The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 23, 1934, Page 1

[3 14 1 { 66 2,454 { Total to Date... CIRCULATION DRIVE NEW SUBS RECEIVED YESTERDAY: Saturday Total & + 1,532 /\ Vol. XI, No. 71 ~ > « f Daily QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) Bntered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879 NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1923 en Mayor LaGuardia Orders Police to Attack Taxi Strikers AMERICA’S ONLY WORKING CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER WEATHER: Rain or snow. (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents DETROIT AUTO MEET SUN. 10 MOBILIZE UNITED ACTION Neduan Sq. Garden Meet Meet Sunday, 2 P 2 P. M. to Act on . W.. A. Protest Strike Call Taxi Strikers Parade Thra CWA Men Hold Project Auto U Union Hallica AFL, Downtown Sts. to City Hall bg Mayor Refuses to See the Striking Hackmen STRIKERS MILITANT) Police Brutally Drive| Radio Car Into Men; Striker Injured BULLETIN As we go to press, a concerted attempt is being made by the capitalist press, the company un- ion, and by Mayor LaGuardia to break the back of the taxi strike, It is reported that Irving Robbins, president of the Parmelee com- pany union, is taking steps to get warrants for the arrest of Joseph Gilbert, organizer of the Manhat- tan local of the Taxi Drivers Union. LaGuardia late yesterday afternoon ordered the police to “quell” the strikers. LaGuardia, who skipped out when the taxi men marched on City Hall, in later statements to the press said: “What we need is a real union. Let the American F~teration of Labor come in here.” ‘-Guordia, who first attempted in collaboration with the Socialist Ponken to break the first taxi s‘t’ke, is now ready to call in the . of L. to complete the job mn by the Socialists. ile the strikers were on the stopping cabs, leaders of the union were in the office with Mr. Ben Golden, Secretary of the nai Labor Board, at 45 Preadway. The unicn leaders flat'y refused to accept Mr. Gol- den’s proposals that the strikers return to work, and then take a vote on the question of which organization they care to belong to. res tel NEW YORK. — Shouting . slogans: “We want recogni- Mtion of the union,” “Down with company unions,” over 2,000 striking taxi driv- ers marched from their strike head- quarters at 16th Street and Third Avenue to the City Hall yesterday at 1 P.M. The strikers, headed by chairman of the strike hall, Harry Cantor, came to see the Mayor and launched a protest. against the brutal police attacks against the strikers dur- ing last two demonstration. Upon learning that the strikers were marching on City Hall, Mayor La- Guardia, who in the first strike at- tempted to pose as a friend of the strikers, left his office and beat a hasty retreat. 1 As the strikers marched down Broadway from Germania Hall, they were cheered by crowds of pedestrians on the sidewalks. The demands of the Taxi Work- ers Union were blazing forth on large banners which the strikers carried: “We are against company unions,” “We want recognition of the union,” “Down with company unions,” were the slogans written on the placards. Long before the strikers arrived at City Hall, strong cordons of po- lice were thrown around the build- ing. When the strikers reached City Hall Park, they were met by several thousand workers who joined (Continued on Page 2) feneral Knitgoods Strike Called in Philadelnhia, Pa. PHILADELPHIA, March 22.—A general strike of knit goods workers was called today by Local 1759 of the United Textile workers. Over 50 per cent of the workers re- sponded. The response proves that the workers are ready for struggle. Ball Bearing Workers Out Nine hundred workers in the S. K. F. ball bearing plant are still out on strike, \ At the Cuneo Eastern Press, about 6004.-orkers went out on strike this Communist Party and Young Communist League members, to mobilize their forces in the grow- ing strike struggles of the Phila- delphia workers, has been called for Friday, March 30, at Kensing- ton Lyceum, Second and Cambria. All Party and Y. C. L. members must attend TAXI STRIKERS AT CITY HALL DEMONSTRATION YESTERDAY Big Coliseum Meeting To Open District Party Convention Tonight Strikes in 3 Tenements Hit Fire Menace Plan Mass Funeral of Harlem Fire Victims at 1 P.M. Today By EDWIN ROLFE NEW YORK.