The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1934, Page 1

OLD-BLOODED pany gunmen. MURDER and fascist violence against striking workers has become a daily oc- currence, and nation-wide. veston, Wichita, Alabama—all have been the scene of murderous assaults by police, guardsmen and com- In one week eight have been killed, dozens seriously wounded and thousands gassed and San Pedro, Buffalo, Gal- clubbed. Roosevelt’s - R.. A. is speeding ahead toward open fascism. ASCIST violence must be stopped—and NOW!— if fascism is to be prevented. The right of the workers to organize, strike and picket, the right to meet, freedom of speech, a free press—these must be vigorously defended. The masses of the workers must be aroused and, together wit: h the farmers, the masses of the Negro people, and all real anti-fascists, they must call a halt to fascist murder and terror. * * A * BROAD, fighting anti-fascist united front is an urgent need. A vigorous, united protest movement is demanded. The Daily Worker urges its readers UNITED PROTEST ACTION MUST STOP MURDER ATTACKS ON STRIKERS everywhere to take the initiative. Introduce resolutions of protest workers on strike, against terror at all gatherings. grams of protest to Roosevelt and to Congress. mand that terror against th Demand that the workers’ right to strike and picket be recognized! Rally support for Send letters and tele- De- e workers be stopped! NO MATTER HOW SMALL! Order a Daily Worker Bundle for Sale To Those You Know Vol. XI, No. 117 Entered as second-class >* Daily .<QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL ) matter at the Rost Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 4 1679 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1934 WEATHER: Showers, Cooler AMERIC S ONLY WORKING CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents “CONGRESS GETS DEMAND FOR PROBE OF BOSS TERROR Thugs Murder 3 Dock Strikers On Picket Line Police Fired on Men from Stockade Which Housed Scabs GUARDS KILL NEGRO Phila. Lonshoremen Plan Action SAN PEDRO, Cal., May 15. —Two striking longshoremen wore murdered and ten others seriously wounded when po-| lice opened a withering fire on a mass picket line of over 2,000 dock strikers. Word has also reached the strikers here that John Elmore, a Negro longshore- man, was killed by company guards in Galveston, Texas. The dead longshoremen identified as Dick Porter, 20, of San Pedro, shot through the chest; John Knudson, shot through the heart. The strikers ‘were picketing the West Basin docks where ships were moored. They then advanced to- ward a stockade where strikebreak- ers were housed under police protec- tion. Men Shot on Docks Police fired from the stockade. This aroused the strikers. They moved toward the stockade. The fight between strikebreakers and strikers spread from the stockade to the docks where the Grace line ships were berthed. Here the police ‘red point blank into the strikers. The strikers have always picketed (Continued on Page 2) Roosevelt Budget Cuts Half Billion Off Relief Funds Sets Aside Huge Sums for War Building, Bank Payments WASHINGTON, D. C., May 15. —Roosevelt today delivered his ‘udget message to Congress, slash- ing half a billion dollars off orig- inal relief estimates, and earmark- ing hundreds of millions for war purposes and war construction. Deducting appropriations already made, leaving a total of $1,322,- 000,000, Roosevelt asked that from this be deducted $6,095,000 for Fed- eral Land Banks payments, in- ternal revenue service, etc., leav- Ing a total of $1,225,905.000. From this amount $285,000,000 is to be allocated to the Civilian Conserva- tion Corps, whittling down the re- lief appropriation to $940,905,000. This in turn is to be slashed fur- ther by appropriations of $100,- 000,000 for road construction, $48,- 000,000 for the Tennessee Valley Authority, $40,000,000 for naval construction, $35,000,000 for public buildings, $5,000,000 for the inter- American highway, and $325,000 for executive office extension, leav- ing $672,580,000 for “relief” ex- penditures until some time in 1935. That most of the appropriation is to be spent for war purposes Js evidenced from the most cur- sory examination of the Roosevelt projects. Forty millions are to be used outright for naval construc- tion, $48,000,000 for the Tennessee Valley Authority, an undertaking designed to manufacture nitrates, $5,000,000 for the Inter-American Highway, a road trhough Mexico and Central America designed to strengthen the sway .of American imperialism over the subject na- tions of Central America, $285,- 000,000 for the frankly war prep- arations for the militarization of American youth in the C. C. C. camps, and additional millions to the banks and industry. The $1,322,000,000 requested to- day completes the general $3,166,- 000,000 “Recovery Fund” asked by Roosevelt in his budget message to Congress on January 3, 1934. To the bankers will go approximately , $800.000,000 annually as interest for loans under this budget, were | 1 SE SRS General Strike Called Against Police Terror In Guadalajara, Spain GUADALAJARA, Spain, May 15. —tIn protest against police vio- lence, a 24-hour general strike has been called here. The police drew pistols and swords against a pa- rade of metal strikers, in which 32 children of strikers from Mad- rid took part in the parade. M.W.I.U. Calls Protest Against ‘Dock Terror All niin oBramebes to Take Action on Mur- der of Strikers NEW YORK.