The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 14, 1934, Page 3

| Worke ‘ 4 { ‘ DAILY WORKER. 'W YORK, WEPNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1934 * Election Union Must Be Blow At Sweat Shop Plan Masks yea Torn Off of | Four Splitters and _ Disrupters By I. ROSENBERG ul The New York District of the United Shoe and Leather Workers Union is now preparing for local and national ‘elections of officials. The elections to be held on March 28. The local elections should have been held in the month of Sep-| tember but due to the general strike the organization was involved in at that time, the elections had to be postponed. 1% was, however, as early as No- tions was placed on the order of business before the Joint Council, pointing out the necessity of estab- an efficient functioning ap- leaders of the shoe worker’s groups that participated in the amalgama- DeLiberty and Prince, of the Bro- therhood and Protective group; Bix- by, of the National; and Safron, of the Metropolitan were singing the same chorus: “Let us discuss policy | first.” For them it was not enough that the Convention has adopted the basis for unity whereby the con- stitution grants every district the right to have its form of organi- zation. They wanted a special referendum to decide on whether or not the shoe workers of New York are really so much in love with the industrial form of organization. Needless to say, the representatives of these groups are ardent admirers of the obsolete craft system. But they were not satisfied with that alone. They proposed no more nor less than that the leadership of the former industrial union shall resign and the organization be taken over by a committee of equal representa- tion. That meant in reality handing over an organization of thousands to a group who themselves claim to represent no more than 300 workers. In other words, they were ready to amalgamate if the Union is handed over to them: The pro- posals were too ridiculous to be dis- cussed. But plenty of time was lost on account of that. The coordinating committee in Boston was waiting to see which way the wind blew. They realized that they too cannot escape the responsibility by permit- a few small groups to hinder the consolidation in New York. Thus came the call for a mass meeting under the auspices of the coordinat- ing committee. At that mass meet- ing in Arcadia Hall a joint consoli- dation was elected to go through with the election. Where are these groups now? The Metropolitan though officially dis- solved is prevented from full partici- pation in the consolidation work by the Safrons. The Septum shop where Safron is employed is held back from coming into the United by Safron who is trying to hand it over to the Boot and Shoe. The Avalon, formerly of the Metropolitan is com- ing into the Unted, precisely because this shop has leadership faithful to the cause of amalgamation. The Protective group is out following the footsteps of Nolan. The Brother- hood with DeLiberty at the head refuses to participate, though before the convention this bird crossed him- self 3 times a day for amalagamation. The National local is formally in, put Bixby has not forgotten his splitting tactics and is negotiating for an agreement with the J. T. Cousins firm in the name of the United Shoe and Leather Workers Union; without the representatives of the District organization present. Mask Torn Off Herein lies the significance of this election. ‘The whole pre-election procedure has torn off the mask of these elements who have been hid- ing themselves under a mask of pious wishes and exposes them as opportunists of a kind who are in- terested in the labor movement so Jong as they can exploit it for their individual interests. , Must Unite Workers } The outcome of this election must } bring in a lead ership capable of uniting the workers in the shops and “ defeat all the splitters in the shoe workers’ ranks. The election must result in the establishment of a solid Jeadership devoted to an uncom- promising struggle against the Boot and Shoe racketeers, the Danners, Tesaros and Prekopios, Our task is to destroy this racket. That means an organization campaign in every shop where the Boot and Shoe was forced upon the workers by the bosses, to set up opposition groups that will split the racket to pieces. What is required above all is a leadership that adheres uncompro- misingly to the principle of class struggle, the only guarantee that such struggles to be undertaken will lead the workers to security of their erful, to block and attempt on the part of the bosses to bring back the sweat shop system, sin Shoe ANGELO HERNDON Young Negro Communist Ne- gro leader, serving a 20-year jail sentence for organizing south- ern workers against white ruling class terror, who is threatened with a death plot, it is charged by the Intl Labor Defense. 700 Delegates Plan Protest Action on ‘CWA Questionnaire, | Will Support March 18 CWA Conference at Trving Plaza NEW YORK.