—Goaded on by the mounting death toll of recent fires in slum tenements, worker-tenants of three East Side buildings de- clared rent strikes against the own- ers, stating that they would not pay a penny of rent until their fire- threatened dwellings were com- pletely fireproofed. Marching up and down before their typical slum dwellings, pickets attracted the sympathetic attention of neighboring tenement-dwellers all day yesterday. Sentiment thru- out the East Side is so acute against the fire-menace, so tragically brought to a head by recent fires in which helpless mothers and chil- dren were burned alive, that the possibility is strong that this tene- ment strike movement may spread as rapidly as flames through wooden stairways. The three struck buildings are at 221 E. 6th St., and at 139 and 145 Houston St., in the heart of the city’s lower East Side slum section. Similar strikes were threatened in other parts of the city as tenants, driven to frenzied fear for their very lives and noting the failure of the city administration to act, planned to take the situation into their own hands and force elimination of the Browde r, Krumbein, Ford To Speak; Musi- cal Program Planned NEW YORK.—Signs that the Bronx Coliseum, 177 St. and White Plains Road, will be packed to the rafters tonight were seen today as the Communist Party of New York prepared to open its District Con- vention at 8 p.m. with a mass meet- ing and entertainment. Volunteers for the spectacular pageant which will be presented to- night are still needed. These are asked to report before 6 p. m. to Comrade Bonn, the director. Mem- bers of the I. W. O. Symphony Or- chestra should be at the Coliseum also at six for a final rehearsal. In addition to a splendid program of music and pageantry, Earl Brow- der, general secretary of the Com- munist Party; James W. Ford, Ne- gro Communist leader, and Charles Krumbein, district organizer, will speak. Sessions of the district conven- tion will open Saturday at 10 a.m., at Harlem Casino, 116th St. and Lenox Aye., and continue through Saturday and Sunday. Party mem- bers who want to attend must have their books with them. fire death threat, The two Houston Street buildings, one a three-story structure with no fire-escapes on either front or rear, the other a four-story old-law tene- ment, are owned by Manhattan Playhouses, Inc., 1560 Broadway. This firm also owns the Sunshine movie house, which separates the two buildings, as well as from 60 to 80 other tenements in New York. It operates a chain of 23 theatres, which includes, among others, the Hollywood, at Ave. A and Sixth St.; (Continued on Page 8) ‘Rallies, Give $2 Food Order Arrives Too Late For Mother of Five NEW HAVEN, Conn. (F.P.).— Ambulance attendants were car- rying out a dead body when a charity department investigator arrived at Mrs. Edward Ceases’ flat with a city food order for $2 worth of groceries. He was too late. She died on the way to the hospital from the effects of the gas she had turned on. Struggling to keep herself and her five children alive, she ap- plied to the city welfare for aid. ‘When it was too slow coming, she gave up. Before she lay down to die, she put her baby out in the hall in his carriage and sent another child to visit @ neighbor. The other three had gone to school, 3500CW A Men On Strike In Lancaster, Pa. Fight for Recognition of Relief Workers League LANCASTER, Pa., March 22—The 3,500 Lancaster C. W. A. workers on strike here against wage cuts voted to send a large delegation to Washington on March 31, when delegations from the protest dem- onstrations and from C. W. A. projects will present their demands to Roosevelt for continuation of the C. W. A. jobs. Thirty-five hundred Lancaster C. W. A. workers are out on strike solid. At the indoor mass meeting held yesterday afternoon relief and other committees were elected. The Relief Workers’ League of Lancas- ter sent a committee to York and Columbia to speak at their C. W. A. workers’ mass meetings last night. A “Committee of Technicians,” sent here from Harrisburg by the state government, announced that they would grant the 50 cents an hour demanded by the. strikers and back pay, but refused to recognize the workers’ committee. The men are determined to stay out on strike until all their de- mands are granted. Ma Siam Danville Strikers Win HARRISBURG, Pa., March 22— Seven hundred C. W. A. strikers in Danville won their demands for restoration of the 50 cents an hour wage and are returning to work. Police Attack Cleveland Sherwin - Williams Men CLEVELAND, O., March 22.