—The National Bu- reau of the Marine Workers Indus- trial Union issued a call yesterday to all seamen, longshoremen and harbor workers to join with the strikers on the west coast and gulf port towns in a gigantic protest against the wanton, cold-blooded murder of a Negro longshoreman in the port of Galveston by com- pany thugs and the shooting to death of two striking dockers in San Pedro, Cal. “All branches of the Marine Workers Industrial Union, all ship committees and dock committees must at once rally the seamen and longshoremen in protest meetings against the bloody terror that now exists on the docks in California and in the South,” said the call. “Send telegrams of protest to the Mayor and Chief of Police of Gal- veston, Texas, to the Mayor and Chief of Police of San Pedro, Cal., demanding that the terror cease and that the workers be given the right to strike and picket. “Support the strike by refusing to carry or unload scab cargo. Spread the strike to other ports un- der the leadership of rank and file strike committees.” T.U.U.L. Calis for Protest The Trade Union Unity League issued a call to all its affiliated unions to take energetic measures in building up a wide protest move- ment against the bloody terror ex- erted against the striking long- shoremen by the ruling class. “The murder of these longshore- men is part of the general terror with which the capitalists are an- swering the growing strike wave. The protest against this terror must be extended and combined with other working class organiza- tions, International Labor Defense, workers’ clubs, locals of the A. F. of L., etc.” All unions of the Trade Union Unity Council of Greater New York were urged to send wires of pro- test against the murder of long. shoremen to the Mayors of San Pedro, Cal., and Galveston, Texas. A.F.L. Leaders Try to Throttle Strike In Flint Men Hold P Picket Lines While Fakers Secretly Meet With Bosses (Special to the Daily Worker) FLINT, Mich., May 15.—A. F. of L. leaders have begun secret nego- tiations in. an effort to break the strike of 6,000 workers of Fisher Body Plant No. 1 here, who struck last Thursday. This is indicated in a statement issued today by Francis J. Dillon, chief A. F. of L. organizer in Flint, who returned yesterday from Washington. Dil- lon’s statement says nothing about the men’s demands, makes no de- company, but talks about “an ad- justment of this matter that will be satisfactory to employees and employers.” Dillon also conferred _ secretly yesterday with Richard L. Byrd, A. F. of L. representative on the Automobile Labor Board. A move is reported under way to bring in the strike-breaking Labor Board officially tomorrow. All these nego- tiations are taking place in an at- mosphere of unusual secrecy and the men are being kept completely in the dark as to what is going on. Strikers Continue Fight Despite sabotage of A: F. of L. officials, strikers are continuing militant picketing, with the com- i pany attempting to bring in scabs with the aid of police. Police to- day attacked pickets who were at- tempting to keep out scabs. While the A. F. of L. leaders are trying to throttle the strike, which broke out despite their strenuous efforts to prevent it, the Buick Company announced this morning that all departments with the ex- ception of the assembly line were resuming operation today. Whether this is actually so could not be learned. The Buick plant, employ- ing 14,000, had been compelled to shut down by the Fisher Body strike. The strikers are demanding res- toration of the old wage rates, which had been cut 25 to 40 per cent, reinstatement of victimized workers, slowing down of speed-up, and union recognition. These de- mands can be won only if the men take the strike into their own hands, elect a broad rank and file strike committee representing every department, increase picket lines and stick together, refusing to be tricked by A. F. of L. leaders and the Labor Board. Communist Elected in Wisconsin Vote Vote Shows Tremendous Rise Over Last Year PHELPS, Wisconsin, May 15.— Running on a united front Workers’ and Farmers’ ticket, leading mem- bers of the Communist Party here have been elected to local office. The total Communist vote rose tre- mendously from last year. Edwin Stenback, Communist, was elected Township Clerk, with 295 votes against his opponent’s 190. Paul Kallio, non-Party member on the united front ticket, received | 300 votes against his opponent's 212. For the ofice of chairman, the Communist candidate received 198 votes against his opponent's , losing the office by three votes. NEW YORK.