The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 3, 1934, Page 1

Oe Organize Daily Worker Sales at Factory Gates! Vol. XI, No. 106 aD xs Entered as second-ciess matter at the E New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879. Daily <QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) OfmMce at AMERICA’S ONLY WORKING CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1934 WEATHER: Fair. (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents "9,000 PARIS WORKERS FIGHT BACK POLICE ATTACK , 18,000 Longshoremen Strike; Pe Is Shot; Ryan Eliminates Wage Demands Police Arrest Seven|/— Negro Workers in Lake Charles N, Y. MAY WALK OUT Ryan Wants Only Union Recognition —“The Long- Page 6, Today] fheremen’s Strike,” NEW YORK.—RKighteen| thousand longshoremen went on strike yesterday in Texas and Louisiana gulf ports, with the coastwise longshoremen on the extire Atlantic sea- coast expected to walk out Joday. In Lake Charles, La., where long- shoremen are striking for wage in- treases, shots were fired into a crowd of dockers, and Murphy Humphreys was killed. In an at- tempt to cover up the crime, police arrested several Negro workers. ‘The longshoremen in the Southern ports had their wages cut through the introduction of the piece-work system. They are demanding the hourly rate and recognition of the) International Longshoremen’s. As- | sociation. Although Joseph P. Ryan, Pres- Ident of the I. L. A., is issuing state-| ments to the press attempting to/ give the idea that he is heading the strike movement, the movement really developed over the heads of the union officials. Ryan, in taking on the appearance of the leader of the strike movement, Is really attempting to head the movement in order to behead it. Already he has announced that the inevitable strike on the New York docks will not be over wages and hours, but for union recogni- tion. Ryan is thus trying to confine the coming walkout to only the de- mand for recognition and eliminate all wage demands, for which the Southern longshoremen really struck. Wagner Scab Bill On City Scale Is Announced in N.Y. Drafted by Former S.P. Member, Clause Gives Mayor Final Say NEW YORK.—What amounts to ® new Wagner strikebreaking bill on a city scale was announced yes- terday by Bernard S. Deutsch, president of the Board of Aldermen, under the demagogic title of a new are empowered to intervene at any with the pending bus franchise of the Ave. B and East Broadway Bus Company. The clause, which is played up as “outlawing company unionism,” provides for the boss type of “col- lective bargaining.” Added to this, however, is another ominous provision to the effect that the Mayor or Board of Estimate the empowered to intervene at any hitch in the “collective bargaining” and that their decisions are to be final and binding. This strikebreaking franchise was originally drawn up by E. Michael White and William Maslow, both in the office of Commissioner of Ac- counts Paul Blanshard. Maslow is a former Socialist Party member who was expelled at the same time that Blanshard left the S. P. to take his $15,000-a-year job under LaGuardia. Seamen Strike in N. Y. for Pay Raise NEW YORK.—The crew of the 8S. 8. G Prince struck on May Day at the Staten Island Docks for a $12.50 a month increase in wages. The strike is being carried on under the leadership of the Marine Work- ers Industrial Union. The seamen on the Gypsum Prince were forced to work for $37.50 2 month by the owners of the ship. Militant picketing of the dock where the ship is tied up has caused the shipowners to offer a $5 increase in weges. The men, however, are continuing their strike for the $12.50 Increase ila. UMWA Heads in Secret Accord H with Steel Trust BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 2.— The United Mine Workers of America officials are in secret conference, endeavoring to de- vise plans to sell out the 8,000 ore miners who have aready voted to strike on May 4. The Tennessee Coal and Iron Co, has made a secret “‘settle- ment” of the strike of of the coal miners with William Mitch, dis- trict U. M. W. A. head, under which the company recognizes only the U.M.W.A. officials, in an effort to keep rank and file control of their union away from the coal miners. The miners had refused to carry out the U. M. W. A. occi- cials’ orders to return to work under Roosevelt's N. R. A. order that their wages be less than wages paid Northern coal miners. Steel Men