—Po- lice attacked a picket line here at the Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. today, beating up a number of strikers. Over 500 men are on strike, de- manding higher wages and union recognition, Out 100,000 Leaflets; Unions Endorse |Nationwide Protest to Demand Continuation of C.W.A. Jobs sand leaflets announcing the Madi- son Sq. Garden meeting which takes place this Sunday, March 25, 2 pm., layoffs, were already distributed this distributed today. Michael dow, president of the Relief Workers League, told the Daily Worker yes- terday. -The Madison Sq. Garden Rally at 2 p.m. this Sunday will be a huge rallying point, to mobilize thousands of C.W.A. workers, un- employed, and union members and shop workers for the one- hour nation-wide protest strike which has been called for 3 p.m., Thursday, March 29, against Pres- ident Roosevelt’s C.W.A. firing. C.WA. workers in the Relief Workers League locals are conduct- ing mass meetings, circulating pe- titions and carrying through active preparations for the Garden meeting Sunday and for the one-hour na- | tional protest strike which takes strike at 3 o'clock will be followed by @ mass demonstration at City ing Sunday at 2 o'clock include Mary Van Kleeck, director of in- (Continued on Page 2) ‘Chicago Workers to In Union Pk. Meet (Midwest Bureau Daily Worker) CHICAGO, Ill. and file pressure has forced the Chicago Federation of Labor to permit local unions to take what in- dividual action they see fit in con- nection with C.W.A. layoffs. Local unions of the AF.L. are being visited by the united front Com- mittee of Action, to mobilize them for participation in the united front demonstration through the loop on March 31, The March 31 demonstration, for continuation and extension of the C.W.A. jobs, will assemble at ten o'clock in the morning Saturday, March 31, at Union Park, Ogden and Randolph Sts. The Committee of Action is also visiting locals of the Workers Com- mittee on Unemployment Insur- ance. Local 26 of the Workers Com- mittee has endorsed the March 31 demonstration. A special meeting of organizers of the Small Home and Land Owners Federation of Illinois has called a city-wide conference to prepare for the march and will raise the slo- gans of rent payment by the city and demand the enactment of the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill. Two hundred organizers of the I.W.O. also met in preparation for the March 31 united front demon- stration, NEW YORK. — Thirty-five thou-| at} in protest against C.W.A.| week, and another 50,000 are being | Davi- | place Thursday, March 29, at 3 p.m. In New York this one-hour protest ‘Hall Park for C.W.A. jobs at 4 pm. ‘The speakers at the Garden meet- dustrial studies at the Russel Sage) Demand CWA Jobs. March 22.—Rank | M. E. S. Rank and File | Wire Roosevelt Demand Auto | Union Be Heard at Capital Delegation Leaves for DETROIT, March the oldest union in the industry, Society. Simultaneous with the sending Auto Workers Union left for Washi: Officials to head off a strike. to President Roosevelt reads: “Franklin D. Roosevelt, Presid House: You have arranged a confe: 22,—President Roosevelt Washington conference of representatives of the Auto Work: vers of the government, the auto manufacturers and the A. F. of L. of the Auto Workers Union, the oldest in the industry, Washington to Expose A. F. of L. Chiefs was wired today by the Auto Workers Union protesting against The exclusion from the and of the Mechanics Ed of the wire a delegation of the ngton to fight against the maneu- Signed by Phil Raymond, national secretary; J. Wilson, national organizer, and W. Cliff, president, the wire of the Auto Workers Union lent of the United States, White | rence excluding the representatives | and militantly fighting for all auto workers, and the Mechanics Educational Society of America. speed-up system; recognition of the “We request representation for Workers Union is sending representatives to participate in this con- ference. The conditions in the plants are unbearable. demand an immediate change, which can be met by granti: minimum wage for the 30-hour week and 30 per cent increase for those receiving above this wage minimum; the abolition of the hellish equal wages for equal work for women, youth, and against discrimina- tion practiced against Negro workers; equal rights to work in all jobs these organizations. The Auto The workers the $35 workers’ union of their own choice; (Continued on Page 2) Secretary Perkins Flies To Detroit To Stop Auto Strike. AFL Wash. Head Admits | Men Getting Gypped at White House By SEYMOUR WALDMAN (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) | WASHINGTON, March 22.