— The famous old light ship Nantucket was sunk at 11 a.m, yesterday off the dangerous shoals of Nantucket and seven of its crew are dead after the ship was rammed by the White Star Liner Olympic as she was speeding through a dense fog toward New York. Only three of the crew were saved. The dead are: Perry, engineer; J. F, Richmond, oiler; A. Montiro, second cook; I. Pino, cook; M. S. Rodriguez, sea- man; J. Fortes, seaman; FE. B. George, seaman. Those rescued were: George W. Braithwaite, captain: C. E. Mosher, first mate; W. W. Nantucket Lightship Rammed And Sunk By Olympic; 7 Die at an angle, ripping it from stem to stern. Captain J. W. Binks of the Olympic reported that he was ploughing through a heavy fog fol- lowing the radio directional beam sent out by the Nantucket Light Ship. What speed the Olympic was making in the perilous waters off the Nantucket shoals was not stated in Captain Binks radio report of the disaster. But all reports indicate that the crash could have been avoided had the ship been moving at a slower speed and if more careful attention had been given by the navigation officers to the radio beam sont out by the light ship. The snip was Perry, radio op2rator; Robert, oiler. The Olympic struck the Nantucket | ebviously riding too close to the ra- dio beam mands, makes no criticism of the j NOTED SOVIET SCIENTIST Professor Otto Schmidt, who ar- rived in Washington yesterday, on his way to the U. S. S. R. Schmidt, Hero Of Chelyuskin, In Washington To Be Guest of Soviet Envoy Before Leaving for Soviet Union By SEYMOUR WALDMAN (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, D. C., May 15.— Professor Otte Yulevich Schmidt, forty-three-year old Arctic explorer, the head of the Soviet expedition which unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate the North Eastern pas- sage from Leningrad to the Pacific in one season in the semi-icebreaker Chelyuskin, arrived here today ac- companied by G. A. Ushakov, his rescuer, also a distinguished Arctic scientist. The expedition ended when the Chelyuskin was crushed; in the ice north of Behring Strait on February 13, Both explorers came here from the West, on their way home via Washington and New York. They will stay in the capital for a few days as guests of Ambassador Alex- “Ed A. Troyanovsky of the U. S. A few moments after the train came to a full stop, Professor Schmidt, smiling and looking fully recovered from his attack of pneu~ monia, contracted during the lat- ter days of his experiences on the ice floes, stepped from the plat- form, but a few paces from the Soy- iet Embassy welcoming group headed by the Ambassador, the latter shak- ing hands and kissing Schmidt on the cheek in true Russian style. Introductions to the Soviet staff followed all around. The Professor and his handsome, youthful rescuer seemed to enjoy the experience of posing, with Am- lor _Troyanovsky, Mrs. Troy- anovsky and some members of the staff, for the newspaper photo- graphers, And after a few more pictures, some of which featured the Profes- (Continued on Page 6) Electric Company Paid Thayer on Sly, Probe Of Power Graft Finds ALBANY, N. Y., May 15.—Indi- cation of the shady character of Senator Warren T. Thayer's deal- ings with the Associated Gas and Electric Company in the past six years, duirng which he received a salary of $21,000, was indicated today when the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is conducting a half-hearted investigation, found that Thayer’s name had not been listed in the company’s books. Thayer was head of the Sen- ate’s utility committee, supposedly for the purpose of safeguarding the public from exorbitant gas- electric rates, at the time he re- ceived payment “for services ren- dered” to the power trust, Call National Guard To Smash Shoe Strike MOBERLY, Mo., May 15.—The National Guard was ordered by Governor Guy B, Park to be in readiness to smash the strike of ‘he Brown Shoe Co. workers here. City officials and borses of the company made the request to the Governor. The 1,224 workers on strike had remained idle at their machines until the bosses were forced to close the plant Many In Spain Take Up Fight for Thaelmann Scientists Sign Protests Mass Demonstration in Czechoslovakia PARIS, (By Mail) —On the ini- tiative of the Spanish Committee Against War and Fascism, a Re-/ lease Committee for Ernst Thael- mann, leader of the German Com- munist Party, and the persecuted German anti-fascists has been| formed. A number of leading bour- geois newspapers in Madrid, the “Heraldo de Madrid,” “El Liberal,” “La Tierra,” “La Libertad,” as also a great many provincial newspapers, have published a protest declaration against the Nazi terror, signed by prominent intellectuals. This protest has been drawn up by 17 well known scientists and scholars, members of the “Scientific Atheneum of Madrid,” headed by Antonio Machado and Rafael Lainez Alcala. It is an extremely impres- sive declaration, and makes a spe- cial demand for the immediate re- lease of Thaelmann and Torgler. NG In connection with the action for Thaelmann, signatures are being collected in a number of places in Gzechoslovakia. In the Graslitz dis- triet 2,860 signatures have already been collected for Thaelmann's re- lease, in the Neudeck district 930. The lists with their many signatures are sent in to the German embassy in Prague. Protests demanding the release of Thaelmann have also been adopted, and sent to the German embassy in Prague, by great anti-fascist demonstrations in Kladno, Schlan, Neustralsev, and Ruzomberok, Vets in Radio Plea Call for Unity in Fight for Bonus New Groups Arriving| Daily for Long Bonus Fight BULLETIN There will be a mass meeting at Union Square this morning (Wednesday) at 11 a.m., in sup- port of another contingent of New York vets who are leaving for Washington today at 2 p.m. to join the fight for the cash payment of the bonus. All workers and sympathizers are urged to at- tend. ee le (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, May 15.