The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 15, 1934, Page 1

eens nh eee eee NO MATTER HOW SMALL! Order a Daily Worker Bundle for Sale To Those You Know Vol. XI, No. 116 Entered #8 second-class > * CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879. “STRIKE WAVE AGAINST “NEW DEAL” SWEEPS NATION Alabama Ranks Are Solid; Defy Terrorism & A.F.L. Leaders Oppose Picketing; Join Cry Against Militants TRIAL ON THURSDAY Lawson Urges Protest to Release Strikers The Daily Worker, determined to smash through the plans of the Tennessee Coal and Tron Company and their local _hire- lings to suppress news of the big mine strike near Birmingham, has sent the neted American writer, John Howard Lawson. to cover the situation for the “Daily.” Fol- loving is Lawson's first story from the strike zone. hy eee By JOHN HOWARD LAWSON (Special to the Daily Worker) BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 14.—Despite the duty of the National Guard, the 8,000 ore strikers are re- maining out solid. There is continued tension in the Walker and St. Clair Counties Coal Mi he miners see the betrayal of the N. R. A. wage scale which sent twenty-one thousand of them hack to work under William Mite’ (District President of the U. M. W. A.) last agreement with. the operators. This agreement of the A. F. of L. officials did not give the miners the promised wage in- crease and union recognition, ‘The’ Walker County Grand Juty has begun “investigating” the shootings. A large number of wit- nesses have been called. Quiet prevails in the Jefferson County ore area at the moment. Birmingham authorities are using every means to place the blame for the violence on the Com- munist Party. The. strikers are answering the injunction against picketing of the Republic Steel Co., as well as the presence of the Na- tional Guards by mass action. To break the heroic spirit of the 24-hour! Miners’ Joseph R. Brodsky, LL.D. attor- | ney, who tells of terror against Alabama mine strikers in inter- | | view with Daily Worker. i I.L.D. Lawyer Back From Ala. Tells Of Terror | | “Red Scare” Aimed to} Break Strike, Says Joseph Brodsky By SENDER GARLIN | NEW YORK.—The story ‘of bloody terror against the \ striking ore miners near Bir-! 'mingham, Alabama and of a jfrenzy of hysteria against} | militant organizers in the en-| jtire Southern press was brought here by Joseph R. Brodsky, | chief counsel of the International | strikers the police charge a Negro|rabor Defense, who returned yes- worker with attempted rape on the | P oT wife of a Tennessee Coal and Iron) seliiad aa ae ae Selah bop | Co. mine deputy. Officers Cole and ‘With hired thugs, regular and| Moser, heads of the Rad Squad, | special deputies and the National have been assigned to search for | Guard mobilized against the strik-| “the Negro suspect.” The A. F. of L. bureaucrats ar making an intensified drive agai the “Reds,” and to defeat the strike, at the State Convention of the A. F. of L. to be held in Mobile start- ing today. President Moore: an- nounces according to newspaper headlines “The State Convention proposes to organize a state-wide campaign against Communism, which is blamed for engendering violence in the coal and ore strikes.” B. B. Graves, gubernatorial can- didate and former Klan official, will ce at this convention. A. F. of L. leaders have left the strike area to attend the Convention. The Communist Party and the I. L. D. is answering the attacks by issuing fifteen thousand printed leaflets calling on the ore strikers, cafeteris, textile and relief strik- ers to keep their ranks solid and smash the terror by mass picketing. The leaflet demands the withdrawal of the National Guards and calls on the strikers to stay out on strike until they gain union recognition, higher wages, and the release of all militant workers now under ar- rest, In spite of continued threats and more arrests the number of which is “unascertained, the Communist - (Continued on Page 2) |ing miners,” Brodsky told the Daily Worker, “the entire Southern press jis raising the ‘color line’ and the! ‘red scare’ in order to demoralize | the strikers and drive them back to, work.” | Despite the organized campaign | of the press, whose policies are con- trolled for the most part by the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, @ wave of sympathy for the strik- ers swept over the city of Alabama following the killing of four Negro and one white miner, Brodsky re- ported. Negro, White Unity “The unity of the Nezro and white workers is what infuriates the Southern bosses and their press most of all,” the I. L. D. attorney said. Holding up a batch of South- ern newspapers, Brodsky exclaimed: “Look at these headlines and edi- torials, and see how the white rulers of the South have become terrified at the spectre of Negro and white miners organizing together in one union!” A symbol of the growing unity of Negro and white, Brodsky continued, is the fact that the min- ers have elected a