The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 16, 1934, Page 5

{ poeecins , { ‘me fifth senatorial district. Chicago C. P. Names Roosevelt Uses Misery of the Drought to Clamp |New at or “Negro A, A. A. Yoke on Small, Impoverished Farmers T Jailed Negro Jobless Leader Fo Close to 300. Delegates r Congress Expected at New Haven C. P, Nominating Meet Today and Tomorrow CHICAGO, Ill, June 15 militant ployed leader now serving a sentence of from-one to five years in Joliet named a candidate the Communist y ticket at the nominating con- vention of the Second Congressional District a few days ago. The In- ternational bail to release Pointdexter pending his appeal, Claude Lightfoot and Lucius Arm- strong were nominated for state as- “emply and senate respectively from —David jot is a well-known fighter in the een active on the South Side of Chicago for several years. He is one of the ers of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights and sec- tion organizer of the Young Com- munist League. Lightfoot polled 33,000 votes when he ran for the Same position in 1932. Armstrong a former steel worker, is section or- | @anizer of Section Seven of the! Communist Party. Oliver Law and Isidore Merlin were also nominated for assembly to run with. Lightfoot. Armstrong made the main speech of the convention, discussing condi- tions in the Chicago Black Belt. He pointed out very sharply the need for the most energetic fight against segregation and rotten relief, and told. of the leadership of the can- didate nominated in such struggles in the past Forty conference, representing 23 working Class groups. The majority of those present took the floor and voiced their support of the Communist pregram and the candidates, It was decided to call another conference, July 1, 10 a.m. at 6 W. 44th to secure an even broader Support for the ticket. Bob Minor will speak at this conference. ae ait A conference to elect Communist Party candidates in the Seventh Congressional District of Chicago for the November elections, where 69 delegates representing 29 organi- zations unanimously endorsed the candidates and platform, was held at Wickers Park Hall several days . A nomination speech, made D. Brown, in the name of the Org. Committee, nominating for Con- gress, A. Gus3, Was met with a spontaneous demonstration which lasted for several minutes, The nomination of Schellenberger, made by delegate Delinky, as Senator for the 23th natorial Distriet, and the nominations of the Assemblymen, made by the delegate Jay, were met with similar response. Negro unem- | abor Defense is raising | Light- | ‘two delegates attended the | The most dramatic part of the conference was when C, W. Sta marked, “I am an Irishman, half of my family were either exiled or executed fighting for the freedom of Ireland. I am ready to sacrifice as much for the freedom of the workers of this country.” The conference elected a commit- tee of 25 to carry on the campaign |in the congressional district and elected delegate Delinky campaign manager. The conference went the state | | on record | indorsing ticket and s of the working class and has| Pledged to work hard for the elec- | | tion of the candidates. This is the second conference held so far for the nomination of | our Congressional and Senatorial | candidate Other conferences will be held in the 6th Congressional | District, Saturday, June 16th, at | Liberty Hall, 1405 So. North Ave., 4th Congressional District, at 4006 West Roosevelt Road. On June the | | 17th conferences will be held in the | 9th Congressional District, at 548 Wisconsin, the 8th Co: sional District at Walshes Hail, the 3rd | Congressional District and 5th Con- gressional District. All working class organizations are asked to send Gelegates to those united front con- ferences to map out a platform for | the coming elections and to nomi- nate working class candidates for the Communist Party ticket. Other candidates nominated are: Hanz W. Pfeiffer, Clara Speer, Wesley James Harrick, Bernard Gosse, Jr, Andrew Russo. Campaign Tag Days The Communist Party Election Campaign Committee set Tag Days for June 16 and 17. The Election | | | to all workers and working class or- | 8anizations to esd to one of the |above listed Tag Day stations to |help in the collection of funds. The Election Committee is at the samé time issuing an appeal for done- tions and contributions from indi- viduals to be forwarded to Election Campaign Committee, 101 So. Wells St. Room 705, Chicago, Il. List of Tag Day Stations for June 16 and 17 808 Van Buren St., 1323 Blue Is- Jand Ave., 1806 S. Racine Ave., 1118 W. Madison St. 1842 W. Cermak Rd. 4004 W. Roosevelt Cermak Rd., Rd.. 2741 W. 1624 Lawndale Aye., (Continued ow Page 8) ton, in his acceptance speech re- | Cicero, Ill. On the same date in the | Camj:2ign Committee is appealing! 