At! AFL Meet For ‘Strike Action Opposition V otes for Action in All Steel Mills PITTSBURGH, Pa., May 2. —The National Convention of | |the Amalgamated Association |of Iron, Steel and Tin Work- ers (A. F. of L.), under pres- sure of the rank and file opposition, yoted today that all lodges shall de- mand recognition of the union, and | back up this demand by strike ac- tion, it is reported. The deadline set by the conven- tion, when the answer of the steel |companies must be in the hands of the union officials of each lodge, was set for June 20. The convention voted that each lodge shall make formal demand on its mill for recognition on May 21. The decision included the provision that in case some of the companies grant recognition, no wage scale shall be valid unless all other lodges in the country are assured of similar treatment. The Steel and Metal Workers In- dustrial Union had called on all steel workers for a united front, re- gardless of union membership, or whether unorganized, to immedi- ately prepare strike action in all mills, and organize united front ac- tion committees on a mill basis. The rank and file opposition inside the Amalgamated Association con- vention, which has just adjourned, has been fighting for such united front strike preparation, and has been combatting the efforts of the machine of Mike Tighe, head of the A. A., to prevent any decisive strike preparations. 600 Oil Workers Vote To Strike SEMINOLE, Okla., May 2. — Six hundred union employees of the Sinclair-Prairie Oil Co. voted unamimously to strike late last night unless five demands are met. Expect East Coast Tie-Up Against War and Fascism; View of the huge May Day demonstration Tuesday in Union Sq. New York, where 200,000 workers heard many Communist and other For Soviet America! working class speakers call for a united struggle against war, hunger and fascism, and for a Soviet America. May First --- City by City Reports from various cities and towns throughout the United States; indicate that many hun- dreds of thousands of workers participated in militant demon- strations May First. An incom- plete list follows: NEW YORK CITY.— 200.000 in Union Square May Day demonstra- tion; 100,000 in parade. About 100,000 in Madison Square. PITTSBURGH, Pa.—8,000 in pa- rade and demonstration. | PHILADELPHIA, Pa—30,000 at Reyburn Plaza for march to Inde- pendence Square. PATERSON, 'N. J.—2,000 in dem- onstration; 500 in parade. STAMFORD, Conn.—800 in dem- enstration. BOSTON, Mass.—20,000 in demon- stration; 15,000 in parade. PORTLAND, Ore.—4,000 in dem- onstration; 800 in parade. HANCOCK, Mich.—1,200 in dem- onstration; 800 in parade. LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Overflow May Day meeting. No estimate of num- bers. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal.—10,000 in demonstration. OAKLAND, Cal.—3,000 in demon- stration. SACRAMENTO, Cal.—2,000 dem- onstrate. LOS ANGELES, Cal.—t15,000 demonstration. CHICAGO, Ill.—20,000 in parade; 21,500 at park, according to Pett plete reports. NORFOLK, Va.—1,000 in Pasi WORCESTER, Mass-— 3,000 in in demonstration. BRIDGEPORT, Conn.— 400 in demonstration. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—5,000 in demonstration. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—15,000 in demonstration; 7,000 parade. NEW ORLEANS, La.—1,000 in demonstration. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. —1,000 in demonstration. BUFFALO, N. Y—5,500 in dem- onstration. MILWAUKEE, Wis. — 10,000 demonstration; 6,000 parade. FAIRMONT, W. Va.—500 in dem- onstration. MORGANTOWN, W. Va.— 400 demonstrate. CLARKSBURG, W. Va.—100 dem- onstrate. OSAGE, W. Va.—100 in demon- stration. DETROIT, Mich.—10,000 in dem- onstration. NEWARK, N. J.—3,000 in demon- in Biggest Wall Street Bosses Find “New Deal” A Blessing WASHINGTON, May 2—The biggest industrial monopolists of Wall Street, organized into the United States Chamber of Com- merce, have examined the Roose- velt “New Deal” program after a year of operation and have found it exceedingly good. In a speech before the 21st con- vention of this body, which in- cludes some of the most reaction- ary capitalist interests in the coun- try, President Henry L. Harriman declared that as a result of Roose- velt’s. measures a “conservative optimism” is now justified. Harriman criticized some of the features of the New Deal, includ- ing some of the licensing features of the codes which introduce fric- tion between various monopoly and non-monopoly industrialists. On the whole, he found the Roosevelt program eminently satisfactory to the biggest capitalist exploiters in the United States. Since Roosevelt took office, prof- its have risen from 25 to 400 per cent. Railroads, manufacturers re- port the largest dividends in years. Meanwhile, the cost of living has risen at least 15 per cent, com- pletely erasing the slight pay rises of the opening months of the N. R. A., and effecting a cut in the real wages of all workers, BULLETIN BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 2.