Negro as vice- president of their union. “Here's the Birmingham News, (Continued on Page 3) While the New York capitalist press maintains silence on the bitter strike of the Negro and white miners in Alabama, the Birmingham office of the Western Union Telegraph Company has emerged as a censor of news of this tremendous labor struggle now convulsing the South. In this it is undoubtedly doing the bid- ding of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Com- pany. A telegraphic message just received in New York reveals that the Birming- ham, Ala., manager of the Western Union refused to transmit two telegraphic dis- patches to the Daily Worker from its cor- respondent in Birmingham. that the telegrams were being suppressed by the Western Union was confirmed when the editor of the Daily Worker got in telephonic communication with the “Daily” correspondent in Birmingham and learned that the latter had wired last-minute news developments in the strike, with its attendant reign of terror. These dispatches, however, were never re- ceived in the editorial offices of the Daily Worker. The Daily Worker’s demand for an ex- planation, brought the following message from a Mr. Pinkard, Birmingham man- ager of the Western Union: TWO PROPAGANDA DISPATCHES PICKED UP FROM DRUG STORE TO DAILY WORKER NEW YORK STOP THESE DISPATCHES WERE NOT EN- TITLED TO PRESS RATES AND WERE RETURNED TO POST OFFICE BOX NUMBER LEFT BY THE SEN- DER STOP THE SENDER GAVE US NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 1934 Birmingham Western Union Office Suppresses “Daily” Wires On Strike HIGHLY STRICTLY PINKARD. Coal and Iro; suppress new A suspicion South. action of the Western Unio: Added to NO OPPORTUNITY TO PASS ON THE INFLAMMATORY ACTER CONTAINED IN PATCHES AND WE THEREFORE RE- | TURNED THEM TO THE ADDRE | LISTED STOP THE CHAR- THE DIS- | Ss CONTENTS PROPAGANDA SIGNED In the present situation the Tennessee m Company is carrying on a reign of terror not only against its striking workers, but is attempting to s of the strike in order to prevent the men from getting the solidar- ity and support from the thousands of workers throughout the United States, who would be stirred to action by the stories of persecution and terror in the How will the Newspapers Publishers’ Association, with its hypocritical declara- tions about the necessity for “safeguard- ing the freedom of the press” greet this Birmingham office of the n Telegraph Company? the issue of the workers’ rights to strike and picket that is every- now the thr where being challenged by the bosses, is eat to the workers’ press. | These are the methods of Hitler in Nazi Germany, where the labor movement was The workers suppressed, where strikes were crushed | in blood, where press services were placed under the Hitler censorship, opposition newspapers suspended and editors jailed. Are we going to permit this same course to be taken in the United States? must answer with an em- phatie “NO!” Vets Denounce Slanders Of Capital Press Papers Try ‘Red Scare’ to Split Ranks of Bonus March NEW YORK.—A mass meeting of New York veterans will be held today, Tuesday, at 8 p.m. at 69 E. Third St., Manhattan, in prep- News Flash (Special to the Daily Worker) BUFFALO, N. Y., May 14.— Three were shot, scores hurt, in- cluding many women and chil- dren, when deputies and 100 police at- tacked the picket line of 9,000 massed at the Curtiss Aircraft plant here today. The pickets had held their line against a stream of water from a high pres- sure hose. The workers defended themselves with volleys of rocks and stones. The cops used tear and scores were arrested — aration for sending off the next | gas. oan Hing cnt of vets ree for | The ihe ieeicindadl ie ain Washington tomorrow (Wednes- | lay) i ing many scabs in the plant. The | we deen s2'1- police finally drove the pickets from one unused exit, out of which the scabs rushed. “This is only the beginning,” say the strikers, among whom re- sentment is very high. Hitler Cuts Workers’ Pay 25% To Raise Profit for Morgan Co. NEW YOR K-—Startling proof WASHINGTON, May 14.—Fight-! ing the campaign of slanders and | lies emanating from the press here against their struggle for the bonus and their Three-Point Program, the Veterans’ Rank and File Commit- tee yesterday denounced all the press attempts to brand the coming National Convention of the vets and the bonus march as “a Commu- nist plot.” Re-affirming its united front) character, the committee declared in a statement issued to all the capitalist papers: “We see nothing wrong in de- fending any of iis members elected by rank and file acclama- tion. We make no cause or bones about anyone’s race, color, creed or political affiliation. The mem- bers of the committee know this, as does the rest of the world. The Rank and File Committee will not be undermined by false rumors and misleading state- ments. It is our duty a0 function in behalf of the rank and fite vet- erans, by whom we were elected, and we will continue to do so.” | creased by 2,000 to 30,000 during the | that the German Nazis are smash- ing down the standard of living of the German workers in the interest of German and Wall Street bankers is contained here in a financial re- port published in the New York Herald-Tribune of the Morgan- associate of the General Electric Co., the Allgemeine Flektrizitaet | Gesellschaft. 