—Pres- | ident Roosevelt is sending Secre- tary of Labor Frances Perkins, one of the chief liberal ornaments of the New Deal, to Detroit, to repre- sent him personally before the au- tomobile workers in a last minute frantic attempt to prevent the im-| patient men from striking. Last summer it was the strikebreaker | McGrady who was dispatched to the coal fields to pledge the strike-| breaking word of the President. To- night Miss Perkins, who professes to know nothing about the Am- bridge murders perpetrated by the | same interests that control leading | auto factories in Detroit, will fly to| the Michigan City to utter what has| become exceedingly thin demagogy. The strike sentiment among the| rank and file is so strong that it) has made several members of Wil-| (Continued on Page 2) (Official Warns of Communism in Bid For US.-Japan Pact Manchukuo Adviser Tells Army Men Such Pact Is Necessary | cases is NEW YORK.—Referring directly to the recent recognition of the | Soviet Union by the United States, | George Bronson Rea, official coun- | sellor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Manchuoko, declared, last night before a gathering of mili- tary men at the Reserve Officer: Association that American imperial ism must come to some agreement with Japan. Indirectly referring to the claim of Japanese militarists that they | are the “last bulwark against Bol- ” Rea told the Army of- “Does our recent recognition of Moscow and our agreement to extend vast credit for the pur- chase of our materials mean t as a last resort, we have entere’ into a gentleman’s agreem' with Communism to coerce Jo into recognizing a doctrine the (Continued on Page 2) Bill Dunne Rips Into Wagner Strikebreaking Bill Before Stunned Committee Nails Anti- Soviet Line of A. F. of L. Officials By MARGUERITE YOUNG (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, March 22.—Be- fore a worried-looking Senate Com- mittee on Labor, which first in- terrupted constantly and then sat silent, Bill Dunne, of the Trade Union Unity League, today the Wagner Labor Disputes Bill, point by point, as “another will-o’- the-wisp to dance before the eyes of the working class while the em- ployers and official labor leaders in the N.R.A. machinery . .. trick them further into the swamp of starvation wages and mass unem- ployment.” Showing how the Wagner Bill would set up new machinery to rivet upon labor the existing unbearable relations between employers and employees and the misery these bring about, Dunne declared: “The peace that the Wagner Bill and th official program of the A. F. of L. proposes is the pax roma—the peace of death— for the American working class. It is a program of preparation for a new drive against the work- ing class, preparation for imper- ialist war, and another step to- ward fascism. We are against it. We shall do our best to expose it and to arouse and organize Amer- ican workers against it.” Committee Silent Robert F. Wagner, author of the bill and chairman of the National Labor Board, which his measure is designed to give added strike-stall- ing and strikebreaking power, looked on helplessly most of the one hour and three quarters of Dunne’s tes- timony. So did Senator David Ignatius Walsh of Massachusetts, chairman of the committee and Senator James J. Davis of Penn- sylvania. The big hearing room was filled with well-dressed spectators, decidedly not a working class audi- ence, but even they laughed sym- pathetically as Dunne plied wit as well as invective in his denuncia- tion of the bill and its proponents. offer congratulations, The commit-| with employers, Dunne also took tee filed silently out. U. S. Workers Aid U.S.S.R. Exposing the American Federa- tion of Labor policy of cooperating BILL DUNNE Representative of the Trade Afterward several came forward to] Union Unity League occasion to answer the slanders voiced yesterday by Francis J. Gor- man, Vice-President of the United Textile Workers (A. F. of L.) against the National Textile Work- ers Union. “I want to blast once and for all the canard that any labor movement here is financed by the Soviet Union or by any organiza- tion in the Soviet Union,” he said. “We are entirely capable of se- curing a minimum of finances from American workers. They are only too glad to give it.” Referring to Gorman’s charge that the N.T.W. was “subsidized” from Russia, he asserted vigorously: “Since the Russian Revolution, the flow of money has been from the United States te the Soviet Union, and not from the Soviet Union to the United States.” Giving a num- ber of instances of huge workers’ contributions for aid to the Soviet Union. Senator Walsh, sitting up sudden- ly as from a nap, asked, “Do you deny the charges?” Dunne repeated that he did. He had just declared that it would be “hard to convince even the Rey. Edmund A. Walsh,” the well-known red-baiter co- worker of Matthew Woll, of the truth of such statements. Dunne showed that Gorman’s assertion that the trouble in the textile in- | dustry is brought about by “Com- munistic