The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 31, 1934, Page 3

C.W. A. Workers Demonstrate As Feb. 3 DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1934 N. ¥. Shoe Union Bares|Hoffman of Needle | Reports show 242,000 Schemes of Enemies to [trades Union Hits Turn Union Over to AFL Call Meeting Thursday at Arcadia Hail to Consolidate Forces By F. G. BIEDENKAPP NEW YORK.—The Amalgamation Convention of the Shoe Workers held in Boston in December, 1933, uncovered many little schemes of plotters who expected to pull the wool over the eyes of the rank and file delegation in order to put over a grand scoop for the A. F. of L. of- ficialdom. Thanks to the New York delegation and rank and file delegates of New England these schemes and schemers were completely defeated. | Today—six weeks after the con-| vention—we find that there are still | some schemers busy trying to make @ comeback with the hope of keep- ing the A. F. of L. bureaucracy’s fla” flying in the breeze for the glory of the bosses. It is important that shoe, slipper, stitchdown and shoe rena‘r) workers here in Greater New York practice ever greater and constant | vigilance. It is of the utmost importance that every worker in the industry be on guard and ready to defend our or- ganization against any and all at- tacks. This can best be done when we know how the bosses’ agents and A. F. of L. schemers work and op- erate among the rank and file. To begin with, everyone knows that the Boot & Shoe Union and its agents are property of the bosses and work openly in the shops, hand in hand with the bosses against the workers — forcing workers under threat of losing their jobs to do as the bosses want, which is to join the Boot & Shoe scab union. N. R. A. Maneuvers | The vast four months of negotia- tion with the N. R. A. and the Na- tional Labor Board have convinced even the mos; skeptical that the Na- tional Labor Board works hand in hand with the bosses and the A. F. of L. leaders, which in the shoe in- dustry means the Boot & Shoe Union. All we have to do is to read the November 2, 1933, National Labor Board decision, rendered under pres- sure of the 10,000 strikers who de- manded the right of belonging to a union of their own choice, and com- pare that decision with their in- famous action in carrying out their own decision since Nov. 2 and we will find how clever politicians and. law professors in cahoots with Bill Green operate in betraying and cheating | the workers, Now comes the grand finale, the proposed Feb. 2 election, that is sup- posed to decide which organization the workers want—so they propose that these elections shal be held in the bosses’ factory—under the bosses’ influence and the bull-dozing of his scab horders, Put in other words—it is a hold-up—just like sticking a gun in worker’s belly and saying “go ahead fellow, speak freely, but be damn careful of what you say.” The N. R. A, the A. PF. of L. officials and the bosses are three aces in the joker hand of capitalism—Well, the workers will come back with a full house and call their bluff. Sing Praises for Scabs While the bosses, the National Labor Board, the Jewish Forward, the Day, the Jewish Morning Journal, the New Leader, Il Progresso, Courieri di America, Bolletino della Serra are all singing praise for the bosses’ scab organization the Boot & Shoe, the Worker’s Age, organ of the renegades, expelled Communists, try to poison the minds of the shoe workers with their propaganda for the A. F. of L. officialdom, making a distinction between the Boot & Shoe and the A. F. of L. ‘With such propaganda the I. Zimmermans, the Bixbys and the rest are actually weakening the fight against the Boot & Shoe scab agents and are prevent- ing real unity to take effect on a renegade sheet speaks for the new union to affiliate with the A. F. of L. ‘These are different words, but the same intentions to deliver the work- ers into the hands of the bosses. Don’t Dare Speak Openly To be sure, the oppositionists do to speak openly for the A. . When they come face to face workers. They know they anyone with their tactics, they plan to carry through lemes? The answer is that to the same schemes as “i i FI Fe iJ Eye Hen eg |stand. They do not hide behind Fred Biedenkapp | | a.tditant leader of the ..ew York Shoe Workers who fought to bring about amalgamation of 70,000 shoe workers. in the fore front in all struggles for conditions and for rank and file control. Put them all together, these So- cialist_ misleaders, these expelled members of the Communist Party, these renegades of the revolutionary