3 “The number of employes,” says the report of this company, “in- year, while the payroll had a sig- nificant reduction of nearly 25 per) cent.” Daily Worker Editor Demands Guarantee Against Further Suppression of Ne CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 54 © As the Daily Worker went to press the folowing message was received signed by R. B. White, president of Western Union: “Your day letter received and matter will be looked into promptly.” NEW YORK.—Following the dis- covery that the Southern offices of the Western Union Telegraph Co. have suppressed or censored mes- sages from the Birm:ngham strike area to the Daily Worker, Clarence Hathaway, editor, today sent a vigorous protest to the president of the company demanding immediate action to end this throttiing of vital) working class news by a Wall Strect ' monoply. “We desire a statement from your office,” Hathaway states to Roy H. White, President of the Western Union,” as we are mak- ws By Western Union PROTESTS TO HEAD OF NEWS-KILLING TELEGRAPH CO. ing public all material pertaining to this high-handed attempt at censorship and the muzzling of the press both in the Daily Worker and in other newspapers.” The American Civil Liberties Union has also issued a statement of protest to the press on this ac- tion of the Western Union. The full text of Hathaway's state- ment follows: Roy B. White, President, Western Union 60 Hudson St. New York City. The Daily Worker registers a vigorous protest againct the action of the Birmingham office of your | company in undertaking to sup- press news dispatches adéressed to our paper, and demands: 1. that the suppressed messages be immediately forwarded to us. — 2. that we be given satisfactory guarantees by your office that this practice will not be repeated by any of your local offices in the South or elsewhere. Frankly, the Daily Worker does not intend to permit local man- agers of the Western Union to become censors of the material sent to our paper. The facts in the case for your information, are the following: After receiving regular reports by wire on the strikes_cf the coal and iron miners during the first part of last week, the reports sud- derly stopped after we had car- ried the stories on tle killing of four strikers by deputies of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Co. On Thursday, Friday and Sat- urday, no reports arrived at our office; no message of any kin* was received from our Birming- ham correspondent. This made us suspicious. On Sunday I check up on the wires that had been filed in Birmingham, but had not been received here. This morning I received the following reply from a Mr. Pinkard. in your office at Birmingham, Ala. “Two propaganda dispatches picked up from drug store to Daily Worker, New York. As dispatches | were not entitled to press rates | and were returned to post office box number left by sender stop the trong Picket S g Pick Line At Flint Fisher Plant Strike Sentiment Strong | in Chevrolet Local Despite AFL Heads (Special to the Daily Worker) FLINT, Mich., May 14.—While| local A. F. of L. officials were pre- paring to go to Detroit to confer with William Collins, National A. F. of L. organizer, in an effort to put an end to the strike of 6,200) workers of Fisher Body Plant No. 1, strikers showed their determina-| tion to carry on militant struggle by throwing strong picket lines around the plant this morning. The strike has been on since Thursday and has forced Buick Co., which employs 14,000, to shut down. Despite efforts of A. F. of L. offi-| cials to hold them back, men struck | against victimization of 25 union members, against reduction of piece | work rates by 25 to 40 per cent and| against unbearable speed-up. For Rank and File Control Though A. F. of L. officials an- nounced demands in the press, workers themselves never voted on them. Last night and this morning a leaflet issued by a committee for | rank and file control of Fisher Body local was distributed to the strikers. The leaflet raises the demand for) a broad rank and file negotiations committee and rank and file con-| trol of the strike. The leaflet pro- poses the following demands: Res- | toration of old piece work rates and guarantee of $1 an hour; election of Avorkers’ committees to regulate! speed-up; rehiring of all workers fired for union activity and for pro- testing reduction of rates; recogni- tion of shop and department com- mittees elected by workers. One Arrested One worker was arrested today while distributing leaflets. A. F. of L. leaders and the Auto- mobile Labor Board have been com- Ppelled