The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 4, 1934, Page 1

} CIRCULATION DRIVE NEW SUBS RECEIVED YESTERDAY: Daily .. . 533 Saturday...... 4 Total to date. . 2,952 Total ........' 2,026 Vol. XI, No. 81 > 4 Daily .<QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 3, 1879 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1934 WEATHER: Probably rain tonight AMERICA’S ONLY WORKING CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents "BROWDER OPENS 8th COMMUNIST PARTY CONVENTION Coal Miers Spurn Boss Storm City Hall; Demand OfferotNRA Jobs, Increased Relief Arbitration Operators Offer Con-' cessions in Fear of Strike LOCK 10,000 OUT | UMWA Officials Refuse Support; Keep Silent (Special to the Peily Worker) FAIRMONT, W. Va., April 3.—Thirty thousand miners struck today in the Northern region of West Virginia to force the operators to pay $5 the seven hour day and a pro- nerease in the tonnage | ting to prevent the strike, rs offered reluctantly to Je until -the This plan | rejected by the miners. The mended a settlement on and will have determined to . Which. is called ‘oral-press. are on duty at all the ict to keep any men from enter- 0 Ge 10,000 Locked Out HICAGO, Ill, April 3.—Nearly urths of the coal mines in were closed today in an protest. against the en- forcement of the seven-hour day the bituminous coal industry. + 10,000 miners have been} thrown out of work by the lock- out. Officials of the Illinois Coal Op- erators Association denied that the lockout was directed against the seven-hour day, despite the fact that they began to close their mines while operators from all parts of the state met to discuss the shorter work day. McALESTER, Okla. April 3— Coal mines in the McAlester Hartshorne area were shut down today by the operators in an at- tempt to force a lower wage scale for the miners. P’shkeepsie C.W.A. Workers March On. Local Relief Offices Stamford, Ct., Jobless, | CWA Workers Demand CWA Continue POUGHKEEPSIE, N, Y., April 3.| Hundreds of former C. W. A. workers, fired at the orders of Roosevelt, facing starvation as the city administration failed to make any provision to employ them or give relief, marched to the relief headquarters and demanded jobs. After marching in orderly ranks | to the relief offices, the eee elected spokesmen to place the workers demands before the city re- lief. When the C. W. A. ended here last week, about 3,000 men and wo- men workers were fired. The city and county failed to provide the! necessary money which was sup- posed to supplement the federal and state grants to continue some of the workers on the payroll at less hours and reduced hourly rates of pay. * Stamford, Conn. Workers Demonstrate STAMFORD, Conn. — Two hun- dred C, W. A. and jobless workers marched on the city hall here Saturday, where they were joined by 650 more workers in a city-wide demonstration of workers demand- ing that C. W. A. jobs be continued for all unemployed. The workers demanded enactment of the Work- ers Unemployment Insurance Bill and worker representation on the local welfare board. er , 400 Demonstrate in Rockford, Tl. ROCKFORD, Tll.—Despite bitterly cold weather, 400 workers gathered |Is Sailing to Morocco {state legislature and senate, was seen here today in the proposal that ; Report Nazi Arms Ship PARIS, April 3—A German Nazi expedition, on a ship carrying a cargo of arms, is reported on its way from Rotterdam to Morocco, with ten Storm Troopers aboard. The ship, the “Optimi. is said to carry a shipment of rifles, gren- ades, barbed wire and _ tractors which can be converted into tanks, in charge of Sidi Fra Achmed Schaefer Adksis, who is called an agent of the Nazis. He calls him- self a brother of Merebbi Rebo, the “Blue Sultan,’ who fled before the French advance against Moroccan tribesmen. CW ADelegates Demand Jobs Be Continued| Score Forced Labor, Scheme in Meet With Hopkins By SEYMOUR WALDMAN (Daily Korker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, April 3. — Seventy-six Negro and white delegates-representing fifty- four New York City C. W. A. workers’ organizations today refused to leave the office of Aubrey Williams, assistant to Harry L. Hop- kins, C. W. A. and Federal Relief ; head, unti! the latter agreed to hear their demands for the continuance of the C. W. A. projects, the