groups” is “too simple.” The truth of the matter is, he said, that wherever a struggle occurs by workers there is a “great tendency” now “for the workers to organize their own struggles under the lead- ership of rank and file committees.” “This rank and file leadership is something new in the United States, and it is not my fault or that of the organization I repre- sent that Mr. Gorman, Mr. Green, Mr. Lewis and other A. F. of L. officials fail to realize its causes and significance,” Dunne said. Tracing the development of the A. F. of L. policy of cooperation with exploiters of labor, Dunne read the committee a statement by H. C. Vowell, of the Brother- hood of Locomotive Engineers, Y s<Leads to Fascism; We Will Lead Fight on It,” He Cries ist”? Dunne then gave official figures showing how about 1,000,- 009 workers have been forced out of the railroad industry under that policy, and asked, “Now where are the ble: gincer-capitalists? are the snows of yeste The only Wagner made to Dun tion of his bill my bill lines up ith big they don’t seem to apprec: “T have dealt with that at le: returned Dunne, “but I'll say again | that I am sure they (the big cor- porations) will appreciate your bill later just as they now appreciate Section 7-A of the N.I.R.A., al-| though some of them opposed that too when it was proposed.” Previously Dunne had declared | that the public opposition of U. s.| asking, “Who wants to be a Bol- shevik when he can be a capital- “y (Continued on Page 2) | to organize a united struggle of a | dent Roosevelt to prevent the |ganize the ranks 1,000 at Dodge, Others at Ternstedt Stop Work for 5 Minutes BULL IN DETROIT, Mich., March 22.— At 1 p.m. today over 1,000 workers at the final body assembly depart- ment in the Dodge plant stopped work for five minutes when a worker pulled the switch, ston- ping the line. In the Ternstedt, the truckers also stopped for five minutes, The Motor Products’ workers won a 10 to 30 per cent wage increase when the commit- tee elected at the meeting of the A. F, of L. local negotiated today. The threat of strike made the company come across. PONTIAC, Mich., March 22.— A. F. of L. local leaders here at the Chevrolet plant, under pres- sure of the rank and file, were forced to send the following tele- gram to the A. F. of L. heads now in Washington: “We wil! accent no compromise, Our demands must be met.” Br WILLIAM WEINSTONE DETROIT, March 22 While preparations are going | forward for a big united front }zonference Sunday 10 o'clock, Elmwood at Carpathia Hall. workers for their demands, | in the Detroit press today | machinery greased for a si 1 “out | Washington. William Gre |of L. chief, is pleading n Pre-!- by “invoking the N.R.A. lice! | power.” A steady bombardment is carried on by the press and t of L. officials to turn all att away many workers are waiti outcome of the Washi r. ence, disgust with the tactics of the A. F. of L. leaders in postponing the strike, is becoming more a Among those who have gone thro! last year's strikes, but who are today in th F. of L., disgust in some expressed in a desire to tear | up union cards. The Auto Workers Union and rank and file oppositions in the A. F. of L. are continuing agitation and organization work to keep the strike sentiment at a high pitch and to or- of the men to break through the grip of the A F. of L. offitialdom. The r and file opposition has issued a leaflet to the members of the Motor Products local of the A. (Continued on Page Two) Organize Fascist Club In Columbia University NEW YORK. — Several under- 2s of Colu ja_ University, m Rosenbluth, have Club” which leaflets and Social Problems Club, a nilitant organization affiliated to the National Students League, will hold a meeting or issue a leaflet. Rosenbluth said he would have called the club a “Fascist Club” but that “it connotes anti-Semitism, and I’m against that.” Detreit Surges With Strike Movements Outside Auto Plants DETR OI T—Detroit workers inside and outside the automo- bile factories are on the move. Here is the record of strikes ou'side of auto plants in this on ‘March 17: Two hundred thousand alteration for recognition mm department stores; D drivers’ union has < the Gordon Baking Co., ‘est independent bakery e@ Middle West; the sign writers’ union has struck several second run theatres; coal wagon rivers have entered the sixth week of their strike with most companies signed up with the union; Tuller Hotel workers are still ovt after a month, with vic tory in sight; and the highway truckers pulled two strikes, last- | ing 18 hours and 6 hours, to ef- | fect 100 per cent unionization of | the roads leading from Detroit. a