—Over 700 delegates from C. W. A. jobs responded to an overnight call to a united front con- ference called by the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, for action against the C. W. A. “paupers’ oath” question- naire, and for struggle against C. W. A. firings. So many delegates attended the meeting at the Grand Opera House that an overflow meeting was held at the offices of the Federation, at 232 Seventh Ave. The delegates voted to support the united front conference, to be held Sunday, March 18th, at Irving Plaza, under the leadership of the Relief Workers League and the Unemployed Council. The motion made by David Lasser, Socialist leader, that only C. W. A. organizations participate in all such jconferences was voted down. After the defeat of his motion to narrow the struggle on C. W. A. jobs, Lasser proposed that all workers sign the Cc. W. A. “pauper’s oath” question- naire, stating that his organization would supply free notary service for signing it. This surrender was re- jected. The conference elected a delega- tion of 50 to present the workers’ demands for the continuance of C. W. A. and against the “pauper’s oath.” This delegation was to visit State C. W. A. F. I. Daniels last night. A mass meeting to be held at was called by the conference. At Webster Hall, this evening, at 8 p.m. this meeting the delegates visiting Daniels will report. This meeting will also consolidate the struggle for continuance of C. W. A., against firings, and put forward the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill (H. R. 7598). All workers on C. W. A. jobs, all trade unions, and all organized and unorganized jobless workers are urged to be represented at the March 18th united front conference, called by the Relief Workers League and the Unemployment Councils, to be held at Irving Plaza, at 1 pm, U.F.L. Farmers Send | 2,000 Qts. Free Milk To Striking Auto Men KENOSHA, Wis., Mar. 13—The farmers. of the United Farmers League here voted last week to send 2,000 quarts of milk free every day to the workers who are now out on strike at the Nash Automobile plant in this city. The United Farmers League is organizing liason committees of farm and city workers for united struggle against the Wall Street monopolies. Railroad Profits Leap 127 Per Cent Under “New Deal” Wage Cuts Swell Huge Profits of Wall § Stockholders | By SEYMOUR WALDMAN | WASHINGTON, March 13.—The/ net railway operating income of the Class I railroads in January | amounted to $30,931,205 as compared with $13,585,010 for the same month of 1933, an increase of 127.7 per cent, the Bureau of Railway Eco- nomics, the Washington statistical representative of the roads, an- nounced last week. These Class 1 roads, whose rev- enues and expenses are 98 per cent of the total of all railroads, en- joyed a net operating income in 1983 of $474,369,438 against $326,- 317,936 for 1932, aecording to the statistics bureau of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Despite the fact that the roads have received hundreds of millions of dollars from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and have cut expenses from $2,403,543,795 in 1932 to $2,249,318,750 for the following year largely at the expense of the workers and of public safety, the roads announced early last month, that they plan to increase the existing 10 per cent wage cut to 15 per cent when the agreement with the Railway Labor Executive Asso- ciation expires on June 21, President Roosevelt issued a letter almost coinciding with the railroad magnates’ announcement, proposing as a “compromise” the continuation of the 10 per cent “temporary” wage cut. This move dovetailed nicely with the scheme of the railroad owners to forestall demands for wage gains to meet the greatly in- creased cost of living which has mounted so rapidly since the inau- guration of the New Deal, and espe- cially Since the bitter protests of the rank and file workers over the June 21 Railway Labor Executive Association agreement with the owners, F. H. Fijozdal, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, said last December that section men were receiving as little as 7 cents an hour, that they were getting $10 a week on the big roads, and in some cases $6 a week, He declared that “as a result of in- adequate wage rates, part-time employment and the 10 per cent deduction, thousands of railway workers are failing to earn suffi- cient to keep body and soul together.” Joseph B. Eastman, Administra- tion Transportation Coordinator, last July listed the 1932 salaries of some of the leading railroad presi- dents as follows: L. F. Loree, President of the Delaware and Hud- son, . $90,000 F. E. Williamson, o dent of the New York Central, ..... see seeees $80,000 W. W. Atterbury, Presi- dent of the Pennsylvania Fairfax Harrison Presi- dent of the Southern Railway, ’ Daniel Willard, President of the Baltimore and Unie, ves $120,000 L. A. Downs, President of the Illinois Central, .... Ralph Budd, President of $121,500 soeeserosene $67,500 $90,000 the Burlington System, $60,000 A. D. McDonald, Vice Chairman of the Execu- tive Committee, of the Southern Pacimic, ..... $76,500 Seene on the picket lines during the strike last October, under the leadership of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union. rs Storm Hearing on Ambridge when 5,000 Ambridge steel workers struck Five hundred deputies, armed with machine guns, special gas guns, and rifles, mobilized by the Jones & Laughlin steel trust, later shot into the picket lines killing one and wounding scores. Charge Plot to Filipino Struggles Involve New Murder Negro|Masses, Reach Higher Levels Leader in Jail I. L. D. Accuses Lynch Officials of Attempt to Kill Herndon NEW YORK.—Charges that the courts and officials of the state of Georgia have conspired te murder Angelo Herndon, heroic Negro leader of Atlanta unemployed white and Negro. workers, were hurled at the lynch officials yesterday tn letters sent by the International Labor De- fense to Gov. Eugene Talmadge, the state prison commissioner, the chief justice of the State Supreme Court, and the Warden of Fulton Tower where Herndon is in danger of death by food poisoning and rotten prison conditions. The I. L. D. letter states in part: | “For the two years that Hern- don has been imprisoned in your infamous hell hole, he has been subjected to the most barbaric cruelties. Your jailers have made him the victim of unimaginable horrors. Without comfort of any kind, suffering with cold, dark- ness and damp, he has been kept in the death house where he has been forced to witness a steady For good measure you have seen fit to place him in solitary con- finement on frequent occasions. Vermin, rats, the constant dribb- ling of water and excrement in his cell and poisonous food have been his daily lot.. As a result his health is thoroughly under- mined and today his friends throughout the world fear for his life. “Your purpose is clear. We charge you with attempted murder of An- gelo Herndon. You have sought first to break the spirit of a mil- itent fighter, one who has stood for a united struggle against un- employment and unbearable condi- tions. of life imposed by a decaying capitalist system. But you cannot do this. The spirit of Angelo Hern- don is unconquerable. Deathly sick, he is still able to hold his head high and to defy his torturers.” The I. L. D. at the same time called on the workers and intel- lectuals, North and South, to im- mediately organize mass defense for Angelo Herndon in their organiza- tions, unions, churches, etc., and neighborhoods and to rush protest telegrams and resolutions to Gov. Talmadge of Georgia. WEN KNIT GOODS STRIKE PHILADELPHIA, March 12—The strike at the Harber Knitting Mills, Broad and Washington Ave., was settled with the strikers go- ing back to work with partial in- creases in pay. The strike was led by the Knit Goods Workers Union. Send us names of those you know who are not readers of the Daily Worker but who would be interested in reading it. Address: Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St. By PEDRO G. In two months, from the Nov. 5 Congress of the “K. A. P.” or Philip- pine Proletarian Labor Congress, to | Jan..5, there were 21 mass struggles |in the city of Manila alone, some— as in the case of 1,900 cigar makers of the La Helena factories—embrac- ing real numbers in this colonial city of 300,000 population. Of these 21 strikes, only two were led by reform- ists, while the K. A. P. led all others directly—and won most of them. Most of these strikes were against wage cuts or dismissals, but some of them were for wage increases and |for shorter hours. The masses are showing distinct tendency to go over to the offensive. That the important strikes of seamen and dock workers were won, is most significant Rising Wave of Struggles The Fifth K. A. P. Congress, marked a great improvement of the trade union work, and early in Jan- uary a real effort was made to or- ganize the Communist Party frac- tion work in the red trade unions. ‘The red unions improved their work greatly during 1933. The Congress of the K. A. P. gathered 500 del- | | bitter struggles the movement has experienced, who confirmed the anal- ysis of a rising revolutionary wave . |and took steps to better the organ-| gress, considering the feudal back- wardness of the country. Women Delegates Attend A larger pertentage of women delegates attended the IX Congress of the National Confederation of Peasants, which met about the same time as the K. A. P., and the trade union congress and the peasants’ congress held a joint session, with 800 delegates from both showing the deepest determination to carry their struggles to victory. Every woman delegate had been tested in the fire of ruthless suppression and mass fighting. native bourgeoisie fiercely, for its subservience