1951 W. Polk 8t., | Gov't Buys Cattle and. Turns Funds Over to Creditors HE poor farmers are suf- fering the worst drought jin the history of the United States. The boss- and govern- ment-controlled press is now {forced into a partial admis- | sion of the seriousness of the | situation. Mr. Hopkins, relief ad- | ministrator, states that “This in- vol the most serious disaster that has ever occurred in this countr: | That conditions are “just terrible” has to he admitted by Secretary Wallace. Thirty-five states are af- fected, of which 20 are affected se- | riously. The wheat crop is esti- mated at only 500,000,000 bushels. | Many sections have a total ‘oD failure. Grass has withered. Ponds, creeks and wells have dried up. The country has been swept by ; dust storms. Cattle and stock are | without feed and water. | The government, the New Deal,' jhas known that a terrible drought | | existed for weeks, but has tried to hide the fact, and still conceals its great extent. Not only this but it has delayed its meagre relief until | irreparable damage has become! widespread | Putting Through A. A. A. The drought exposes the A. A. A, Agricultural program, showing it in| all of its nakedness as a scheme for crushing out of production two or three million small and middle} farmers. Drought destruction is to| a considerable degree still beyond human control. But Roosevelt's) destruction campaign of the New! Deal in agriculture is man-made, is) capitalist made. | Not only this but Roosevelt is | now using the drought as 2 means to help put through the A. A. A, reduction and destruction, Farmers are being forced to agree to the reduction campaign in order | to be eligible for benefit payments. The payments for slaughtering cattle is only a bounty, from $4 to; $8 for calves under a year, from $10 to $20 for older stock. The small farmers will receive the smaller price for their starving stock. But these payments go in large part to| the creditor. And most of the stock | is mortg@ged. The government, a large creditor, thus pays bonuses to itself. | The forcing of the small drought | ruined farmers to — subsistence- starvation farming is being pushed by the government relief agencies. Thousands of farm families will be permanently removed from their home farms in this manner, if the government plans are allowed to go | through. Rich Farmers Profit The main part of the $50,000,000; ulators as usual are using this s drought relief appropriation will be) tion to make huge profits out of the nishing ar Elsa aii van (ZZ neoutur Becoming serious Ni (Jy terrae _asour nornmar a | This is a general picture of the drought area, where cattle are dying of dust pneumonia, ond families are euffering for food and water. In piaces buildings have been partially covered in dust drifts. The drought now covers a wider territory than shown in the map. used not for direct relief but for the purposes of pushing throuzh program of the New Deal, of ti bankers, Loans will be made main to the large, well-to-do farme Just as little as possible is to be used upon those who need it most the small and ruined middle farm- ers. Roosevelt wants to get rid them any’ why should he them relief? Assistant Sec. Tugwell has already stated that 2,000,000 farmers should be taken out of pro- duction. the Only the fear of the Mass revolt of these farmers forces the little amount of relief which they ceive, and only the mass str these ruined farmers will the amount of relief. Roosevelt says danger of famine, famine is groundless. inereace there is no that fear of He wants it that, restated that there is plenty to eat Ye in the United States. Yes, there plenty to eat. but millions of work ers, their wives and children are underfed or actually starving. There is plenty to eat, but what does this mean to the drought ruined farmers, who have everything wiped ou’ cattle, chickens, den and all? / large pert of the slaughtered cattle, perhaps one half, will be buried on the farms because the government negiected the situation .until the eattle were already dying from thirst, and starvation. Estimates are that 2,900,000 head will be killed. How many hungry people, in this land of plenty, would this have fed if properly taken care of? This drought not only poor farmers, but i hits the is estimeted city worke: upon agri- will be it that large numbers of denend for who ordinarily cultural products mployed. the