— Lizzie Johnson, a Negro worker, is in the hospital with a possible fracture of the skull as a result of a beating by the police dur- ing the May Day demonstration here. Hosie Black, Negro youth, and Jack Davis, white Bessemer worker, are held without charges. attorney succeeded in smashing the incommunicado order of the police, saw the prisoners, and de- manded their release or the plac- ing of definite charges. . (Special to the Daily Worker) BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Five thousand Negro and white workers surged into the streets on May Day and constantly reformed their ranks under the brutal attacks of the biggest peacetime mobiliza- tion of police, extra deputies, fas- cist white Legion gangs and under- world elements organized by the bosses of this city against the revo- lutionary working class. Three armored cars, loaned by local banks, patrolled the streets covering the demonstrators with their machine guns. Machine guns were mounted in the strects and around the Jefferson County jail The International Labor Defense | May 2—| 3,000 Negro and White} Workers Fight Police, Fascists In Birmingham Alabama City Bristles With eee Banks Furnish Armored Cars, Many Workers Are Arrested and Held Incommunicado where the Scottsboro boys are held in solitary confinement and daily torture. Fascist White Legion gangs ex- ploded a bomb at the Sunshine Laundry in a sinister provocation (Continued on Page 2) Hathaway Defies Atlanta Cop Who Defends the KKK ATLANTA, Ga., May 2—When Clarence Hathaway, editor of the “Daily Worker,” addressing a May Day meeting here, men- tioned the use of the Ku Klux Klan by the bosses as a terroris- tic weapon against the Negro masses, he was halted by Chief of Police T. O. Sturdivant, who shouted: “Stop, if you say another word I'll take you out of here.” Hathaway defied the police chief and continued his speech. A cordon of police was thrown around the church in an attempt to intimidate the workers from attending. stration; 300 in parade. SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—150 in dem- onstration. ARGO, Hl.—150 at» May Day meeting. DECATUR, Ill—1,000 in demon- stration. WASHINGTON, D. C.—200 at May Day meeting. Roosevelt Arranges HugeWarDisplay in N.Y. Harbor May 31 President “Will Review Fleet of Batileships and Airplanes WASHINGTON, May 2.—A great jingo display intended to whip up nationalist war fever, was an- nounced by Secretary of Navy Swanson, who today announced completion of arrangements for a review by President Roosevelt of the U. S. fleet in the New York harbor May 31. Roosevelt, “Commander-in-Chief of the Navy,” will review the long column of the greatest war machine in the world from aboard the heavy cruiser Indianapolis, with Swanson and Admiral William H. Standley off Ambrose Lightship. Cruisers, destroyers, aircraft car- riers, battleships of all kinds, will pass in review in the greatest dis- play of capitalist death dealing power ever held. Gov't To Guarantee 1% Billion Loans Of Home Investors Roosevelt. Asks for Power To Protect Bank Loans WASHINGTON, May 2.—All loans [: Fisk Pe. to Page 3 for Additional May Day Reports Additional news of May Day demonstrations throughout the country will be found on page 3. Because of the flood of telegrams from all parts of the country, in- cluding many places where May Day demonstrations were held this year for the first time, it is not possible to publish all the news of these demonstrations to- day, Further news will be pub- lished in tomorrow's Daily Worker. Cop s, Legion Attack Detroit Workers May 1 Arena Garden Meeting) Jammed in Militant Protest | (Special to the Daily Worker) DETROIT, May 2.