to move warily in the sitna- tion, because they realize that the men, after being bamboozied and preven‘ed from taking strike action for weeks, will not fall for the more obvious kind of trickery. However, it is certain that behind closed doors they are moving for a sellout, A. F. of L. leaders are also exert- ing all efforts to narrow the strike down. With sentiment in the Chevrolet A. F. of L. local spreading for join- ing the strike, Meycr Lewis, at a meeting of the local Saturday, 1 the men they muss not taking env such action. The Fiint press has been ca:rving cn a viciou: campsign agrinst the strike. They have printed full-paze advertise- ments of the Fisher Body Co. de- sender gave us no opportunity to (Continued on Page 2) nying all workers’ charges. The CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER (Six Pages) WEATHER: Showers, Cooler Workers Walking Out Price 3 Cents In Defiance Of A. F. of L. Leaders, N. R. A. Boards OVER A THOUSAND STRIKING LONGSHOREMEN picket Pier 14 on the San Francisco waterfront where the enl™nent office for scabs is located. Mounted police with drawn clubs are trying to force the strikers across the Embaradero. 12,000 At Frisco Civic. Center Pledge Support Of Longshore Strike Seamen and Cooks Join, New York Men Prepare in Demonstration to Spread Strike: to With Dockers Other Docks SAN FRANCISCO, May 14—Al-| NEW YORK.—While longshore- though the International Seamen’s; men on the West Side coastwise Union refuses to call a strike, six-| Piers 34 and 37 continued to strike teen ships and an unknown num-| yesterday, preparations were being ber of steam schooners are striking| made by the Rank and File Action under the militant leadership of the; Committee of the International Marine Workers Industrial Union| Longshoremen’s Association and the here in support of the longshore-| Marine Workers’ Industrial Union to men’s strike. | spread the strike to other docks as Yesterday 5,000 striking longshore- | $00n as ships come in from the men and their families, joined by | South. cooks, | striking seamen and hotel paraded to the Civic Center here, where 12,000 met in an enthusiastic demonstration. Despite the opposition of Mike Casey, one of the union leaders, teamsters of this city voted not to handle cargo for the waterfront. Speakers at the demonstration in- cluded Harry Bridges, chairman of the strike committee, A. Shoemaker, Negro longshoreman, Humphries, M. W. TI. U, representative, Chinese and Filipino seamen and members of the strike committee. The crowd cheered enthusiasti- cally as Elaine Black of the Inter- national Labor Defense, Morris, edi- tor of the Western Worker, Bernard of the Typographical Union and Levino of the striking cooks pledged their solidarity with the strikers. William Lewis, district president of the International Longshoremen’s Associaton, was supposedly in con-| ference and did not attend the demonstration. Although leaders of the I. L. A. have been talking about spreading the strike, the longshoremen have very little faith in their leadership The activities of these leaders dur- ling the past few days, their refusal |to allow the men to picket while| | scabs were being brought into the | Worker ao Mul Take Strikes in Own Hands to Stop Betrayals ORGANIZE! United Front Against Fascist Rise Needed By CARL REEVE With unexampled mili- tancy, the workers of the United States are driving for- ward in a rapidly swelling strike wave. The forceful impact of the strike wave of hundreds of thousands of s centered i ndus- jes and in key war In the ma twenty thousand longshoremen ‘in the Gulf and Pacific ports and now in port of New York. additign to several thousand under the Marine Wo: trial Union. Eight thousand Alabama ore min- ers are on strike, together with hun- dreds of Alabama steel workers, coal miners, food workers, ete. More than five thous: Mont copper workers and enginee: and the iron ore min Mesaba range are strike next month. Extent of Strikes The delegates to the national con- vention of the Amalgamated Asso- ciation of Iron, Steel and Tin Work- ers (A. F. of L.), sweeping aside the Tighe machine, voted to prepare strike action in June, if their de- mands are not met. More than four thousand aircraft workers, holding up orders for war and air-mail craft, are on strike in Buffalo and Hartford. In the coal mining industry, on hi of 30,000 soft preparing ers of West Virginia and 21,000 soft coal miners of Alabama, come struggles in Kansas, Ken- tucky and elsewhere. Six thousand Flint, Mich., Fisher Body workers are on strike, tieing up the V Buick plant as well, In all parts of the country, in every industry, packing house, auto, steel, food, shoe and textile workers, | miners and mechanics, oil workers ete., are striking. Demands iers by the Val O'Toole ctive Keeney has aroused considerable|, The workers of the United States, | resentment against the I. L. A dele-| ‘2 What is fast developing into the | gates. | Mallory Company officials