broadening the “Party Life.” representation in the charter revision “Magistrate's Chart” by of Ne York City, mn ‘ eat Martin jew Y an t Bank. niin [with Governor Lehman, alfred E. Page 3 Smith and other representatives of Baitorials: “N.R.A. Sword-Ratil- | the dominant circles of Tammany ings “Build the I.W.0. Into a pee is lining up the forces by, which Mass Organization.” it plans to revise the city charter Soviet Communist Party Organ inion ty eteengile ar ae ‘Analyzes 13th Plenum. hold of finance capital over all the ghee of the city of New York. —Eaam! The addition of Thomas to this commission was proposed by ae James J. Dunnigan, leader in the State Senate. Thones will be used to cover up the real nature of the charter revision. At the same time his services as mem- ber of the commission will be a con- tinuation of the Socialist Party’s sup- port of LaGuardia, begun during the last election campaign. The charter revision proposed tn the LaGuardia bill, dictated by fi- nance capital, is part of the basic program of the Fusion administra- tion, the program of guaranteeing the four-year agreement with the bankers. The dictatorial powers that LaGuardia demanded and which are now vested in the Board of Estimate, for cutting across all legal safe guards of wages and conditions of civil employees, will be the principal feature of the proposed revision. The revised charter is meant to strength- en the bankers plundering of the | working population of New York, 4 Eighth National Convention of the C.P.US.A. is called to meet in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 3, 1934, and continue until its deliberations are concluded. Since the Seventh Convention, profound charges have taken place in the world, and in the United States. There have been also far- reaching changes in the Bfe and growth of the revolutionary movement among the American workers. Our Seventh Convention in 1930 confirmed the Party’s final rejection of the opportunist line of the Lovestone group, whose swift degeneration into the blackest forms of renegacy kept time with the swi‘tly deepening crisis of capitalism. By relentless struggle for the Leninist line, against the right opportuniss and Trotskyist counter-revolufionaries, our Party defeated and isolated these enemies of the working class. It placed the Party squarely on the road to the building of a mass Communist Party, which is organizing and leading the growing upsurge of the American workers against the catastrophic conditions of the crisis. This clear Bolshevist line, hammered out under the leadership of the Communist International, with the helpful participation of ove creat leader, Com- rade Stalin, has enabled our Party, since “ve Seventh Convention, to organize and lead the most imortant mass strikes in the closing years of the Hoover regime, which put up the only serious mass resistance to the open wage-slashing campaign, forcing the bourgecisie to turn to the indirect attacks on wages of the Roosevelt New Deal, inflation, and the N.R.A, Our Party's work resulted in bringing into being in the past year a fighting indepedent trade union movement under the Trade Union Unity League, of over 100,000 members, as well as a larger number of unaffiliated independent trade unions. This work stimulated the rise of a new wave of revolt within the A. F. of L. against the intensified betrayals of the officialdom. Our Party's work among the unemployed, beginning with the his- toric demonstrations of March 6, 1930, marked by the great National Hunger Marches of 1931 and 1932, by the building of a nationwide system of Unemployed Councils etc., was the most decistve single factor in forcing through relief measures, in compelling the A. F. of L. to withdraw its open opposition to unemployment insurance, and jn welding unity of employed and unemployed workers. Our Party has roused millions of oppressed Negroes to the beginning of a struggle for national liberation in unity with the white workers. These are but a few of the fruits of the correct Leninist line established at the Seventh Convention. Our Party has consolidated the Communist forces in the country. At the Seventh Convention our Party had 7,000 members, loosely organ- ized and still suffering from the effects of the oportunist poison of Lovestone. Now, approaching the Eighth Convention, we have a solid membership of 23,000 weekly duespaying members with a rising pro- portion of native-born and Negro workers from the basic industries. These