to American imperial- ism, and opened fire on the widely circulated fiction that the Filipinos have “an American standard of liv- ing.” “We are worse off, even that the 17,000,000 unemployed workers of America,” they declared, “for we work 12 and even more hours a day for wages of one cent in American money, two centavos in Philippine money.” Further, Filipino workers have not even the fundamental rights of human beings under Amer- ican colonial oppression. Party Leaders Sentenced Despite threats of mass @rrests, no less than 17,000 people gathered in the working class district at the Plaza Moriones on Noy. 7, to cele- brate the 16th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, to denounce the infamous “Hawes-Cutting” Act of fake “independence” and the native bourgeois-landlord exploiters. This was held under auspices of the BaP. Nor was this high spirit wanting They Supported Gover-, jnor Who Later Ordered Shooting of Miners (Note:—The following is the concluding article on the Pro- gressive Miners of America in answer to the fervor with which the Pearcy, Keck machine, in its haste to follow in the foot- steps of Lewis, attacked the Communist Party in recent is- sues of their official organ “The Progressive Miner.” Page ers By R. SHAW What has brought about the fail- ure of the P.M.A.? For the infor- mation of those miners in other fields who still think that P.M.A. is a real union and for the Illinois miners, the following facts will show the systematic fascization and Policy was adopted by the P.M.A. officials. 2) P.M.A. leaders openly support- | evict ed the “great humanitarian” Hor- months later ordered the National Guard out to shoot down striking miners and who together with Pea- egates, coming in from the most} ‘The joint session attacked the! when, on Dec. 21, the oldest and best leaders of the Communist Party, headed by Crisanto Evan- gelista, were finally subjected to the sentences of the imperialist-native bourgeois courts. Eight were sent into Bilibid Penitentiary for long terms, after which they are to be banished to remote provinces, and eight were immediately banished. On Dec. 31, the militant peasant | leader, Feleo, entered prison to serve eight years. On Jam, 11, another worker leader, Tolintino, was im- prisoned. Mass Protests at Sentences But on Dec. 21, when the sen- tences against the Communist Party leaders were carried out, a mass of | 4,000 workers (even the bourgeois papers admitted this many) surged around the court, then marched the offices of the Secretary of In- terior and Labor, from thence to the “new deal’ Governor General’s office, then across the city to the working class ‘district where giant mass meetings of protest were held. Written demands and mass petitions for release of the imprisoned class fighters were presented to the au- thorities. In all these actions and congresses the masses show distinct enthusiasm. |A peasant delegate from Tayug, | Pangasinan Province, where in 1930 an armed rising occurred, expressed |ization. At this congress there were| at the joint K. A. P. and N.C. P.| some women delegates, a big pro- | session, deep resentment at the tra- ditional slander of peasant risings, that calls them “risings of religious fanatics.” “We are not religious | fanatics,” he declared, “but we are ready to lay down our lives for our revoluti@ary movement.” Fired Norfolk CWA Examined, Drafted For Panama Wor NORFOLK vVu.—Fired C. W. A. workers here are being called to the Armory for a medical examination. C. W. A. officials state that any who do not submit will not be given any other kind of job or relief. After the examination the workers are graded as they were in the 1917 draft. Those who are physically fit, it appears, will be practically drafted for work in the Panama Canal Zone or some other such place. Word has |reached us here that some workers | have already received notification of |being transported. A fellow worker overheard a Norfolk cop say, “There are several truckloads of ready for you fellows.” | There is great resentment among | the workers here against this under- handed method of drafting the workers. They are realizing that the Roosevelt N. R. A. government plans to draft them for the next imperial- ist war. One Negro worker, aroused against this draft, said, “I risked my life once. and will not risk it again to fight the bosses’ war.” body wrote the infamous Richberg decision of the N.R.A. board. 3) Picketing was substituted by arbitration right from the start. 4) At the first convention all sorts of politicians were welcomed: Mayors, sheriffs, and Musteite Keeney from West Virginia, but the officials excluded the National Min- ers’ Union delegation. 5) The officials put over the wage cut to $5 under the slogan: “If we take the same as U.M.W.A. we will get Peabody to sign.” It is today known that the operators were will- ing to give $5.70, but the officialdom of the P.M.A. wanted to show Pea- body how loyal they were. - After this first betrayal of the miners the next year there followed more open reacticnary policies and collaboration with the enemies of the miners. 