aboli- tion of the means test as the basis for giving work relief, and the sup- port of the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill. A committee representing the group presented a public works’ pro- gram amounting to $67,000,000,000 dollars for a four year period, to Harold Ickes, Secretary of the In- terior and Public Works Director. Ickes said that he always favored such a program but that he didn’t see how Congywss would adopt such a measure. Refuses to Endorse H. R. 7598 Hopkins said that he would report the grievances. Concerning unem- ployment insurance, he declared, “I am for unemployment insurance but I'm not going to advocate the Work- ers’ Unemployment Bill,” despite his ; admission that “the workers are the people who have taken the licking in this depression.” Hopkins is sup- {porting the Wagner-Lewis unem- ployment “Reserves” Bill, a bill, which ignores the present 16,000,000 ‘unemployed and which exempts (Continued on Page 2) Utilities Probe Is Meant To Throttle Graft Revelations Thayer ‘Explains’ That He Was Working for His Own Good ALBANY, N, Y., April 3.—Virtual throttling of any immediate pos- sibility of bringing to light the in- timate graft tie-up between New York state’s big power and utility corporations and members of the a special investigating committee be granted an initial sum of $250,000 for the purpose of undertaking a state-wide probe, its findings to be ‘pany of the Welfare Board mem- | C.W.A. Men Break Police Lines; Flay Roosevelt “Work Relief” MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., April 3.— Breaking through the police lines of the completely mobilized police force, more than 8,000 fired C.W.A. and jobless workers, under the lead- ership of the United Relief Asso- ciation, stormed a meeting of the} city Welfare Board at the City Hall here today, demanding immediate return of C. W. A. work, 40 percent increase in city relief and protest- ing against federal forced labor on the “relief works” projects, Having waited an hour outside the doors of the Welfare Board, which had refused to meet with a delegation elected by the workers, | the workers swarmed past all police and guards, broke through the locked doors leading to the city, chambers, and crowded into the! Welfare Board meeting. Without formally adjourning the | meeting, the Welfare Board fled} through the back doors. Among those fleeing in the com- bers before the onrush of the work- ers were delegates from the Social- ist Party and the Minneapolis Cen- tral Council of Workers and Trot- skyists, who had been admitted to} the Welfare Board meeting while | the elected delegates of the work- | ers had waited outside. The demonstrating workers voted | unanimously to demand that the! City Council hold its Friday morn- | ing meeting in’the City Auditorium, where the workers will again as- | semble for another gigantic dem- | onstration around the same de- mands. As the workers are conducting in- | tense preparations for the Friday | morning meeting, they will as-! semble at the Auditorium at 9 a.m. If the City Council refuses to hold! an open meeting, the workers as- sembled at the Auditorium will stage | @ mass march on the City Hall and | the meeting of the City Council. C.W.A. Fires 18,000 In Philadelphia Jobless ‘Are Registered for Forced Labor Scheme PHILADELPHIA, Pa., April 3.— All C.W.A. workers here—19,000 ac-| cording to the official figures—were fired when they reported for work Monday morning. All of them will remain without work, and the ma- jority without any relief if the plans} of the city administration are per-! mitted to remain in effect, In the meantime, the County Re- lief Board is calling all of the 76,000 heads of familjes who are on relief into the Relief Board offices at 15th and Cherry Sts., for “classification,” After this, it is announced, a list of “eligibles” will be chosen for the forced labor relief at $7.20 a week. Supervisors and foremen had been instructed to call all men to report to work on C.W.A. jobs on Monday in an attempt to prevent their or- ganizing effectively for protest ac- tions. When the men reported to work, they were fired. A mass protest meeting against the firing of C.W.A. workers will be held under the leadership of the Unemployed Councils at Raeburn Plaza, Saturday, April 7,at 