trade union movement, and they are but a hand full, always working be- hind the scene under cover, try- ing now to work for the A. F. of L, the Boot & Shoe and against the tried and trusted leadership of our Union who stood the acid test of leadership during the hardest period of our union development, the only leadership of any of the unions at the Boston convention that fought and fought hard to bring about real rank and file amalgamation and to defeat renegadism and the A. F. of L, officialdom. Those of our leaders who are mem- bers of the Communist Party have never hidden the fact. They are proud of their right to belong to the only party that speaks and fights for the working class, the Communist Party. This is their right and their privilege as it is the right and priv- ilege of any member of our union to bélong to any political organization that he or she chooses. Communists Lead Struggles It is exactly the Communist leader- ship that leads in the struggles of the workers. Everybody knows where they phrases or work under cover. They stand out in the open, speaking and fighting clearly and fearlessly for the workers. Under the auspices of the Coor- dinating Committee of the United Shoe and Leather Workers Union, a mass meeting will be held next Thursday, Feb. 1st at Arcadia Hall, of all members of the former Shoe and Leather Workers Industrial Union, with its 9.000 membership and the four other small units of the Na- tional, the Protective, the Brother- hood and the Metropolitan, who to- gether number about 300 members. This meeting is to consolidate all of these organizations into one body. Why this was done immediately after the Boston Convention can only be explained by a wish on the part of the small groups to delay and weaken the New York organization. No sane worker will accept the pro- posal made by some of the schemers already mentioned, namely that the 9,000 membership union should turn over its organization to a committee composed of these schemers who, after all is said and done, don’t even represent the entire 300 members they claim, but only a fraction of them. They propose that Bidenkapp, Magliacano, Rosenberg and all the other union officials should resign and they, a self-selected committee, who in June 1933 fought against a united front, who refused to enter in- to the general strike, who permitted a Zimmerman, a Bixby and a De Lib- erty to actually send workers into the Cuosins shop to scab while 10,000 workers were on strike in 125 shops throughout the city, take over the new union and hand it over to Bill Green of the A, F. of L. That’s what their proposal amounts to. We hope every member will be there on Thursday, and work hard and honestly for the unity of the rank and file—there is room for only one union in New York. The rank and file will decide who shall be who, and what shall be what. And I am quite certain it won’t be Zimmerman, Bixby or DeLiberty. . PHILADELPHIA, PA. At 8:15 P.M. is — Prog Freiheit Gesangs TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Friday, February 2nd, Girard Manor Hall CLARENCE HATHAWAY—Editor Daily Worker—Speaker Bella Dorfman—Artef, John Reed Club 911 GIRARD AVENUE ram —. Farein, Oratorio CHICAGO, ILL. TWO GREAT FILMS “WAR AGAINST THE CENTURIES” ‘NRA Clothing Code |Tells Administrator It Means Starvation and Unemployment | (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) | WASHINGTON, Jan. proposed N. R. A. code for the mer- chant tailoring industry means more unemployment and more semi-star- | vation for those now working,” Alex- ander Hoffman, representative of the |custom tailoring workers’ section of |the Needle Trades Industrial Union, told Deputy Administrator Dameron, | who presided over Saturday’s hear- |ing in the Auditorium ‘of the Com- merce Department. | Also representing the workers at |the hearing was Erwin Gersh, from the Needle Trades Workers’ Indus- | trial Union of Chicago, and I. Gross, | from Philadelphia, | “We propose 35 hours and $40 a | week,” Hoffman declared. “This means that the average worker, who | labors an average of 18 weeks a year, | will receive $720 or only $16 a week, | spread over the whole year—this is the wage on artist of our trade, the highly skilled worker, must support a family. The employers propose 65 cents an hour, $22.75 a week or $407.40 during the year—$7.75 a week average. The merchant tailoring code, sponsored by the National Associa- tion of Merchant Tailors of America and the Pacific Coast Tailors’ Asso- | ciation, proposes a 48-hour week and |65 cents an hour for skilled