a ers will suffer severely i workers al rais¢d beeause of “scarc land of “plenty to eat.” wo’ in this Foot spec- calls for the re A. and embodies needs of the farmers tian. What a con- ra Capitalism, the New Deal, the A. A. A., the N. R. destruc- |tion and oppression for the poor mers and workers, help to the The Party, an jimmediate fi ‘am of re- lief, a ficht for t permanent | Jence of all drough cash relief for the ua-| drought stricken farmers. The fur- plan of destruction solution of the problems of t the drought s of and starvation and peor farmers ty mess mo that this gov nd the rich who are r plenty to eat in Thousands Starving As Roosevelt Gives No Cash Relief forage supplies at expense the government from the s storage, in the hand ers and large farm Production loans the ruined wherever and without interest farmer ers, none to the mo lief to be a ase price of to be set by comm farmers themselves Demand the repeal o Al intensified on a nation-wide lief and prevent unto the poor farmers campa be linked with th fight of the city for re- ief and against the R. A., for the passage of the Workers Unem- ployment Insurance Bill (H. R !7598) and against the whole Roose- velt New Deal) cr the oon sho = i RoreignBorn Group cash relief to the A. A. A. stricken, . . on 13 Nine as Fights Deportation this Party Relief Program st to this Comm m of stru to the Ro: rther i ms, Emergeney Relief ch ploited . for demonstrations. | region. An to co-ordinate the figh' lief is needed, The Unite: League Convention, on -|must receive wide support as a ground for the fight for ricken farmers. Demand and fii of immediate feed and the use of up the Bill he ex- a relent- nst the exploit- to be done? s throughout the | ional confer- stricken farm- ht for immediate | small and middle and | throughout Committee Asks Release of + Party put | geie for of Berkman, Others —A call to all work- their demands for the cancellation of deportation Warrents against Jack Schneider, Edith Berkman, -Sam Paul, William Zazuliak, Anna Zazuliak and others held for deportation for activity in working-class struggles issued yesterday oy the Committee for the | Protection of Foreign Born. Protest telegrams should be sent immediately to Secretary of Labor Perkins in Washington. Protests should also be made of a bill for right of asylum for Ozarist Rus- siens now before Congress ‘embers of the Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born have re- cently returned from Washington where they presented their demands to federal authorities for the freeing of foreign born workers arrested for NEW YORK ers to intensify SEVILLE, Spain, June 15.—A 48-| hour general strike was declared here todey in the face of police] terror that has resulted in the arrest of over 250 workers in the past ten) davs | The Civil Governor of Seville has taken the leed in applying ruthless | force to the suppression of the strike of farm laborers still raging | Spain (This is the first of a series of | Sometimes the strike pickets would | four articles for the Daily Worker starting today. This will be fol- lowed by a more detailed article in the July COMMUNIST.) HE Toledo events and ex-; | |THE A. F. of L. officialdom did periences, with the great militancy, determination and fighting ability displayed by the masses, notwithstanding tremendous odds at times, makes this one of the great- est. events in the history of the Toledo labor movement. Occuring at a time when tremendous mass Struggles are sweeping the country, @ successful Toledo general strike would have lent impetus to the ma- turing class battles, particularly the steel strike. The Background Developments Last February a strike struggle | took place involving these same auto parts shops. They were maneuvered back to work with a 5 per cent wage increase and a promise that by April. ist further consideration would be given their cases by the employers and the Labor Board April 1st came, but nothing hap- pened. They were given new prom- ises. In the second week of April the workers in the Electric Auto- Lite’ Company, the Logan Gear and Bingham Stamping Co. struck un- der the leadership of the American Federation of Labor. The Auto- Lite factory is the largest, em- Ploying 2,000 workers. The main demands of the strik- ers were a 10 per cent. increase in wages and recognition of the union, The strike was poorly organized end led. The outstanding leader, a business agent by the name of Thomas Rainsey, to whom we will devote considerable space later, had Sold out the. February strike, but roved himself a clear left phrase- monger, adapting himself to the moods