1pm. | | Pick Famous Labor Foe American Seamen Greet Crew of Soviet Ship | Scene on the Soviet ship “Kim,” now anchored in New York harbor, showing crew and captain tion from the revolutionary Marine red flag with hammer and sickle gives the lie to the vicious stories in the New York capitalist press re- garding the “hostility” of the Soviet sailors to the workers’ delegation (See “The Red Flag Flies on a Ship in New York which greeted them. Harbor,” on page 5.) of the vessel together with delega- Workers’ Industrial Union. Notice | in background. This photo neatly Hackmen Hit Parmelee With New Strik e Christopher Street Men Out Over Blacklist; Splitter Ousted NEW YORK.—Hackmen of the Christopher Street Garage of the Parmelee System struck in a body yesterday after the garage foreman had refused to re-hire men who had} been active in the recent general taxi strike. Pickets have been dispatched from the headquarters of the Taxi Drivers Union of Greater New York, and: late in the afternoon strikers with picket signs were patrolling the en- trance to the garage, which is lo- cated on Christopher Street, near, Greenwich Street. The strikers are demanding that} all the men be taken back without discrimination in a body under the} leadership of the union garage com- mittes, as designated by the union| when the general strike was ter- minated. Complaints of discrimination and| blacklisting in the Parmelee garages are still coming in to the headquar- ters of the union. Samuel Orner,, president of the union, said he was} summoned to the City Hall by Ber- nard Deutsch, president of the Board of Aldermen, following the announcement that the union would strike the Christopher Street garage. Meanwhile a revolt of the rank and file developed in the Brooklyn} and Queens locals of the union} against leaders who have been at- (Continued on Page 2) To “Prosecute” Weirton Co. in Union Vote Case ee | WASHINGTON, D. C., April 3. —} Frank K. Nebeker, who as assistant to the Attorney-General under the Wilson administration, distinguished himself in the prosecution of work- ers for union activities, has been elected as senior counsel to “pro- secute” the Weirton Steel Co. for failure to allow the workers to be- long to a union of their own choos- ing. How sincere the Roosevelt ad- ministration and the N. R. A. are about this case is shown in the choice of this Nebeker, whose chief bid for fame is the prosecution of Big Bill Haywood, militant union leader. | Workers for an increase to meet ‘Roosevelt Had. RR Head Write! ‘Pay Cut Letter | President's Proposal for Reduction Dictated by W. A. Harriman (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) | WASHINGTON, Apr. 3.—W. Ave! ill Harriman, N.R.A. Industrial Ad-| visor, Controller of the Union Pacific | Railroad, and the leading finance! | capitalist, who is generally expected to displace the too forthright Gen- eral Hugh S. Johnson as N.R.A. | Administrator, virtually dictated) President Roosevelt's Feb. 14 letter, | calling for a continuance of the 10 per cent basic wage cut for six months beyond June 30, 1934, the date of the expiration of the present, agreement between the employers} and the Railway Labor Executives Association, the Daily Worker learn- ed today. It is understood that Harriman sent Carl Gray, president of the Union Pacific, to confer with Roose- | velt at the White House. This ex- plains the nearly simultaneous an- nouncement of Roosevelt’s letter and the railroad magnates transpar- | ent proposal for another cut of five per cent for the purpose of fore-) stalling the expected demand of the their greatly increased living costs. Railroad “Labor” representatives, here awaiting Roosevelt's return from Florida fishing waters, made ff clear that though they are op- posed to the continuance of the 10 per cent basic cut, they are not averse to compromising by with- drawing their demand for a 20 pe! cent increase over present wage lev- els and agreeing to accept the re- storation of the basic 10 per cent cut. They are absolutely opposed, however, to the rank and file senti-| ment for a strike as the only method of defeating the owners’ determina- | tion to keep the railway workers on ja coolie status. Railroad Coordinator Eastman, in whose hands Roosevelt left the rail- road dispute exzept for authority