workers The amendments to the proposed tailoring code, submitted by the C. T. W. L U., provide a 35-hour week, divided into the first five working | days of the week; a minimum of $40 \3 week for skilled workers; week cordance with changes in the cost of | living; no home or piecework; no discrimination against Negro, female or young workers—workers “shall be paid equally for the same work per- formed, regardless of color, sex or age;”; the establishment of an in- dustrial unemployment insurance fund, to which the employers shall cextribute 3 per cent of their total weekly payroll; the elimination of the so-called “merit” clauses; equal representation of organized labor on the code authority, and the right of the workers to organize, strike and Picket without any curtailment what- ever. The Chicago workers will hear a | report on the hearing at a mass meeting called for Friday at 6 p.m. at 119 S. Wells St. NEWS BRIEFS FIRE DESTROYS N. J. AMUSE- MENT PARK BURLINGTON, N. Y., Jan. 30.—A fire started by two boys on a picmic destroyed an amusement park near here and caused damage estimated at | $300,000. FOUR NUNS DIE IN AUTO PLUNGE WATERTOWN, N. Y., Jan. 30.— Four nuns were killed when the auto in which they were returning from religious services plunged off a bridge near here. Martin O'Keefe, a rail- road engineer, who was driving the car, was drowned. SOCIALIST CANDIDATE CAUGHT ROBBING BANK WINSLOW, Ariz., Jan. 30—Dill- worth Sumpter, Socialist candidate for Representative to Congress from Arizona, confessed to attempted bank robbery, police said here. The unsuccessful candidate, both as representative and as bank robber, was caught after a three-block chase morning. which the so-called } work; the adjustment of wages in ac-| ‘| terest on the part of the local’s mem- through the streets of Winslow this! Jobless in Minnesota MINNEAPOLIS, Minn,, Jan. 30. ately 242,000 workers of Minnesota are un- ploy according to an inves- gation by the University of Min- nesota. This is nearly 50,000 more than the highest previous estimates of @ year ago, made at the low point of production; and is nearly 100,- 009 more than the recent estimate made by Floyd Olsen, the Farmer- || Labor governor, who recently tes- tified before the State Legislature Committee of Public Relief that j| there were 150,000 unemployed in Minnesota. Bost. Shoe Workers _ to Fight Wage Cut Reject Decision of the | Arbitration Board | BOSTON, Mass., Jan. 30. — Aroused over a decision of the State |Board of Arbitration handing the shoe workers a wage cut, Stitchers | Local 12, formerly of the National Shoe Union and now affiliated to the | United Shoe and Leather Workers’ | Union, moved quickly to combat the | wage cut at a recent meeting. | The local decided to reject the | wage cut and to have all prices set- |tled by committees in the shop to | the satisfaction of the crew, on an $18 weekly wage. | the local appealed for support, de- | cided against the action of Local 12. | hourly rate based on a $40, $30 andj Press | Among those who fought against the | 16. Page Three Jobless Meet N ear. ‘Alabama Seeks To Ft, Worth Jobless Demonstrate Carry Thru Mass Murder of 9 Negroes al . + | Growing Protests Force | Lynchers to Hesitate; | Must Be Intensifie: {Commutation of sentence for Leo | Fountain, one of nine Negroes sen- |tenced to die Feb. 9, by the State | Supreme . Court, has been recom- | mended by the Pardon Board, as the | result of the campaign of protest or- | ganized on a national scale by the | International Labor Defense, against | this proposed holocaust. | The State Supreme Court has re- jfused to grant a re-hearing for | Teener Autrey, Negro woman among the nine, also framed on murder charges, and who has not been granted even a “clemency hearing” by Governor B. M. Miller. Such a hearing will be held Feb. 6 |for Willie Peterson, Negro tubercular miner and war veteran, framed also on murder charges, and betrayed by his “defenders,” the leaders of the National Association for the Ad- | Vancement of Colored People. Des- perately trying to stifle the mass protest against this legal lynching which the state of Alabama is deter- mined to carry through with their assistance, the N.AA.C.P. leaders sent out a statement which was car- ried in practically the entire Negro to the effect that Sheriff | Hawkins of Jefferson County (Bir- | The Joint Shoe Council, to which|™Mingham), one of the framers of| converge on C to demand that the LaGuardia ad- | Peterson, would save his life. Peterson is sentenced to die Feb. The U. S. Supreme Court last |local’s