of the masses in order bet- ter to betray them. Within two weeks after the strike. was called, about 1,200 had already returned to work and the company was hir- ing additional scabs. Prior to the big events, the plant was practically running at normal as far as pro- duction was concerned. The 600 to 700 strikers were for all intents and purposes, prior to the mass fights, blackiisted workers. The company had secured an injunction which limited picketing first to six and later to 25 at each gate. The A. F. of L. leadership lived up to injunction to the letter. The picket- ing conducted by the union, even on such a basis, was very irregular. The Party, through its influence in the Unemployed Councils, initi- ated moyements for mass picketing and smashing of the injunction. These efforts took place over a period of weeks, and resulted in from 190 to 200 being mobilized in @ picket line in front of the plant. ie join, Other times, under the ditec- tions of Ramsey, they would hold aloof from the non-striker pickéts mobilized by the Unemployed Coun- | cil and Communist Party, Ree * everything possible to keep the officially recognized handful of in- effective pickets from becoming a | down by the U. C, under slogans of | “mass picketing,” violation of the injunction,” “close down the plant,” | ete. Even during this time, Ram- | sey pointed out leading Communists to the police as people who were not strikers—who were outsiders, etc, In these preliminary struggles he local C. P. organizer was ar- rested and chased off the picket line several times because of such ac- tions, Miniger Led Bosses The employers, particularly Mini- ger of the Auto-Lite Co., with the full support of the National Auto Chamber of Commerce, were de- termined to smash the strike, have nothing to do with the strikers and their union and to build a company union. As weeks passed by the strikers were much more receptive to our slogans. In the week prior to May | 21, we determined, in view of the growing disgust of the strikers for the methods of the A. F. of L. leaders, to initiate an intensive | drive for mass picketing on Mon- day morning, May 21. Leaflets were issued, signs were made, meetings were organized. A trial of two com- rades for violating the injunction was utilized to reach strikers in the court room. At this moment, the Musteites also entered the sit- uation through Budenz and Cope. In order to try and gain some in- fluence, for a strategy to be later explained, they also raised the slogan for mass picketing for Mon- day. The first big response came at the Monday . afternoon shift when a couple of thousand gathered on the picket line and began to harass the scabs as they left and entered the Plant. That night passed without any head-on collision, although it was clear the situation was becom- ing more tense. The next day, the crowd had nearly doubled. Thou- sands of strike sympathizers (the strikers themselves only numbered 600 to 700) began to gather in front of the plant and formed a solid mass picket line around the plant. The scabs were kept in the plant because of the mass picket line, Then, under the guidance of police ; and deputies they were released. The strikers and sympathizers be- gan to make known their presence. The police and deputies charged, which resulted in the first real bat- tle in. which the workets didn't come out the worst. Over twenty compeny autos were wrecked, Hun- part of the larger group brought | They faced rifle fire and tear gas. The heroism of the Toledo workers was superb. (Left) A Na- tional Guardsman flinging a tear gas bomb at a Toledo picket line. have been torn out by an exploding tear gas bomb. (Right )A worker whose eyes dreds of scabs were beaten up. All strikers arrested were freed from police clutches by the militant workers, In the course of this bat- tle the first tear gas charge twas made by the deputies from the Auto-Lite plant, All the traffic cons were rushed to the scene of battle. Throughout the battle two generals of the National Guard, sent as ob- servers by Adj. Gen. Henderson, were onlookers. Wednesday the mass picket line still grew. On Wednesday the police and deputies grew bolder and tried to disperse the militant, determined workers by wholesale throwing of tear gas bombs and shooting by deputy sheriffs from the windows of the plant. There Also occurred the throwing of a barrage of iron nuts and bolts from the factory windows. One of thesé hit one of the woman pickets causing severe injury to her facé. Around this issue there. occurred great resentment which stirred up the fighting moods of the masses. The masses began