—Ten thousand | Detroit workers gathered around | Grand Circus Park yesterday at 5:30) p. m., despite the mayor's ban on/| the May Day demonstrations and threats of police violence against the workers. The city’s biggest police mobiliza-| tion, aided by mobilized American Legionnaires, broke up the dem- onstration and attacked the work- ers’ march to Arena Gardens for the evening celebration, which was} held despite the police terror. About 2,000 police, under the per-| sonal command of the notorious| strike-breaker, Police Commissioner Pickert, were stationed at and) around Grand Circus Park. They) were reinforced by hundreds of plain | clothesmen and uniformed legion-| naires who were summoned by radio to report at 4 p. m., with full equip- ment. All around the Park, the streets were filled with mounted po- lice, traffic cops brandishing glitter- ing new clubs, motor cycle cops, cops in riot cars—all equipped with tear gas. At Clarke Park, which was sche- duled to be the mobilization point) (Continued on Page 2) | Report 4 Dead; 21 Are |is unknown today. Four are said to| ‘army chaplains during a conflict. Hold Barricades 4. Hours; 2,000 Meet In Austria 8 More Communists | Sentenced to Death | By German Nazi Axe | HAMBURG, 2.—Eight | more Commur were sen- | tenced to be beheaded today by | the Nazi Emergency Court as the wave of terror spread by | fay frenzied Hitler madmen against the revolutionary workers tinues. The eight workers were ac- cused of “terrorism” in 1932 and 1933. Nineteen other Commu- con- nists were given prison terms up to 15 years. Call Strike In Cuba; Protest May | Terror Wounded; U. S. En- |Demonstrate May Day Despite Fascist Terror Rule 1 DEAD IN SPAIN Hundreds Hurt in India May Day Cele- brations barricades, fought police today in a demonstration pro- testing against fascist terror on May Day. Fighting began when Police tried to break oe demons tions in the wo! bordering the Rue | the Rue Jeanne speakers addressed the police sought to prever from speaking. The worker: the police, effectively figh off, until more than 1,000 | massed against the demons’ Near the place d'Italie, southern portion of Paris, the voy Is Involved BU ‘TIN HAVANA, Cuba, May 2.—A gen- eral strike lasting one hour has been called here in protest against | the murderous attack on the May Day demonstration. Soldiers fired at students who massed at the Arts and Trades School in protest against the shooting of workers on May Day. Chain | (Special to the Daily Worker) HAVANA, Cuba, May 2 Cable) —The number of those mur- dered in the May Day demonstra- tion by the Mendieta government, actively aided by U. S. militarists, be dead. There is a strict censor- ship on casualties, because the gov- ernment fears the actions of the workers. Seventeen are known to be wounded, including one child and four women. Despite threats of massacre, 20,000 were in the march. The at- tack was deliberately prepared in spite of the “legalization” of May Day by the Mendieta government | at the last moment, under the most tremendous mass pressure. (By| ers set up barricades to res | advance of the police. | police were wounded. Me jers were hurt, and scores | Only after a four-hour ege were the police, personally ted by the Prefect of Poli oger Lon- jgeron, able to smash up the dem- onstration. Special squads of police are now ing Paris armed with machine- , bullet-proof shields, gas pis- They raided jarrested many work to stop other demonstrati ons. ee nto 4 | tols. | | NEW YORK. — Capitalist news- | paper cable reports from Berlin gave a good indication why the Nazis resorted to another incendiary crime at Augsburg to cover up the growing mass discontent of the workers and their hatred of the Fascist regime. John Elliott, Berlin correspond- {ent of the Herald-Tribune, report- jing the Tempelhof air held Nazi |May Day demonstration, where | 2,000,000 are alleged to have been | present, cabled: “Hitler's speech was received with lukewarm and scattered applause by his predominantly working class | audience, which lent credence to the Shots were fired by soldiers sta- tioned o% rooftops at orders of their | officers, at the Emergency hospi-| tal, the point of the largest mass- | ing of the demonstratiqn. The| marchers were bottled up. The (Continued on Page 2) 123 Clergymen Favor Communism in Survey | NEW YORK, May 2.