1933—Betrayal of the Strike 1) Jan. 1933— ie” strike call in South without any prepara- tions, no strike committees, no at- tempt to win the American miners, coupled with the dastardly slogan of “stay at home,” “stand pat,” “victory will be won by your lead- ers”—has resulted not only in de- feat and the blacklisting of 13,000 miners, but also played into the hands of the Peabody thugs, allow- ing them to split the American from the foreign-born, to terrorize and 2) April 4th, 1933—Break-up of Illinois Hunger March to Spring- field. P.M.A. miners deputized at instigation of P.M.A. officials. Pearcy stating openly at a meeting: “The Sheriff is given all the credit for stopping the march, but I also helped and deserve some credit.” 3) February Scale Convention:— Pearcy tells the men to cooperate with the small coal operators and advises community gardening in- stead of struggling for relief or un- employment insurance. 4) July 21st Mass Meeting at Nillwood, Ill—On the demand of the rank and file for militant class struggle policies, Pearcy comes out in the open as a tool of the coal operators. He said: “We must make the Progressive Miners of America a conservative union.” He endorsed Roosevelt N.R.A. program 100 per cent. 5) August 1, Anti-War Meeting, Gillespie, T1l.: At this meeting about 2,000 miners were present. Demon- stration was broken up at the insti- gation of the officialdom because it called for struggle, against the N.R.A. and the proposed Coal Code. Dan McGill, official tool, and Vice- President of Local No. 1 led 200 deputies together with “Progressive” Sheriff in the attack upon the miners. Two workers were arrested. In jail, sheriff and states’ attorney openly stated that only those whom Pearcy O.K.’d will be allowed to hold meetings. 6) First anniversary of P.M.A., Sept. 1—All rank and file was ex- cluded from platform. Typical Lewis parade, with glory to N.R.A. Sheriffs and politicians were the principal Attack was made on speakers. “Reds” and several miners were at- tacked by the deputies. 7) October, Springfield March — Final betrayal of the Midland strik- ers. Driving the miners home un- der the pretense: “We have con- tracts to fulfill, we must not disap- point the ‘good operators’” From then on there has not even been any semblance of, strike action. Pearcy stated: “We will take the fight to the courts.” 8. Noy. 2—Pearcy machine is given leadership over the W. A. with the policy: No more women to picket. They are to stay at home, cook, can and sew. 9. Expulsion of yesterdays’ bosom friends, Allard, also militant min- ers (Voyzey, etc.). These reactionary class collabora- tion policies have culminated in the bringing of the P.M.A. miners into a blind alley. The miners who were misled into thinking that the. offi- cialdom should be given a chance, “Give the N.R.A. a chance,” a chance to everybody, but the min- ers, are now seeing where all of this has led. The year of 1934 tops it all. 1. Refusal to call a special con- vention in spite of the fact that local upon local demanded action on the present wage cut which the miners received under inflation. More than 10 per cent of the mem- bership demanded this action. 2, Feb. 12—the call of the Belle- ville miners for “one day strike” on the opening of the, N.R.A. hearings was stifled in typical Lewis fashion. 3. Spent $30,000 for Peabody courts, Washington trips, secret conferences, etc. What has been accomplished: Zero. It has been pointed by the C.P. time and again that the work- last six| months on lawyers’ fees, going into’ ers can make the courts at times give a decision in their favor only if backed by the mighty fist of the working class. On the other hand, | this court business, class callobra- tion has resulted in the isolation of Saline County miners and total dis- integration of Progressive ranks in Midland and Franklin fields. In the meantime now that all of these schemes have failed, the officials are pleading on their knees to Mr. Roosevelt. It is a known fact that hundreds of dollars collected from the working miners as relief for blacklisted min- ers, are being spent on liquor by the “strike committees” in Spring- fied, Franklin and Midland areas. It is for this reason that local unions the check-off for striking miners. At the same time the leaders are making every attack upon the Un- employed Councils, when attempts are made to organize the blacklisted miners for a fight for relief from the state in place of mooching the last penny from those working part time and starving themselves. 5. Duping of the miners by fake promises that a referendum will solve everything. This is a prepara- tion to kill whatever solidarity is left among the miners and will ac- tually strengthen the U.M.W.A., be- cause the referendum, if given, will |not allow those blacklisted from participating in the U.M.W.A. pits. The only effective referendum is to vote to strike at the very vitals of Peabody and their tools. 