—“We are here for our back pay and the repeal of the Economy Act. We will push this fight until we win,” Harold Hickerson, secretary-treas- urer of the Veterans’ National Rank and File Convention, scheduled to open on May 17 at Fort Hunt, Vir- ginia, declared last night over a hook-up of the Columbia Broad- casting Co. Other speakers on the radio program were George Alman and James J, Beatty, both well- known bonuseers who are on the Rank and File Committee. The right to the radio facilities were won by the vets through their mili- tant demands. Vet leaders expect a registration influx late this afternoon because many of the ex-soldiers have just received their work relief checks. “The registration is keeping pace with the registration of last year, when the total was close to 1,000,” Hickerson informed the Daily Worker. In the conclusion of his radio ad- dress Hickerson stated: “To you who have been stopped on your way to Washington the com- mittee wishes to bring to your at- tention the fact that the Cons‘itu- tion guarantees you the right to come to the Capital and petition Congress. However, the necessity for maintaining order and discip- line no ma‘ter what happens must be borne in mind at all times, no! matter what the provocation. “This is an occasion when we can prove once more to our peo- ple, whether they be workers, farmers or others, that though many of us have suffered much in the years since the war, there are seme things they can never fake from us—our courate, cur determination and our ory will to see this thing threvgh. Buddies and comrades, we'll see ® AN “Daily.” dispatch written in plain Englisi.” the workers’ struggles. EDITORIA Mr. Willever also gave a statement to the United Press saying: “The telegraph company has no right to refuse any bona fide news In his conversation with the “Daily” editor, Mr. Willever ignored the quite obvious collusion between his local Birmingham manager and the Tenessee Coal and Iron Company’s hirelings, and attributed the suppression of the stories to “bad judgment” on the part of the local manager. However, he assured us that instructions had been sent out which would prevent the exercise of such “bad judgment” by the Bir- minghem or other local offices in the future. The Daily Worker accepts both the apology, and the promise. the same time we give warning that we will be much more vigilant in the future against any encroachments on our right to record and lead Western Union Apologizes! C. WILLEVER, vice-president of the Western Union Telegraph Co., p Pata thoroughly investigating the Daily Worker’s charge that their Birmingham office had deliberately suppressed vital strike news filed for our paper, has verbally tendered the company’s apologies to the At Strike Talk Grows my T.C.I. Company Camps By JOHN HOWARD LAWSON (Special to the Daily Worker) BIRMINGHAM, Ala. May 15.— The Highway Bridge between Coal Valley and Oakman in Walker County was dynamited, by provo- cateurs probably, and the offices of the International Labor Defense were wrecked by police and Ameri- can Legion gangs here today as the strike situation grows more tense. Despite an intense drive of terror- ism, the Communist Party is hero- ically distributing thousands of leaflets on the terrorism and the strike situation, as hundreds of Negroes and white workers rally around the Party in its fight against the big coal companies. There is open talk of the pos- sibility of guerilla warfare if the strike grows. Strike talk is spread- ing among the Tennessee Coal and Iron workers. A fierce assault is being made in the press against the Communists. The Birmingham News quotes chief of police Collums as saying of the Communists: “We will make a list of all rad- icals, arrest them, fingerprint them, and then drive them out Birmingham if they can’t co- operate with the government. If they want to go to Russia, let them.” A total of 50 miners have thus far been arrested in connection with the murder of two strikers by two deputies. The sheriff's office placed a guard around Walker County Hospital, as- serting that a group of men, sup- posedly strikers, tried to enter the room of Jim Lakey, a wounded spe- cial deputy. Lakey and Rogers Swindle, a miner, were wounded in a gun battle. Both continue in a grave condition. Judge Ernest Lacey today charged the Walker County Grand Jury, “Circumstances are such they call for a thorough investigation.” Another bombing in Birmingham (Continued on Page 2) Birmingham Legion | Wrecks ILD Office; 50 Miners Held d By y Sheriff’ Monday tore a hole in the floor of} Breeden, Strikers’ Lawyer, Kidnaped, Beaten in Brawley, Police Aggravated Over| Gettle But View This Crime Serenely (Special to the Daily Worker) | SAN DIEGO, Cal., May 15.