decision was Jack Aronberg,| Week refused to review the case. ja Lovestoneite renegade, {from the Communist Party. | Joint Council adopted a resolution expelled | to ask Frances Perkins, secretary of labor, to investigate the conditions of the shoe workers. The workers are determined to carry through their decision to smash the wage cut ‘and are flatly refusing to take it. In some sho) stoppages have been declared. The State Board stepped into the shoe workers’ strike last August, when officials of the National Shoe ; Union accepted the decision to sub- mit the workers’ demands to arbi- tration. The workers having had their taste of governmental deci- sions, are now convinced that only | through militant action will the wage cut be defeated. ‘Convict AFL Head, NEW YORK.—Harry Van Arsdale, Jt., racketeer business agent of Local 3, Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and Max Rosenberg, gangster, were yesterday convicted by a jury of first degree assault in the shooting of Sorenson and Dooner, members of the opposition group. This case aroused an intense in- bership, who daily jammed the court- | room to hear F, P. Walsh, high- priced attorney for the International grafting officials, argue Van Arsdale’s case. The shooting took place Feb. 24, last year. | 75 CCC Workers Ejected from Camp for Striking BATTIEST, Okla., Jan. 30—Seventy five boys were ejected from the C.C.C. camp here following their hunger strike of several days, in protesting the lack of sufficient food. The boys were given nothing but dry toast for breakfast. One boy had lost 11 pounds Thug, in Shooting Governor Miller has already de- ‘The| ied clemency to Solomon Roper, | cuts, Ernest Waller and Ben Foster, all of Dallas County, who are among the nine sentenced to die Feb. 9. President Roosevelt against this mass |Jegal murder being planned by the PS; | white ruling class of Alabama, link- | O'ganizations | ing it to the legal lynch plans in the | Scottsboro case. Elkhart School Board | Renigs on Permit for | Showing Soviet Film | ELKHART, Ind., Jan. 30.—After | granting a permit for the showing of the Soviet film, “War Against the | Centuries,” at the Roosevelt School auditorium the local School Board returned the rent money at the last minute and shut the school against } the: workers. | The Communist Party, sponsoring the film showing for the benefit of the Daily Worker, secured instead the Workers Center Hall, 913 Mason St., and issued a leaflet exposing the reason for the board’s action, and calling on Elkhart workers to dem- onstrate against the School Board Single Jobless Workers To Hold Mass Meeting NEW YORK.— The Downtown Unemployed Council has issued a call for a mass meeting of all sin- gle workers, registered unemployed C.W.A. workers, and young jobl workers to a conference to formu- late @ plan of action to force the C.W.A. to provide jobs, or the city to give immediate cash relief to the jobless, pending the passage of the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill. Pices of the Downtown Single and Registered Committee, will be held at the Manhattan Lyceum, 66 E. 4th in less than a month of the camp diet, St., Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m. | The I, L. D. has called for renewed Re me * and intensified protest to Governor|, New York delegates to the Wash-| , Miller at Montgomery, Ala. and to| ington Conference will meet tonight The meeting, held under the aus-| tees, | ae | NY. ae and | d | aT | Demand Endorsement of | Workers | Unemployment Insurance Bill |. NEW YORK.— | 8rd, worker: tire country w jton, and open t jtion Against Un | Feb. 5th, the del |to Congress, to President Roos mands for pas Unemployment Insurance of the C.W.A. program, ‘Mass Meet on Feb. 5 5 Ask Jail Terms As ‘Unemployment Relief’ “unemploy- Sherrel, 63, and len, 28, Alex, 24, mitting the theft sentenced to two state penitentiary, ader, Indian, for the cken, was given a Judge Gas- 1,200 Yonkers CWA Men Get Pay Cut on At the time when the delegates / ° workers, and worke: y city ae throughout the countr 1 demand ite that the city governments endorse} Have Many Grievances | ance ae aaa da on Work Conditions New York work 2s | semble with their un r on Job | ganization and | ministration endorse the \larly the workers will dema continuance of the C.W.A. and demand a stop to C.W. | lay-offs, and Roosevelt | abandonment of the C.W.A. the N. Y. Delegates to Meet {at 7 p.m., at 29 Oth Si final | instructions, egates to the conventions, ar not yet sent in their cred should do so at once, in or | preparations