6. Feb. 15—P.M.A. leaders tele- graph to Board members to ask lo- in Springfield were revolting against Steel Massacre Exhibit Bullet -Torn Bodies, Testify On Unprovoked Attacks Copper CodeSoRaw Even Bosses’ Agents Cannot Swallow It Cuts Pay, Suits Hours to Seasonal Needs of Copper Trust (Daily Worker Washington Bureap) WASHINGTON,’ March 13.—The labor provisions of the proposed copper code, submitted by the Em- ployers’ United States Copper As-| | Sociation, are so raw that both Ari- | | zona senators and even Representa- | tive Isabella Greenway, wealthy | Arizona copper widow, were forced to repudiate them at yesterday's | opening public hearings on the code, | For the Eastern wage distriet, the | |code proposes 30 cents an hour for | surface labor and 35 cents for un-| | Seeround labor; for the South-| | Western wage district 30 cents an) | hour for surface labor and 38 cents |for underground labor; for the | Northwestern wage district, 35 cents an hour for surface labor and 41 cenis for underground labor. The code provides for a maximum week of 40 hours, “averaged over a three- month period, nor in excess of eight hours in any 24-hour period except as therein otherwise provided.” The present scale is about $3.75 &@ day on the surface and $4.24 for underground work for unskilled la- bor for an 8-hour day. A miner gets about $5.50. Vicious Time System | Thomas A. Brown, representing the International Mine Mill and | Smelter Workers Union (A. F. of LJ) told reporters that he will ask for | $32.50 a week, a 30-hour week and| a 6-hour day, the abolition of con- tract mining and a safety clause.! The hour provision permitting 40| hours over a three-month period is vicious in that it allows the owners| | to drive their employees at least 58 hours a week during the busy times and lay them off during slack Periods, rather than teke on more men. Senator Ashburst, Democrat, who | could not hold his seat without the goodwill of the copper kings, de- ,clared that “this code is lacking in| fundamental essentials” and recom- mended a code which “should em-| brace an American standerd of living minimum wage rate for each Wage-earner sub-division, both un- derground and on the surface.”| Senator Hayden, Democrat, found! the code “thoroughly objectionable.” | | While millionaire ‘Congresswoman | | Greenway characterized the pro- | posed code as “impossible and of | | course not acceptable for a minute.” | Obviously, the three legislators | hoped to appease the big miners | Vote and at the same time not | offend the master copper barons by | | speaking generally | It is not generally known under what terrible atmospheric condi- | tions copper workers slave. The | temperature in the mines is usually | | around 120 degrees, with an at-| | tendant high humidity and high| | water temperature. The miners | | are prey to silicosis, the lung dis- ease caused by inhaling mine dust, | the product of blasting operations. | It is to avoid this dreaded disease | that the workers are asking for | mine spraying under the supervi- uniforms| sion of the United States Health | p, | Service as well as a four hour pprtiod between blasting operations It is apparent that the copper owners, in proposing a wage cut,! | are attempting to play off the large number of unemployed against the employed. Only 10,000 copper work- ers are now employed as compared with 40,000 in 1929, according to the figures of the U. S. Copper As- \ sociation. Details Crimes of P.M.A. Leadership Against Southern Illinois Miners Join with John L, Lewis In Endorsing Wagner's Fake Proposals cals to endorse Walter Nesbit for Congressman at large. The same Nesbit, who as late as Feb. 25, 1933, in a public statement in No. 45 of the “Tilinois Miner,” called upon the public not to buy “Progressive” coal. Now Pearcy and Nesbit are the best of friends to skin the miners. 7, Feb, 16—In an editorial inthe “Progressive Miner,” the officialdom endorses the fake Wagner Unem- ployment Insurance Bill—this, in spite of the fact that some 30 P.M.A. locals and auxiliaries have endorsed the Workers Unemployment Insur- |ance Bill—H.R. 7598, which has | been introduced by the Unemployed Councils. | Again the P.M.A. officialdom finds | itself shaking hands with Lewis in | endorsing the, fake bill against the | | interests of the miners. | At the same time the hypocritical | | praise given the S. P. in the last | , editorial is definitely intended as , & play to sincere S. P. members and \to magnify the attack upon the} 'C.P.. But no honest rank and file member of the S. P. can feel hon-/ | ored or pleased by praise from such a source. This article shows con-| | clusively that only the C, P. is of- | fering a challenge to the coal oper- | ators’ their code and their tools, and that it is precisely for this rea- son that the P.M.A. officials are making so savage an attack ynon the C. P, ni 4 | volvers. Hearing Reveals Steel Bosses Paid fer Hire of Deputies by County By JAMES EGAN AMBRIDGE, Pa., March 13.