achievements are the solid foundation for preparing our Eighth Convention, . ° . coming Convention meets at a time of the passing over of the economic crisis to a world revolutionary crisis. Tremendous problems confront our Party, problems of organizing and leading the struggle for the daily needs of millions of workers and impoverished masses, and developing them to a conscious mass struggle against fascization and war, for a workers’ revolutionary government, for a revolutionary solution of the crisis, In the light of these tasks it is clear that our Party lags behind events. The task of rooting the Party firmly among the decisive strata of the American working class, of putting it at the head of millions of workers, have been placed before the Party in the Open Letter of the Extraordinary Party Conference. The 13th Plenum of the Execu- tive Committee of the Communist International has laid a firm foundation for the further advance of our Party. ‘The Eighth Convention must open a new period of decisive advance toward establishing a mass Communist Party, on the basis of the solid foundation already laid down. The agenda of the Convention will be: 1) The Struggle Against War and Fascism, and for the Revolutionary Solution of the Crisis; 2) Economie Struggles and Building the Class Struggle Trade Union move- ment; 3) Tasks of the Party in winning the Working Youth; 4) Seventh World Congress of Comintern; 5) Election of Central Committee. . . . . Central Committee declares that a discussion period of 60 days ds opened in all Party units and committees in preparation for the election of convention delegates and to renew the entire leadership of th Party from unit bureaus to Central Committee. The basis of the discussion for the first 30 days is the Theses of the 13th Plenum of E.C.C.I. and the Open Letter to the Party, as applied to our concrete tasks. The second 30 days will be devoted to the Draft Resolution for the Convention which will be published on February 17th. District Conventions shall tag Dae on Maree 24th or March 3ist. ‘ULL and free Rippon a be anes im every unit of the | Party. The discussion shall be led by the Party Committees, but no Committee has the right to issue binding instructions to units or conventions regarding their elections or decisions on the result of the discussion. The basis of representation shall be: Units elect one delegate for each five members to the Section Convention. (This may be reduced by decision of District Committees for large sections), Section Conventions elect one delegate for each 25 members to the District Convention. District Conventions elect one delegate for each 100 members to the National Convention. Each Shop Unit shall be represented in the District Conventions, regardless of the number of its members. ‘The number of members to be represented shall be determined by the average duespayments in Dcember and January. Every Party member who joined before January Ist is required to have @ Convention Assessment Stamp in his book. In the composition of the delegation—the majority of the delegation must be shop workers, preferably from the basic industries, steel, metal, mining, railroad, auto, textile, marine; Party members from the A. F. of L., Revolutionary Unions and Independent Unions; mass leaders | of the unemployed movement. Fraternal delegates: To the national, district and section convention, the respective Party committees have the right to invite fraternal dele- gates from those unions or other mass organizations which have mem- bers or influence workers in the concentration industries and factories, with the understanding that their expenses be covered by the organt- zation which they represent. To the national convention, the district committee, or convention, has the right. to select fraternal delegates from the above described organizations, A small commission of the District Committee with the District Organizer on it, should be made responsible for the reliability of all delegates to the national and district convention. The aim of the convention discussion and elections must be, to clarify the problems of how to carry out the 13th Plenum Thesis and the Open Letter, to raise the political level and activity of the mem- bership, to strengthen especially the lower organizations, units and sec- tions, to improve the trade union and unemployed work, to refresh and renew the Party cadres by advancing to leading posts those who have distinguished themselves in mass work, to conclusively liquidate all remnants of influence of the renegades among the less developed Party members, to raise the fight against opportunism to a high political plane, and to turn the whole Party to Bolshevik mass work. CENTRAL COMMITTEE, sx tend Jobless, CWA Watinss| Jam City Council Chambers | MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Jan. 26.