—One hun- | dred and twenty-three ministers voted for Communism, among the 18, 324 who voted for a form of “co- | operative commonwealth,” it was | learned here yesterday. Socialism | received 5,879 votes and Fascism 111 | votes. The answers were to a ques- tionnaire on war and economics, sent out by representatives of a dozen religious bodies. | Among the clergymen, 13,999 voted against support of any war. Reports came from 8,014 that they could not serve conscientiously as by banks, mortgage companies, and insurance companies to owners of| homes will be guaranteed by the United States government according to the latest announcement of the Roosevelt administration today. Roosevelt will ask Congress to pass a bill permitting the govern- ment to guarantee such loans up to $1,500,000,000. Thus the Roosevelt government, in addition to its policy of already guaranteeing four billion dollars worth of mortgage loans, adds an- other billion and a half of govern- ment guarantee for private bank and insurance company invest- ments. Small home owners, if they are lucky enough to have the proper security, will get loans from $200 to $2,000. The government will guar- antee the banks their investments, which will pay from 5 to 10 per cent interest. The Bill is hailed as a boon to the} small home owners. Actually it will) be of help only to investors or build- ing material companies who are al- ready raising their prices in antici- (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) | WASHINGTON, May 2.— ch exports of scrap iron and steel, used chiefly for war preparations, amounted to 173,165 tons, the largest ever recorded in any month, the Commerce Department announced today. They accounted for 66 per cent of the total tonnage exported. | Iron and steel products exporied from the United States in March, the report says, “reached the high- est volume levels for any month since July, 1929, according to fig- ures compiled in the Commerce De- partment’s Iron and Steel Divisior No attempt is made by officials conceal the fact that Japan, in- tensely interested in storing raw m terials for the manufacture of m’ tions, has been the big purchaser “The Far East w as usual, the chief foreign outlet for United pation of a temporary spurt in buy- ing States iron and steel exports, Maren shipments to that area accounting Steel Scrap Shipments F oe | | teed a minimum wage to post of- Munitions Reach New Record) for 43.7 per cent of the month’s total,” the report significantly de- clares. “Europe, because of pur- chases of scrap, constituted the sec- ond largest market, with shipments amounting to 35.7 per cent of the total.” Today’s announcement recalls Secretary of Commerce Roper’s re- cent stoppage of the sale of old ship- ping board vessels to Japan to pre- vent the latter's imperialists from increasing their supply of scrap iron. Total shipments of iron and steel exports during March “amounted to 261,269 gross tons compared with 151,184 tons in February and 80,567 tons in March, 1933.” “For the quarter ended March 31,/ exports of iron and steel product from the United States aggrega' 590,476 gross tons, a figure htly less than three times the total ton-} nage exported during the corres- ponding period of 1933. | pelhof |through fear of losing their jobs if they stayed away.” assertion heard everywhere in Ber- lin, that the many thousands of | civilian workers who were herded into line and marched through dusty streets to even dustier Tem- ‘eld were forced to do sc MUNICH, May 2—A new cam- aign of terror has been opened up + (Continued on Page 6) Roosevelt Vetoes ‘Bill for Postal Subs Minimum Pay Refers “Unforiunates” to Unemployment Relief Agencies WASHINGTON, D. C., May 2— sident Roosevelt yesterday vetoed the bill which would have guaran- fice substitutes and offered them a measure of security of their posi- tions, The bill, in the main, provided for a guaranteed 100 hours a month employment to all post office substi- tutes. In its place, Roosevelt of- fered to the substitutes the relief agencies “fot unfortunates who can find no employment.” Clouding his veto in demagogic verbiage, the White House state- ment said: “There is no doubt that substitute employes in all of the larger cities and, indeed, in prac- tically all the first-class offices, will be employed for more than a hun- dred hours a month.” While promising them 100 hours a month, the White House veto re- fuses to guarantee this minimum. The White House veto further stated that the recent “revision” of the post office economy ruling had | Practically accomplished the hour revision asked for in the bill. Post office substitutes, according to the extensive tabulation made by the substitutes’ union, have been averaging about $8 a week pay. seepeoner