admit- | ted that they had 600 strikebreakers | working on the S. S. Iroquois. Demand Ousting of O’Toole It was learned that the scabs were recruited by the Val O’Toole De- tective Agency, 521 Fifth Ave., in Harlem. A sirikebreaking head- quarters was also set up in a loft on the second floor at 108 W. 46th St. {| Working with O'Toole is a pro- fessional slugger, “Whitey” Con- | way, 1114 W. 65th St., who handles | | Secretary Marvin H. McIn Protested Brutality 1 Hae job on the piers. Also working} The meeting unanimously pro-| (Continued on Page 2) tested police brutality. Yesterday a SF | several windows were broken when} a i police provoked demonstrators at! Death List Mounts in Fink Hall. The workers defended | git ve "4 . themselves, ‘The casualties up to| Virginia Transient Fire yesterday totaled four workers in-| jured and four cops treated at the} ,tyNCHBURG, Va., May 14. eee | Deaths from the fire in the Federal The Workers’ International Relief | Transient Bureau shelter here last | has been feeding the strikers with | Morch reached +22 when Jerry Cel- | a traveling sandwich truck. |joway, young Negro worker, died in | The following ships are among|the hospital here ve: Jay. When those striking under the leeders! ip | fire swept the federal fire trap here | of the United Front Seamen's strike| last March, 17 were known to have committee: Oakmar, Admiral Laws, | perished, and more than 70 were |seriously injured in trying to es- | cape. (Continued on Page 2) President Refuses To Hear Plea of Scottsboro Mothers By MARGUERITE YOUNG — | who recentiy sang for the President, (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) | at his invitation, to prayerful white} “ jchurch workers. And only two of WASHINGTON, May 14.—“Speak.| tne many capitalist reporters in the only speak, Mr. President, to bring) press room looked up from their justice to our nine innocent sons, chess and bridge games to listen; facing death since three years. We) they knew th advance that. the mothers and the International Labor| roiners were chenings Gnd wis Defense and thousands of working, é : Moore Explodes Lie of “State people are doing our part, so won't, Jurisdictions” the President do his?” The Scottsboro Mothers made} MclIntyre’s only answer to the this plea in the White Hot today,| plea—“Send us some documents—” but President Roosevelt there|came after Richard Mcore, speak- to hear. He sent his ti 7 the I. L. D., told him: ¢ President telegraphed that; State of Alabama has tion in this but that ¢ correct. The President of the United) . States is under oath to protect the] welfare of the people, and is em- powered by law to act when a State tead, and even from this 3 whi rl testified for instea< Negroes accused of was barred by arms were friends and sympathizcrs of press is also carrying editorials de- signed to demoralize the strikers. the mothers—a score of them vary- ing from a famous Negro soprano} (Continued on Page 2) biggest strike wave in the country’s history, are demanding higher | Wages, shorter hours, against the | speed-up and union recognition. Wages, increased at best only slightly under the N. R. A,, have in reality been reduced because of the | inflationary measures of the N.R.A., | and because of the more than 20 | Per cent increase to the workers in | the cost of living. Wage increases | have not kept pace with high living | costs. Speed up has been intensified | with back-breaking pressure on the | Workers. The promise of the Roose- | velt administration regarding the workers “right to organize” the promises to recognize the “union of the workers own choice,” are now | worn so thin that they can be seen through. In this strike wave, the National Labor Board stands forth as the strikebreaking, union smashing ma- chinery of the employers. The de- cision of the Roosevelt government in the auto industry, engineered Personally by Roosevelt, and the later strikebreaking acts of the Auto La’ Board, have shown up the demagogy of Roosevelt. This decision, dictated by General Mo- tors, and put over with the aid of the A. F. of L. leaders, held off a general strike in the auto industry until the peak production period had passed. The Labor Board de- cision, which sent the Fisher Auto Body strikers back to work without winning their demands, dominated by company unions, and under com- (Continued on Page 3) Rising Prices Slash Food Purchases, A& P Store Reports Show NEW YORK. — Indicating the sharp drop in the amount of food consumed by the vast majority of workers and their families after one year of the Roosevelt govern- ment, the A. & P. grocery stores report that although they have taken in $62,000,000 in sales, the amount of food actually handed out over the counters to consum- ers has dropped 10.1 per cent since last y r soles increased by 2 per cent during this period, indi- cating that the workers and their families are paying more for their foods anc are getting less quan- tities of food per dollar,