to {make an administration decision, is doing nothing until Roosevelt’s re- ‘ turn, | RDS or TURNING TO “STONE” WILKES-BARRE, Pa., April 3—) Physicians are still mystified by the {strange ulness of Benny Hendrick, seven-year-old lad, whose body is slowly turning to “stone.” , 30,000 West Virginia Miners Strike For Higher Wages 8.000 Fired Stalin, Thaelmann, and Dimitroff Chosen for Convention Praesidium “Greatest Revolutionary Gathering Held in Many Years” | BLOOR CHEERED Historic Banner Given To Communist Party By M. J. OLGIN | CLEVELAND, April 3. —| The Opening of the Eighth| Communist Party Convention was the greatest mass revo- lutionary gathering held here | in years, when 4,000 workers packed | the Public Auditorium. The singing | of workers’ choruses added color to | the enthusiastic reception given by | the Cleveland workers to the Cen-| tral Committee and the delegates. | A huge picture of a worker break- | ing his chains, and red flags deco- | rated the platform. A high moment | of the meeting, aside from Earl | Browder’s masterly speech, came} when a red banner was handed by a Cleveland worker to the Central | Committee and received by Mother Bloor. The gathering arose, sing- | ing and cheering. “I hope to meet you in Washington at the first So- viet Congress of the U. S. A,,”| Mother Bloor said, as the workers | cheered. Another unforgettable moment occurred when Harold Asche, former State Secretary of the Socialist Party in California, greeted the convention, saying that the Socialist Party was crumbling. “For 19 years,” he said, “I labored under the illusion that the S. P. was a revolutionary nariv.” At lect,! he said, he found his place among; his own. “The Communist Party (Continued on Page 2) Auto Labor Board| Coes To Racine To Break Nash Strike Responds to Telephone Call By President of Company DETROIT, Mich., April 3—The big strike-breaking gun of the N.| R. A., the Automobile Labor Board, | has been turned to Racine, Wis., in an attempt of the Roosevelt admin- | istration and the A. F. L. leaders to smash the strike of the 5,000 Nash Motor Co. auto workers there and in Kenosha and Milwaukee. This labor board, composed of Richard Byrd, A. F. L. official, Nicholas Kelley, of the League for Industrial Democracy, and Chrysler | automobile company, and Dr. Leo Wolman, of the Roosevelt govern- ment, left last night for Racine with the announced purpose of “mediat- ing” the auto strike in that region. The auto labor board is rushing over in response to a telephone call by Charles W. Nash, president of the Nash company board, asking the government’s aid against the strik- ers. The strike is holding solid, “all the Nash plants being shut tight. turned in “not later than Feb. 15, 1935.” This proposal, which has the backing of Governor Lehman, plans the usual “sweeping investigation” So costly to the masses of the state, which rarely results in more than the replacement of one set of grafting officials with another equally-grafting group. Resolutions for this “investigation” have been made by Senator John J. and Assemblyman Russell G. Dun- more. This investigation, it was declared, would have nothing to do with the individual probe of the doings of Senator Warren T. Thayer, who was on the payroll of the big utili- ties interests at the same time that he was supposedly acting as impar- NEW YORK.—More groups and organizations have signified their active support of next Friday night’s anti-war rally than have ever before united in a demonstra- tion against war, Norman Tallen- tire, secretary of the N. Y. City Committee of the American League Against War and Fascism( said yesterday. The meeting, on the 17th an- niversary of America’s entry into the World War, will be at St. Nicholas Arena, 69 West 66th St., New York, Friday night, April 6, beginning sharply at 7:30 p. m. It will be the climax of a large series of anti-war meetings and open air demonstrations this week at the Court House here on Thurs-| tial chariman of a Senate Utilities|in all parts of New York, under the. day. demanding C. W. A. jobs. Committee, auspices of many organizations. | Anti-War Meet in St. Nicholas Arena on Aoril 6 EGR * League Against War The chairman of the meeting, Cc B d Norman Tallentire, announces that reates Broa the first speaker will take the plat- United