to rush the factory, determined in their anger to clear out every scab and tear down the building. whieh symbolized their class enemy. From 8 o'clock Wednesday afternoon un- Militancy of Workers Grows = | til 7 o'clock Thursday morning, when the Natiohal Guard arrived, | @ running battle took place with thousands of workers up all night. The scabs never left the plant. The deputies and police fired tear gas bombs from guns into the crowd. The crowd answered with bricks. Streets for blocks around didn’t have a brick left in them, Women; carried bricks to the men. Others broke the large bricks into handier sized weapons. There wasn’t window left in one entire side of the Auto-Lite building. through these windows that the deputies were constantly firing their tear gas bombs and guns.) Sevsral workers were badly injured that night and scores overcome by gas. How many deputies and scabs suf- fered is only known to themsolves. Extracts from the Toledo Blade of May 24 gives further description, colored, of cours?, by the class ap~ proach of this- newspaper: “The first tear gas was re- Jeased from the factory at 3:30 Pm. Wedneday.... Many were ecected and men and women were seen lying ih the stract, eufforins from the fumes ...... Shortly after midnight strikers broke into the plant at. three different places nest the nerih end of the strne- ture. They gained entrance by creeping along th: walls and climbing through broken windows. +.» After this melee, deputies were placed on guard at this sector, armed with fawed-of shotsuns and ordered to shoot any intrud- ers in the legs.... A dangerous situation existed as darkness feil end tho supply of tear gas ran low. Members of the mob became bolder and stormed at the doors of the plant, breaking down one gate, The shower of missles was endless and the crowd gathered closer as darkness fell. A supply of tear gas taken into the plant by police after dark saved a dan- serous situation and enabled those besieged to withstand rep2eted at- tacks from the enomy.... The situation became tense. A ship- ment of tear gas received at the Trarscontinental Airport at 8:30 Pm. was taken into the plant by the police, This arrived just as the mob was breaking into the employment office About 9 p.m. and was used to drive thom back. There were fiftsen cases in the shipment accempanied by addi- tional pistols of vorieus range. Workers were sent from the plant buildings into a cotttyard and shertly afterward a stecl gate was tern down near the emp!oyment offices, After the rioters were driven away by ges, a machine £un was motinted at the gate. ... | learned of organization. Merrill iberator” Tells ot Paper's Significance Merrill C. Work Has Been Teacher, Steel Worker, Grand Central “Red Cap,” Jobless Organizer By HELEN KAY ROM scho tos worker, from Red Cap in Grand Central Station to or- | teacher to steel ganizer for the League, worker and organizer to the from unempl MERRILL C. WORK climax, business manager of the Negro Liberator, Merril C. Work’s 29 years have been full of revolutionary lessons, 1 the heart of the South Tenn his father, John k. one of those few Negroe Jeaders who fought against the Uncle Tomism of Booker T. Wash- ington, Merrill learned early of the position of the Negro in capitalist America. That is why he is help- ing to launch the Negro Liberator, at a united front conference of Ne- aro and white orgenizations to be held this Saturday, June 16, at the St. Phillips A. M. E. Church in Har- lem at 2 p.m While a freshman at Fisk Uni- versity, where his father was head of the History and Latin Devart- ment and organizer of the world famous Fick Quartet, Merrill Work the r Work, and George Streeter, at present editor of the Crisis, agitated for the removal of the white col- lege President Fayette Avery Mc- | Kenzie for his anti-Negro speeches Secret agitation was carried on in clubs and class rooms against} the President. In the eight venrs of the President vy at the uni- versity from 1917-1927 he caused the expulsion of nearly 100 students and | | professors. finally resigned and My father became president of a rival in tion, the Roger Willam,” stated Merrill he threw his mind Streeter was and asked he coflege. I re- ke in December, 1924, was when Kenzie called 30 cops in to break and they treated the The the imme rie. l of McKen- uch as fra= they were and a Negro ma- culty the fa on Right here is where I got unity workers the my of Ne- could nding of the gro and white happen right in heart of the South. I saw it The stu- dents of Vanderbilt University came out and demonstrated with us for our. demands. W. E. Du Bois Ci