— The Minneapolis City Council, by a vote of thirteen to eight, yesterday was forced to endorse the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill at the demand ‘of the Unemployed Council delegation and the hundreds of work- ers who packed the chambers of the Counci’. The endorsement will be brought to the National Convention Against Unemployment to be held in Wash- ington, D, C., on Feb. 3, 4 and 5, by the Minneapolis delegation and will be presented to the Roosevelt government when the workers dele- | gates put forth their demands on Feb. 5th. Follows Similar Actions This endorsement, the result of an intense campaign carried on %y the Unemployed Councils, follows similar actions taken in Tacoma, Wash., Mil- waukee, West Allis, Wisc, Bedford, Ohio, and Buffalo, N. Y. Unemployed Councils, the Com- | munist Party, the Young Commu- nist League, and all other working class organizations should carry on a campaign fot the endorsement of the Workers’ Unemployment Insur- ance Bill by city and state govern- mental bodies. The federal govern- ment must be forced to pass the workers’ bill. |ing proposed in state legislatures. These only serve to separate the fight into 48 different struggles, none ;of* which adequately insure the workers against unemployment. Every demonstration that will be | held in the cities of the United | States on Feb. 5th, must demand | from the city officials the endorse- | ment of the Workers’ Unemployment ; Insurance Bill. Fire 8,500 C. W. A. Workers Eight thousand five hundred work- ers on C. W. A. jobs in the state of Minnesota are being laid off, of which 4,500 are in Minneapolis alone. Altogether, over 80,000 C. W. A. work- ers are facing lay-offs in Minnesota during the next few weeks as Roose- yelt’s and Hopkin's orders go into effect. At the initiative of the (Continued on Page 2) To Broadcast Speech of Lamont from FSU National Convention NEW YORK.—Corliss Lamont’s speech to the first national con- vention of the Friends of the So- viet Union meeting in New York this week end at the New Star Ca- sino on “Recognition—And After” will be broadcast over a nation- wide hook up on Sunday morning, Jan. 28, at 10:30 a.m, Eastern 3tandard Time. The National Broadcasting Co. reach the following stations in the following cities: New York—WJZ, Baltimore—WBAL, Pittsburgh — KDKA, Boston—WBzZ, Springfield, Mass.—WBZa, Rochester, N. Y.— WHAM, Cleveland, O.—WGAR; one of the following Chicago sta- tions: KYW, WENR, WLS, WMAQ, WCFL; St. Louis, Mo.— KWK, Kansas City, Mo.—WREN, Council Bluffs, Ia.—KOIL, Cedar Rapids, Ia—KWCR, Des Moines, fa.—KSO, Various bills are be-| has arranged for the speech to |) | Harry Hopkins National C.W.A. Administrator, Roosevelt's Chief Firer of C.W.A. Workers Graft in in CW A | Is Protecte |: By Roosevelt “Investigate’ . Eighteen Cases; Fires Less ~y SEYMOUR WALDMAN | (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, Jan. 26—Though the complexion of the Civil Works | Administration is admittedly dotted} with graft pimples, those in charge are concentrating their efforts on minimizing the seriousness of the na- tion-wide scandal. Graft Is Protected Many reporters were surprised to hear from Hopkins that the Devart- ment of Justice, under Joseph Kee- nan, special. assistant .to Attorney General Cummings, wa3 workinz on only 15 C.W.A. and: three P.W.A. cases, Asked whether there was any | truth in the rumor that the adminis- | tration was considering |tension of C.W.A. |some other mak plied: “I can’t stop a lot of talk. There’s nothing new about the ap- propriaton.” That is, beyond the already announced $350,- 000,000 Congressional appropriation which will be used to stagger C.W.A. hours to May 1, the date when, it | was officially announced, most of the 4,000,000 C.W.A. workers will be |forced to face utter destitution. While millions of workers are won- dering what will take th a few dollars they have been ré from C.W.A. a staff of about 89 hare is piddling with transforming com- plaints into innocuous statistics, Hop-! kins entertained the correspon: with the elaborate'y charted px ages of the 37,000 letters received by Only Jan. 20. they revealed that 67.8 per cent of nothing is contemplated | his office during the week ending With the exception of the fact that | Workers Force Minneapolis City Council to Endorse the Unemployment Insurance Bill Committees of Action All CWA Projects Shos!ld Be Formed DEMONSTRATE | FEB. 5 Jobs or Relief for All Unemployed, Is Demand NEW YORK.