Front form at 7:30 sharp. Greetings will be extended by speakers from Ne- gro organizations, unions, the youth, in addition to Workers’ Ex-Service- mans League, who will be repre- sented by Jack Davis, the Womens’ Peace Societies, Mrs. Annie Gray; the Woman's International League for Peace and Freedom, Louise Weir; American Civil Liberties Union, Roger Baldwin; and closed by the principal speaker of the eve- ning, Dr. Harry F. Ward. ee ae Big Brownsville Rally Thursday NEW YORK. — Preparations for the April 5 demonstration against war and Fascism are going on with unprecedented speed in Brownsville. Tens of thousands of leaflets have been distributed in the neighbor- hoods and dozens of outside organi- zations have arranged to participate in the big march, The General Organization of the New Lots Eye- ning High School voted with only one dissenting voice to support this action and to call a student strike. About 15 open-air meetings are be- ing held Tuesday with twice as many scheduled for Wednesday to build up this action. The time of mobilization is 7:00 p. m., Thursday, at Ralph and Fulton Ave., or at Hinsdale and Sutter Aves., whichever is nearest. Both groups will march to Hopkin- son and Pitkin Aves. where the |parades will end in a big open-air j mass rally. ees Demonstration, Meetings in Chicago (Special to the Daily Worker) CHICAGO, April 3—Young work- ers and students have been called to a demonstration before the Cribbon and Sexton factory this Friday to protest the proposed! manufacture of shells by that plant which is at Sacramento and Chi- & cao Aves. Detuonsteatan; Many Meetings Called in Chicago The demonstration, scheduled for 3:30 p. m. and called on the oc- casion of the Jingo celebrations throughout ~gre country of Amer- ica’s entry into the World War, will be one of many militant anti-war demonstrations throughout the city. All the war protests have been called by the Chicago section of the Amercian League Against War and Fascism. Other meetings Friday at 8 p. m. include: Workers Lyceum, 2733 Hirsch Blvd., speaker Dave Brown, with Bartel of S. P. chairman; Albany Park Workers Center, 4825 N. Kedzie, speaker A. Guss; North- west Side Workers Center, 3911 W. Chicago, | pack the magistrate’s court at 1 speaker Tom McKenna; ! packed the former court in prote | Unemployed Council 3069 Armitage | against the brutal police attack on Ave.; Workers Center, 4112 Ar-! mitage Ave. speaker McDondald. Gannes, Reeve and Marguerite Young Report Convention Three staff members of the Daily Worker are reporting the Eighth conventon of the Commu- nist Party of the U.S.A., now in session in Cleveland, Ohio. Telegraphic and mail dispatches from Harry Gannes, Carl Reeve and Marguerite Young of the Daily Worker Washington Bureau will provide readers of the “Daily” with complete and de- tailed reports of the historic con- vention. Comrades Young and Reeve will, in addition to news dis- patches from the convention hall, write special feature stories as well as interviews with individual delegates from the mills, mines and farms. A direct telegraphic wire be- tween the convention hall i Cleveland and the Daily Worker editorial office in New York enable readers of the “Daily’ to get prompt, first-hand reports of the convention, Detroit Auto Men. Furious | At Betrayal! Workers in Briggs Plant Stop Work; Demand Wage Increase BULLETIN DETROIT, April 3.—Department 171 of the Briggs Waterloo plant metal finishers, torch solderers, welders and door hangers, walked out yesterday, when the company refused their demand for a 20 per cent increase. A rank and file action committee called on the en- tire shop to join in a struggle for a 20 per cent increase, a forty hour week, excluding Saturdays and Sundays, and decent sanitary conditions. The Waterloo plant is where the great Briggs strike started in Jan- uary 1933. This action is part of the con- tinued department stoppages thru- out auto plants where workers, de- spite A. . of L. sell-outs, are fight- ing for demands. Members of the Auto Workers Union are playing an active part in these stoppages. a ae oe (Special to the Daily Worker) DETROIT, April 3—The response of workers to appeals of the Auto Workers Union, seething discontent | in American Federation of wabor! locals and continuation of depait-| ment strikes in plants show that the| 250,600 auto workers of this country will not tamely submit to being de- iivered gagged and bound into hands of their exploiters. The wave of department strikes in Hudson Gra- tiot plant Thursday and Friday which forced wage increases and involved more workers than any previous stoppages in one plant (Continued on Page 2) Workers Urged To Pack Bronx Court This Noon Protest Railroading of Four Arrested at Scottsboro Rally! NEW YORK.