wrote inders It then the letters counsel, He urged that ask He the for everything at od dissipate the force He held off the ba 80 that President McKenzie was not removed for six months, and in that time- many of the strikers were terrorized and driven from school. Our main demand, a Negro Presi- dent, was not won, due to this.” Then Merrill Work’s life was one of a fighter continually battling for Negro rights. He taught school in a little village called Murfreesboro, Tenn. There he demanded the same salary as the white teachers in the school system, and the same social and economic rights, and as he dryly put it, “So the next year I taught school at Bowling Green, Kentucky He finally lost his job as teacher, and got a job in the steel mills of Gary, Ind,, where he worked as a sweeper, sticker puller, hot mill catcher. From 1923 to 1931 Merrill Work was a Red Cap in Grand Central station. During this time he be- came active in the Urban League, I then thought that the question of Negro Liberation one of get- ting new blood into the existing or- ganizations. If was my opinion that the leadéré of the Urban League, and the NAAC.P. were Uncle Toms. But I thought that yolng people with clear vision and incor= once. of (Continued on Page 3) An automobile headlight was | fixed on the porch of a house and was used to pick out points on the | factory walls at which missiles were aimed.” | Brilliant Page in Labor History The events of these 24 hours, the heroism of the Toledo workers and their class solidarity, determination and fighting ability is something which stands out as a brilliant page in the history of American labor | battles. One must have been on the spot to really visualize it com- pletely. The local Communists were active on the picket line and | in these mass battles through all | these days. Individual Communists | together with previously unknown | non-Party wor! jointly gave| leadership wherever possible to this | gteat unorganized mass.. As these | thousands, ranging at different} times from 10,000 to 25.000, battled | hour after hour, there was no rea) | general staff. HE Commur were there—ac- | tive on all fronts, but not as a | Tecognized leadership. Those A. F.| of L. lealers like Ramsey, who did come to the battlefront, spent part | | of their time conversing with gov- ernment officials of all brands. As/ late as Wednesday, May 23, Adj. | Gen, Henderson, of the Ohio Na-| tional Guard, stated that “Mr | Ramisey said that violence was not caused by the union but by radical | elements that have inserted them- | selves into the strike.” These were | | masses of workers in motion who | were expressing their class solidarity | | with the striking Auto-Lite work- for | ers; who felt that a defeat | Auto-Lite workers meant w of theit own conditions; for | this Auto-Lite factory building with | its hundreds of tear gas bombs also | awakened dormant memories that} ; Mr. Mininger. principal owner, had | been primarily responsible several years previously, through his with- drawals, for wrecking several Toledo banks and causing the loss of the last savings of thousands of Toledo workers, Troops Sent In After the events of these 24 hours, | the plant was closed down tisht.! This was because the m2: con tinued to fight and the plant in- side was in no condition to be run. Early Thursday morning fifteen companies of National Guards came in and under military escort re+ leased the scabs. It must be stated that asa result of the first days mass picketing many hundreds of workers never entered the plant Wednesday, so at most there wes between 500 to 600 scabs in the | plant by this time. The National Guard was later increased to nine- teen companies. The following statement appeared in one edition | of the Cleveland papers with refer- ence to no mobilization of the Toledo National Guard: "The Incal National Gnord wore not mobilized because military authorities and local authorities thought it inadvisable to ask soldisrs to charge their own | towns-men.” The National Guard immediately | set up a “danger zone” some eight blocks square around the plant. | They were fully equipped. The coming of the National Guard did not throw fear and panic into the masses. On the contrary it created greater indignation. Instead of | fighting the deputies, the masses fought the National Guard from Thursday to Saturday. blocks the streets were jammed ork ers from all other factories well as unemployed. There were solid lines of National Guard two and three deep and then similar inner circles back to the plant which bes | came the headquarters of the Na- | tional Guard. The guardsmen