—The organi- zation of Committees of Action on every C.W.A. job, in answer 2 the firing of work- It, is an imme- bert Benjamin, anizer of the Un- 2 C. WA ther un- >. mn all parts of the | country, will. go to Federal Relief and present the C.W.A. workers, \o.w.A. workers on all projects are jasked to elect delegates to go to | Washinzton, and take part in the |Feb. 5 delegation to Hopkins’ head- quart C.W.A. workers should also elect delegates this weck to the National Convention Unemployment, to take place i: ington on Feb. |3, Benjamin de “We must dema | C.W.A. worker d that not a single shall be fired,” he | (Continued on Page 3) Unemployed Page in Today's Daily Worker Much more special news of les of the unemployed of Roosevelt fir- issue, on SP. Leaders Try to Smash Unemployed Women’s Meeting Women’s Conference to Elect Washington Delegates NEW YORK.—Socialist leaders of the letters came from laborers and 6 ‘he Single Women’s League, at the per cent from farmers, and that only Yegular meeting of that organization 6.1 per cent showed “general praise | Thursday night at the Socialist head- for Roosevelt” ; Quarters, 22 E. 22nd St. resorted to levery sort of disruptive tactics, in- NEW YORK.—A decided let-down in investigation of important phases of prison conditions in New York by Correction Commissioner Austin H. MacCormack characterized yester- day's activities in the Welfare Island Penitentiary probe. While the gangster-control of the prison, working hand in hand with the Welfare Island authorities, was decidedly linked with higher-ups in the city administration, the Fusion publicity machine began to shy away from trails which might implicate its oe men. Instead it turned the spot- light on relatively minor aspects of the probe, including a strike by seven of the prison bakers who were refused their supply of cocaine and heroin, An attempt to ameliorate the gang- ster chiefs, Rao and Cleary, began with Chief Warden McCann’s char- acterization of Reo as “the most val- uable prisoner” in the penitentiary, Fusion Gang Begins to Cover» Higher-Ups in Prison Probe! Threat Against Inmates—Particularly Political Prisoners—Looms As Investigation Lags cluding the calling of the police, in | order to break the unity of the mem- jor with other women’s workingclass ions, Julia Stuart Poyntz, of the Unem~ ployed Women’s Committee of the | Unemployed Cozncil, went to the | meeting to invite the jobless women \to send delegates to the Unemployed | Women’s Conference, to be held at Irving Plaza, Sunday, Jan. 28 at 1 |pm. Miss Caples and Miss Pell of | the League for Industrial Democracy and the ,“mosé affable, tractable and|who conducted the meeting granted sensible.” McCann called Cleary a| Julia Poyntz the floor only after the “contributory factor in maintaining insistence of the rank and file mem- order.” revelations of the probe, the Fusion investigators began what will lead to an even more vicious treatment of the ordinary inmates of the prison— 1,400 of them, who have been living in filth and hunger, while the dope ring leaders and politically-affiuent criminals have been enjoying all lux-/ uries in the prison hospital buildings. In the clamping down of stricter} regulations for the majority of the prisoners, the threat of even more cruel and brutal restrictions against} inmates — particularly political pris-| oners—loomed for the immediate fu-| ture. ‘An inquiry by the Federal Narcotic | Bureau was promised by United States Attorney Martin Conboy, Disregarding the more important) | bers present. After Poyntz had pointed out. to the members present that although they had voted to send delegates to the National Convention Against Un- employment to be held in Washing- ton on Feb. 3, 4, and 5, the Socialist executive of their organization had attempted to stop the delegates from going. At this point Caples, Pell and Lil- |lian Brown, a Lovestonite, created & | disturbance in the front of the hall in order to stop the members from hearing Poyntz. Caples turned off the lights in the hall and threatened | Poyntz with the police, As the women left the hall, police (Continued on Page 8)