—The district Inter- national Labor Defense and its Bronx Section yesterday issued an appeal to all workers in the city to Street and Brook Avenue, this af- ternoon, 2 o'clock, in vigorous pro- test against the attempt to railroad four Negro and white workers to jail. The four workers were arrested| when police smashed up the March 17th Scottsboro demonstration in Harlem. The trials were transferred from the East 121st Street court to the Bronx, when Harlem workers the demonstration and the cam- paign to jail its leaders, Tremendous Ovation Greets Names of Bol- shevik Leaders ELECT COMMITTEES Delegates Eager for Revolutionary Tasks Facing Convention By HARRY GANNES CLEVELAND, April 3. — Earl Browder, General Secre- tary of the Communist Party, in the name of the Central Committee, today opened the business session of the eighth vention of the Communist Party, S. section of the Communist International at Prospect Audito- | rium here. Eager to get down to the great revolutionary tasks confronting them, the delegates coming from the first line trenches of the class struggle in every part of the coun- try, greeted the opening of the eighth convention with hearty ap- plause and cheers. Comrade Browder then introduced James W. Ford, who put the first Proposal before the gathering, the election of a praesidium. The read- ing of each name of those consti+ tuting the praesidium was punctu- ated with rounds of handclapping, | whistling and cheers. The praesi- dium, Comrade Ford declared, was proposed to the convention by the Political Bureau of the Party in consultation with the organizers of the concentration districts. When the name of Joseph St: Secretary of the Communist P: Soviet Union, was read off as an honorary member of the convention | praesidium, a wave of great, vocifer- | Ous enthusiasm swept the hall. As one man, the whole delegation rose and cheered. This stirring homage | paid to the great leader of the world revolutionary proletariat and the Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union was the high point of the opening session which was marked from its beginning by tremendous en- and deep-going enthusiasm, After applauding and cheering Com- rade Stalin for several minutes, the delegation sang the Internationale. Ernst Thaelmann, imprisoned leader of the heroic, fighting Com- munist Party in the land of mur- derous German fascism, next named as an honorary member of the praese (Continued on Page 2) Street Car Workers Demand a Raise of 25 PC, 40-Hr. Week Eleven Unions Vote for Increases, Shorter Work Week | BOSTON (F.P.)—A demand for a |25 per cent increase in wages and |a 40-hour week for 1,500 union car- men, employed on the Eastern Mas- sachusetts Street Railway system, are to be presented to the trustees. The demand is in accordance with |instructions voted by the 11 unions in the various cities in which the company operates. The contract, under which the men now work, expires on June Ist. The men are now paid 65 cents an hour on the basis of a 48-hour week |which became operative in 1931, |when the men voluntarily took a 10 per cent cut in wages to avert discharges and layoffs of their fel- low workers. The demand for a 25 per cent increase on the basis of a 40-hour week would increase the maximum to 8lc an hour, or a weekly wage of $32.40. The weekly wage on the present maximum for a week of 48 hours is $31.20. “Tin Box” Farley Dies; | Was a Grafting Sheriff | NEW YORK—Thomas M. (“Tin Box”) Farley, former Tammany sheriff of N. Y., died yesterday at the Fifth Avenue Hospital. Farley, who as sheriff was the one responsible for the eviction of thousands of families, attained hir nickname (“Tin B: when he fai! ed to explain how he got $360,060 which he kept in his. “wonderful little tin box.” Failure to accotmt for his grafting actions finally led |to nis removal in 1932, @ ¢