not | only used tear gas and vomiting gas | but also lead bullets, killing two, wounding nearly a dozen — not counting over 150 who were taken | to the hospitals for bruises, cuts, | bayonet jabs, overcome by gas, etc. | The Netional Guard was a superior | enemy compared to the deputies. Nevertheless, the workers with bare | hands and bricks drove back the| guardsmen two and three blocks as a result of several offensive moves The workers felt from the point of | view of fighting they were in a bet- ter position at night, so throughout the entire night the battle raged. The workers not only hurled bricks | with effect at the National Guards | but a barrage of condemnatory curses all of which head its -effect| on the farming youth who had ovet- night begun to teste the class war in & sharp manner, Porsictent rumons with” some basis of fact, point to some forr- teen National Guardsmen who re- fused to handle thelr gune and were locked up in the Armory. For EBING the implications of such | mass battles, every foree of the bourgeoisié and its government be: gan to be put into. operation crush the mass upsurge which was already sweeping the town with the ety of “general strike.” However, it, was the AF.L. leaders who-were chosen to put over the real job of | demobilizing the masses by: 1, Domobilizing the picket line | of mass mobilization of the work- ers, by the clever mansuvér of stating, “We have scored a victory in closing down the plant. There- | for there is no more need of Picketing the plant any more. If | Miningor tries fo bring in combs, then we will return.” It is clear they were always against mass picketing. Under the policy of the | leadership of the A. F. of L, Isad- | ers, the plant had been runnnig. They iencred that the two smaller struck plants were still working. However, this was snecesefut for the moment. 3 As Aozehs of tions herth to feomulate their ewn strike de- monds and go on record for a to; | Jected | ments, general strike, the Central Labor Urion officials decided, true to their role, that it was better to head the general strike sentiment in order to try and hehead it. So these fakers adopted a vague decision calling for considera- tion of a general strike to be decided at a special macs mobili- zation an June J. They eet op a Committee of 23 to consider and prepare for it. Despite much agitation ducted by the Communist and Unemployment Council, to b¢ described in another article. these maneuvers resulted in dispersing the mass mobilization which waa charged with stich fighting energy and the general strike maneuvers fooled many workers. In addition, Ramsey trimmed his sails, to the o¢easion. He began using very radical phrases. even stopped attacking Communis momentarily. This created a danger because it raised the oréstige of Ramsey and made it easter for him to put over A seéll-out later, as. wa already anticipated. In addition special arbitrators and interna- tional officials began to pour into Toledo by the dozen. Added to the above, there wore 31 arrested for violation of the in- | junction and of hundreds arrested over one hundred were held and charged with various “crimes.” The Governor stepped into the situa- tion, demanding conferences and ordering the plant closed had already been closed a week ago by }the masses). The Strike-Breaking Bishop The majority of Auto-Lite strik- ers being Polish, the Catholic bishop was brought into the situation and full page extracts of his sermons were printed in all Toledo papers, endorsed by the Chamber of Com- merce, Rotaty Clubs, etc. In his speech appeared the following: | “No matter what one may think about the calling of the troops, the fact is that they are here and thet they represent lawtally conrtituted authority, To thwart | them in the performance of their fnty ar to attack them in any way violates the law of God and the law of the land. Let no one condone such conduct.... To ; My own People within the charch, | I solemnly declare such conduct is a grievous sin deserving of eternal reprobation. The anick- est way to restore government to the civil authorities is to desist from every form of violence. For | the rest let me urge my Catholic pecrle and all my fellow citizens to stay out of the danger zone.” While all this. propaganda and mobilization of the bouregoisie and > their henchmen had some efiect in caucing confusion, the mess aehti- |ment continued for a@ feheral Strike—thé Auto-Lite sttikers *e- various fraudulent — ssttle- The entire city was aflame with strike sentiment, (The next article will daal with the "The Rote and Activities of the Party.") con. Party at