may be made | transportation, and feeding jhousing in Washington. Delegates should re | 20th St. | to leav BronxCWA Workers ‘To Demonstrate at NEW YORK. — Bronx C. W. | workers will hold a mass demonstra- | tion before the city C. W. A. jat 111 Eighth Ave. Th }1, between 4 and 6 p. m., the restoration of the r cuts, the re-instatement o: and enlargement of the C. W. A. program. As a result of the mass lay-offs and wage cuts on C. W. A., Bronx work- ers came to the offices of the Relief Workers League at 1692 Washington, | demanding that mass held. Following the leaflets on the Van © Orchard Beach jobs, w in a body directly from worl s meeting was held last week at Am- bassador Hall, Third and Claremont Aves. The workers outlined a plan of struggle by forming job commit- organizing on the job, and jelected delegates to the National | Convention Against Un ent to be held in Washington on Feb. 3, 4 and 5, and unanimously voted to that for and City CWA Offices: . | C.W.A. workers by refusing to leave offices | jers laid off, and for the continuance | YONKERS, N. Y., Jan. tween 1,100 and 1 living Yonk the Piermont and W. A. projects. The job originally called for 30 I es of $18 a week. Roosevelt wage cuts, cut to $12 a week. Act- en put in an 11-hour day. y the workers are down to the ferry, weather conditions. men are told to yhen the job was men were prom- ly days. Actually, only after a struggle kers were permitted to up the day at the end of the 30.—Be- v.A. workers, employed at Zook Mountain C. With re this has bee less of the i S$ ‘raining, t go back home opened, the pay on r erly the workers were forced ge on Fridays cking together en won their demand that they id on the job. cers worker orkers in the country, have a& Wage cut by Roose- le Now, Roosevelt in- to abandon the entire C.W.A. 3 Beginning Feb. 15, it is anned to fire half a million C.W.A. kers each week by a gradual “tapering off” process. Yonkers work- ers should take the stand of other | the job when laid off, demanding that wage-cuts be restored when being off, and demonstrating before the C.W.A. offices for the continua- tion and enlargement of the C.W.A. | call a complete stoppage of all work on | Feb. 5 to participate in the city-wide |demonstration for jobs or relief The 600 workers who jammed the also voted to demand their full then they are offered their re- yc and called for on the jobs against lay-offs to leave the jobs until bly removed. | A membership meeting of the Re- lief Workers League (Bronx local) | will be held on Priday, Feb. 2, at 8 p. m., at Ambassador Hall, Third and |Claremont Aves. All ©. W. A. work- are invited to attend. The Re- f Workers League is open every | e —© together ,with all; For Unemployment Insurane: |Workers at Send-€ Meeting Demand Enc of CWA Lay-Offs | PP ELES. | FORT WORTH, Texes, Jen. | Approximately 1,000 Negro. a | white workers and poor farm held a huge send-off mass meeti |on the Court House lawn here, | the Texas delegates to the Natio | Convention Against Unemploym: | to be held in Washington, D. 6, | Feb. 3, 4, and 5. | By # unanimous vote the work |at the mass meeting endorsed t | Workers Unemployment Insurar | Bill, and against the stoppage |the C. W. A program. Resolutic were sent to Washington demand! that the government officials su port the insurance bill, receive t workers’ delegates from the natior convention, and against wage cu lay-offs, and the abandonment | the OC, W. A. program by the Re | sevelt government. | « 28 'e@ | Worcester Workers to Demoustra WORCESTER, Mass. Jan. 30 C. W. A. and unemployed work: will demonstrate here tonight |7 pm., at the Commons, demar ing continuance and enlargement the C. W. A. program, and agair | lay-offs and wage cuts, and for jo |or immediate cash relief for all u {employed workers. The four Worcester delegates |the National Convention Agair Unemployment will leave Wedne day night for Washington, Preparations are being speed |for a mass demonstration on Fe 5, the day of national demonstr | tion for unemployment insuram tor a city-wide demonstration f unemployment insurance. oe @ | | Portland Workers Protest CWA Gy PORTLAND, Maine, Jan, 30. Seventy-five C.W.A. workers, mer ; bers of the Portland Relief Wor! |ers Association, met here last we and unanimously voted to send re | olutions of protest to Harry | Hopkins, federal relief administr. ‘tor, protesting the wage cuts giv: | to C. W. A. workers, In additic |the workers yoted to demand th |the City Welfare Department gt | every local worker affected by ti |C. W. A. wage slash @ weekly fa | basket until the pay cut is restore At @ recent meeting the worke voted to send a delegate to the Ni tional Convention Against Unen plyoment to be held at Washingto D. ©. on Feb. 3, 4, and 8, Collectio are being made to raise funds, a7 if the required $17 is raised a de. gate will be elected at the ne meeting of the union. Refuse Jobless Food at Los Angeles Relief Depo LOS ANGELES, Calif, Jan: 3041 food i8 being given out at the ment surplus food depots here. cards dated Jan. 9, 16, and 23/ha: not been honored on these dat Notices in English and Spanisha posted on the stations stating *? Food on Hand,” and “Opening da will be published.” Meanwhile, an official sits in @ office day after day, reading a pape and hungry workers come there on to be turned away without food, Nygard » Delegate CROSBY, Minn.—At a united fro: mass meeting of the Unemploye Council and the I.W.W., Emil N; gard, former Communist Mayor « Crosby, was elected as a delegate } represent the unemployed of Crost ening at the headquarters, 1692 Washington Ave. Men Who Question Expenses By A. S. PASCUAL NEW YORK.—Seven and a half million dollars were squeezed out of members of Local 3 Electrical Workers Union through $50 taxes, high dues and special assessments and then was spent on lawyers, politicians and gangsters by the A. F. of L. officials. Mili- tant rank and filers weré shot down and murdered when they demanded an accounting. Such is the history of beastly cov- ruption and brutality as practiced on 7,000 workers by A. F. of L, officials in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3. Howell H. Broach, former Interna- tional President, together with offi- cials of Local 3, was unable in March, 1932, to account for $7,500,000 in union funds, spent between 1926 and 1932. The vouchers had been destroyed. On Feb. 23, 1933, William Sorenson, militant rank and file member, ex- posed the R.K.O. Theatre sell-out in See the Five-Year Plan in Action AND Demonstrations in Chicago, New York, Germany, Russia “BREAD” WILL BE SHOWN AT THE FOLLOWING PLACES: FEB. 4th, Sunday—at 8 P.M. 6 West 44th St. FEB. 7th, Wednesday 588 Wisconsin St, ——— eee! Resistance to the racketeering of- <e_eamca NLLLLLLAAA FEB. 5th, Monday 1806 S. Racine Ave. FEB. 8th, Thursday 1118 W. Madison St. the form of a drastic wage-cut, as a deal put over by Broach and the other officials. The next day Soren- son and another courageous worker, Frank Dooner, were shot down right in the union headquarters, at 130 E. 25th St. The shooting was done by the business agent, Harry Van Ars- dale Jr., and an administration thug, Max Rosenberg. ‘Acid Throwing A quart of acid was thrown into the face of Adelbert Letscher almost blinding him. Letscher was the star | witness in the shooting, and testified esainst the administration officials. Electrical Union Officia Shoot Down and Mader! ficials increased. The workers were aroused and demanded an accounting of funds and free elections in the local. To stem the rising tide of pro- test, Henry Godell, fighting rank and filer, was shot down in cold blood, June 20, by guerillas who bore down upon him in a fast moving automc- bile. He left a young mother and} two little children, These facts have all appeared in the Daily Worker at previous dates. Hearst's Evening Journal has just “awakened” to the racketeering that is being put over by the A. F, of L. officialdom, But the Daily Worker has consistently, day by day, exposed these murderous A. F. of L, leaders preying on the workers, On August 7, 1928, a whole page of exposure articles appeared in the Daily Worker, all dealing specifically with Local 3 and International Pres- ident Broach. The editorial appear- ing on that page showed the organ- izational work led by the “Daily” for better conditions in the local and presented the slogans around which the fight should be based. The edi- torial said in part: “The Daily Worker has for two years been making an active fight for better conditions in the electrical workers’ trade, For the past year this paper has found it necessary to expose the role played by H. H. Broach, International vice-president of the Brotherhood, who came into the New York situation as a ‘Pro- gressive’ and a ‘reformer.’ “Two years ago the Daily Worker was practically unknown to the elec- trical workers. Today, several hun- dred of them read it regularly. This is only 4 small number compared with the thousands in the trade. “When the Daily Worker first be- gan its exposure of Broach and his local gang, the little tyrant fumed and stormed and threatened to send for the writer of the article. BUT BROACH KNEW BETTER! LaGuardia and his cohorts have made many statements about driving the racketeers out of the city. But the mechanism of preying upon workers is too firmly rooted in capi- ls Extort $ 7,500,000; Refuse Members An talism to be frightened away by La-| was brought before the Lockwood; and then Guardian statements. The little racketeers might be stepped on; the big ones stay till capitalism goes. Take the case of one of the vilest crooks in A. F. of L. history, Wil-| (paid for by each member with a 50 torneys liam A, Hogan, or “Death Benefit” | cent assessment whenever a worker | ground Hogan, treasurer of the Internation- al, and secretary of Local 3. He | Committee in 1921 to explain the | whereabouts of $26,000 unions funds that were missing, The death benefit in the local died) was $2,000. Hogan used to assign himself as the beneficiary, Racketeer A. F. . of L. Officials is business agent of the | agents, and I, Sisselman (right) is chairman.of the local. Daily Worker on the activities of is Jacob Wallner, known as Jake local, Oscar Amberg (center) is N gypped the family of $1,000. |. On July 18, 1922, this A. F. of [be crook was sentenced to_ three years in the penitentiary. His at- pleaded mercy on the that he was the victim of} conditions which obtained in labor} | organizations at that time. Gov. Al | Smith pardoned him on July 15 be- \cause, as the governor claimed, his| family was in “dire need.” Broach and the other racketeers | immediately hailed him back into | the union and gave him his old job. |So much for capitalist justice as meted out fo the big fellows, Let us turn the light onto the Lockwood Committee investigation, and see the rotten grafting it ex- | posed with regards to Hogan and other A. F. of L, officers. The greatest bulk of the $26,000 j stolen by Hogan came from permit |fees taken at the rate of $2.50 a | week from workers denied admission | into the union. The money taken from these | workers, journeymen and helpers, | was just thrown into the till and |then brought into Secretary Hogan. | There was no system of accounting used, and no effort was made to | number permit cards to enable a ‘ater check. Not a dollar of this | money ever found its way into the | union treasury, nor was it accounted | for. | Hogan used two bank accounts, | the investigation revealed, in addi- | tion to the several accounts of the j union, . Hogan pleaded he didn’t know | what he was doing when he pocketed |thousands of dollars that should |have gone to the bereaved families | of former union members, James Smith, a member of the union, died on October 21, 1918, leav- ing a crippled poverty-stricken widow. By some peculiar method, Hogan had managed to have him- |self appointed beneficiary before | Smith died, without his wife know- | ing of it. He paid her as a result, $1,090 of the death benefit, and on \the witness stand stated that the . ° | “Daily” Exposed Thes: at the National Convention Again: Unemployment at Washington, D.‘ Accounting AFL Heads Back in 1926 union was in a position to Pa ' ont that amount at the time. He forge evidently that the death benefit. we assessed from workers who kne what the death of a father mean to a working class family. Grafted From Widows This A. F. of L. official stole thou sands of dollars in this way fror widows and children, of workers wh had paid their sweated money t the grafting officials for years, onl to be once again defrauded of thei rights when they died. The treasurer of Local 3, Josep Lawler, testified that he had bee paid $51.85 for committee wort which consisted of going to the ban and to the lawyer’s office. He state that the money in the till, collecte mainly from the permit fees, di not go to him as the treasurer o agro edeg he Eager! allo it, he st , may! a The handling of the cash, he laimnet was chaotic. Other witnesses testifying befc the committee, members standing in the union, stated the line of workers for wor! permits contained sometimes as hig’ as 500 men. union was cl to new members; the permit fee iness was far too profitable to bothe about increasing and s' the union, Local 3 officials spent $19, t defend Hogan, it was re’ dat: reconvened session of the Committee on December 18, 1922, Material is being collected now by the staff and members of sition groups in a number of A. F. of L. unions for the purpose of making this exposure series as thorough as possible. Union Beary bers not yet contacted bring in or mail facts and dore- ments about wat siseetion ta tae acess the Daily Worker office,