—The pen hearings of the investigating commission apopinted by Governor Pinchot on demand of the Steel & Metal Workers Industrial Union and other lebor and l#beral bodies son- cluded today amid the cheers and booes of the workers who demon- ed their determination to break through the fascist terror existing since the Ambridge strfke of Inst October. One thousand five hundred mili- tant workers jammed the Senior High School hall, and mang hun- dreds milled arcund outside. Sheriff O’Laughlin, who organized and led the band of 200 gun thugs in the murderous assault on the picket lines, was forced to admit under cross-examination thet the shooting of the workers was mm- provoked, The fact was established that the Dickets did not arm themselves with sticks until the third day of the Strike after the company had or- ganized a band of 150 strike-break- ers armed with chibs to assault the picket line. When attorney Jacob Seligsohn, representing the Union established this fact, he so rattled the hireling of Jones & Laughtin; State Senator Oraig (who defended the sheriff), that Craig blurted out: “If you are trying to discredit the chief of the company police of Spang & Chalfant, for this I want to tell you that if I had organized this attack, they (the seabs) would have got through.” Referring to the attack on the pifket Tine the day be- fore the bloody Massacre. The local leaders of the Union. Polk, Heinzel and Commore, brought out the harrowing story of brutality of “bloody Thursday.” how the com- pany gun thugs continued to fire at prostrate workers lying im gas-filled ditches. Workers after worker took the stand and exhibited their butet: torn bodies. Attorney Stone of Beaver County, leader of the Amer- |ican Legion, officer of the intelli- gence department in the army, and one of the most brutal gun-thugs in the attack, then declared: “I felt it was my American duty te put down the strikes of the workers in this manner.” ‘Fhe workers expressed their indig- nation at this rabid fascist withe prolonged booing which took the chairman of the commission, shippen Lewis, several mimetes to restore order. Steel Companies Paid for Hire of Deputies The testimony proved that the deputies were hired and paid for the steel corporation. County Con~ troller Charles Gelton, of Beaver County, testified that more than $24,000 was paid for the hire of deputies and that this money was refunded to the County in full by the steel companies and also that $9,000 was contributed by the U. § Steel Corporation whose plants were not on strike (The American Bridge Co.). Beaver County stood the ex- pense of $6.000 for the purchase of war material, which he listed as follows: Machine guns, tear gas. shot guns, and grenades, riot clubs and re- These in addition to the plentiful supply always on hand- The deputies were organized and drilled on the J. & L. property in Aliquippa and selected by Mr. Chafer of the J. & L. Co. oplice. Many Thugs Not Even Sworn In As Deputies The District Attorney, De Cas- trique, of Beaver County, one of the leaders of the attack, who was re- galed in a steel helmet, a cartridge belt, two automatic revolvers, and a club, at the head of the attacking | column, had not even been sworn tn as deputy, the testimony proved. De Castrique refused to take the stand. Before the hearing De Castrique in- formed Shippen Lewis, the chairman of the Investigating Commission. | that if James Egan, the leader of | the Ambridge strike, were to appear at the hearing, he would be arrested. Workers Prevent Arrest of Leader Despite this, both Egan and E. P. Cush, were present throughout the hearings and remained on the plat- form, to the delight of the Ambridge workers. The police feared to make an attempt to arrest Egan while he was on the platform. However, as the hearings were going to a close. Chief of Police Flocker, together | with his deputies began to surround. - Egan. The workers, sensing this move on the part of Flocker, ar- ranged for Egan’s escape. They had a fest car waiting outside of the hall, and a defense corp organized which took him from the hall to the machine and blocked the pursuit of the deputies, much to the chagrin of De Castrique, Flocker and Can] who stated that they had five war- rants for “inciting to riot” for or- ganizers of the Union. This hearing must not result in a whitewash of those responsible for | the murder of Adam Pietruski and the wouncing and maiming of 30 workers, the instigation of a reign of terror, the use of extra-legal methods, the denial of civil rights. Workers everywhere must demand the indictment and prosecution of District Attorney De Castrique, She- riff O'Laughlin, and Steel Company officials respometble fee these atuo-