—Wil-| mer Breeden, International Labor Defense attorney, who is represent- ing Hancock and Ray, Imperial Val- ley strike leaders who have been sent to prison for six months, was kidnapped and beaten in broad daylight, today, scarcely 80 yards from the Justice’s Court in Brawley. The crime was committed by vigilantes, who cut the tires of Breeden’s car and put meal in his gas tank. The local police are com- pletely indifferent to this latest fas- cist outbreak. A great intensification of the ter- ror against Imperial Valley workers is now in progress. General Pelham Glassford, the former police chief of the District of Columbia, who en- gaged in the attack on the veterans during the first bonus march, and who has been sent down by the Na- tional Labor Board to adjust mat- ters for the bosses, is encouraging the terror. His attitude and the attitude of | the police authorities in the face| of the repeated assaults and napings of workers and their rep- resentatives is in glaring contrast} to the attitude of the authorities in the same territory in the case of the kidnaping of William F. Gettle, millionaire oil profiteer. The full force of the law has been thrown out to catch his kidnapers, andj} three have already been caught. The whole state of California is being searched for the kidnapers. In the case of the workers, how- ever, the police, it seems, are un- aware of what is going on. First ‘Air-Train’ Flies in USSR; Moscow-Crimeal light Planned (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, May 16 (By Radio).— A special i airplane with three gliders in tow— appeared for the first time in a flight over Moscow yesterday. It rede sever>l circles over the city at you in Washing... @ height of approximately 1,000 meters, and after a two-hour flight returned to i's airdrome. In the near future this first air train, with its present crew, intends to fly from Moscow to the Crimea. This will be the first flight in the |Protest | terror Lundeen Introduces Bill To Investigate Attacks On Strikers Thruout U.S. A. Congressman Scores Gun Rule in Ala., Other Centers ACTION DEMANDED Movement Grows in Nation By MARGUERITE YOUNG (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15.—A resolution authorizing immediate Congressional in- |vestigation of the killing of and the “extreme of the police, militia and special armed deputies” in breaking picket line: the Ala- bama iron ore fields and elsewhere, was introduced today by Represen— strikers tative Ernest Lundeen, Farmer- Laborite, of Minnesota “The: recent- acts of police and private armies against str a piece of barbarism,” Lundeen de- clared in an interview with the Daily Worker. “They constitute a |crfme against American labor,” he | said. Reciting conditions, the resolution declares: Lundeen’s Resolution “Whereas, newspaper reports come ing from Birmingham, Alabama, | state that 8,000 iron ore miners are striking in the mines controlled by the Tennessee Coal and Iron Cor- poration, and other large Alabama mining interests, “Whereas, according to said press reports, police and special armed | deputies and National Guard and other state and national troops are being used against the strikers, de- ' priving them of their rights to strike and peacefully picket; “Whereas, during the past week, according to said reports, many striking miners have been killed, numerous strikers wounded and the picket lines broken by the extreme terror of the police, militia and special armed deputies; “Whereas, the machinery of the government should be used to pro- tect the farmers and workers in the natural course of their work and duties, guaranteeing them the right to exercise their inalienable rights as free citizens; Employers’ Private Armies “Whereas it is common practice, and it frequently happens, that force and violence and terror are (Continued on Page 2) ' All-White Jury Is Picked for Trial of 6 Chicago | Workers Defendants Framed for Protesting Against Relief, Jim-Crowism (Daily Worker Midwest Bureau) CHICAGO, Ill, May 15.—Six workers faced an all-white jury in the Criminal Court in Chicago to- day on charges of assault with in- tent to murder, and conspiracy, The charges were framed up fol- lowing a vicious police attack on a demonstration of Negro and white workers at a relief station on the South Side a year ago. Today's court session was occu- pied with selecting a jury. Two Negroes on the panel, one a mem- ber of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, were rejected by the prosecution without even being questioned after they had been accepted by the de- fense. The court room was packed with workers, who answered the call of the International Labor Defense to show their solidarity with the de- fendants. The defendants are David R. Pointdexter, Henry Coe, Jesse Smith, Charles Hampton, Delia Page and Mae Wernick. They are being tried in the court of Judge Allegretti at 26th St. and California Ave. world in which three gliders are towed over so great a distance, is i The defense will begin to present its evidence Wednesday, %