The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 28, 1934, Page 1

Watch This Figure Grow PRESS RUN YESTERDAY 40,000 Daily .<QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) Vol. XI, No. 154 —>* Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879. AMERICA’S ONLY WORKING CLASS DAILY NEWSPAPER NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1934 Nazis Try To Discount ! Plot To Kill Thaelmann; Stahlhelm, Nazis In Rift Prosecutor Pretends Ne Death Penalty Intended for Thaelmann DECEPTIVE TRICK ‘Aimed to Lull Workers’ Vigilance e BULLETIN NEW YORK.—Berlin dispatches yesterday reported that the trial of Thaelmann, scheduled to be- gin July 2, was postponed to July 16 by a Nazi decree which ad- jJourned the first session of the bogus “People’s Court” until that date. It is not known whether this is another Nazi maneuver to con- ceal the real date of the trial or a retreat before the world-wide thunder of protest, with the Nazis probably hoping that the protest will abate by that time. In any event, it is a warning to the work- ers and other anti-fascist fight- ers to redouble and intensify the fight for Thaelmann, Torgler and other anti-fascist prisoners in Hitler Germany. “ie a, NEW YORK. — Evidence that the Nazi butchers are feeling the impact of the stormy, world-wide mass fight for the freedom of Ernst Thaelmann, heroic leader of the German working-class in its struggle against fascist barbar- ism, is contained in dispatches re- ceived in this country yesterday from _American correspondents in Berlin. The dispatches deal with an in- terview with Dr. Karl August Wer- ner, chief Nazi prosecutor, published in the Nazi paper, “Boersen Zeit- ung,” in which Werner attempts to cover up the Nazi plot, already blatantly announced in the Nazi press, to rush Thaelmann to the executioner’s axe through the newly created bogus “People’s Court.” In a clumsy effort to lull the vigilance of workers and all anti-fascist fight- ers in Germany and throughout the (Continued on Page 2) N. J. Farm Strikers Drive Thugs Away From Strike Area Agricultural Union Wins Aid of Jobless in Fight on Terror BRIDGEPORT, N. J., June 27— The 300 Seabrook Farm workers striking under the Agricultural and Cannery Workers Industrial Union (T.U.UL.) here won their first vic- tory today. The five gangsters who attacked the picket line yesterday with black- jacks and bullets, seriously injuring three workers, were forced off the farm through the mass protest of employed and unemployed workers who came to the support of the strikers. The Unemployment Council of Vineland, now engaged in a relief strike, the International Labor De- fense and other workers’ organiza- tions forced the removal of four gangsters and the arrest of one who is being held under $2,000 bail. The farm workers are striking against the attempt to deprive them of the wage rises gained in the April strike. The local politicians are trying to capitalize on the strike by making advances to the strikers. Workers are discovering many politicians who suddenly claim to be their friends. But workers have memories. They remember the many times in the past that the politicians sold them out. But now they have the guidance of the Communist Party which, experience proves, is the only workingman’s Party. The Com- munist Party is active in exposing the true nature of these political maneuvers. The strike is spreading to other farms, especially among the bean pickers near Glassboro. . Vineland Protest Meet VINELAND, N. J., June 27—The International Labor Defense of Vineland at the largest open air mass meeting ever held here pro- tested tt the terror used against the Seabrook strikers. The crowd of over 300 workers were ad- dressed by Danny Morrone and Tom Crawford of the Seabrook Farm, William Hughes of the Vineland- Landis Unemployment Council and ‘William Powell of the Philadelphia District International Labor De- fense, f ’ Anti-Nazi Attorney (Daily Worker Staff Photo) Kurt Rosenfeld, veteran de- fender of revolutionary workers, who has come to the U. S. to give testimony on Hitler’s murder courts. Danger Acute, Says Attorney for Thaelmann Kurt Rosenfeld in N. Y. to Testify at Hearing on Nazi Terror NEW YORK—On the day when the lynch “People’s Courts” begin their session in Germany, July 2, a group of noted jurists will meet in New York as a commission of inquiry into the facts of Nazi ter- ror, it was announced yesterday. Among the members of the commission are Clarence Darrow, George Gordon Battle, Rev. Stan- ley High, Dudley Field Malone, Arthur Garfield Hays, George Z. Medalie, and Raymond L. Wise, who will act as secretary. The commission will sit for two days, in the offices of the, New York County Lawyers Association, 14 Vesey St. Many witnesses are coming to New York from Europe to testify. Dr. Kurt Rosenfeld is one of these. *" * NEW YORK—“I was attorney for Ernst Thaelmann. I went to the prison many times—but I never was allowed to see him. Finally, I had to leave Germany, or find myself behind the same bars.” Kurt Rosenfeld, veteran German attorney, who has defended hun- dreds of revolutionary workers and leaders, from August Bebel to Mat- thias Rakosi and Ernst Thaelmann, was speaking. ‘I am convinced that Thael- mann is being cruelly tortured and maltreated in jail, and that the so-called ‘People’s Court’ will pass sentence of death on him,” he said. The veteran jurist, the man who accompanied Ernst Torgler to the Police station where he gave him- self up for trial when accused of the Reichstag fire, spoke from the experience of a generation of bat- tles in the capitalist courts, and from intimate knowledge of «the present-day situation in Germany. “The fate of Thaelmann depends to a large degree on the pressure which the American masses bring to bear on the German govern- ment,” he said. “The Hitler govern- ment was forced to acquit Dimitroff, (Continued on Page 2) % ‘Leader’ Forced to Halt Plan to Disband the Steel Helmets SAYS ATTACKS MUST| STOP Breach Grows Between Two Armed Groups BERLIN, June 27.—Chief Nazi butcher, Adolph Hitler, was forced to step into the growing breach between the top leaders of the Steel Hel- mets, monarchist veterans’ or- ganization, and the Storm Troopers today to prevent serious clashing between these two armed gangs of the fascist dictatorship. After a decree was issued in Arns- burg forbidding meeting and the wearing of uniforms by the Steel Helmet group, Hitler promised Franz Seldt, Nazi Minister of Labor, |and leader of the Steel Helmet, that the organization would not be dis- banded. Colonel Ernst Roehm, chief of staff of the Nazi Storm Troopers, had demanded the dissolution of the Steel Helmet, Hitler sent an order to Roehm declaring that the attacks on the Steel Helmet must stop. The demand for the dissolution of the Steel Helmet is due to the growing discontent of the rank and file of both the Storm Troops and the Steel Helmet with the fascist regime. Numerous localities had already barred the local Steel Helmet or- ganizations as the feud between the Storm Troops and the former Stahl- helmers (since “coordinated” into the National Socialist League of War Veterans) has blazed into open struggle ‘in the past weeks. The Stahlhelm organ, Kreuz Zeit- ung, today attacked savagely the Nazi chiefs who have hinted at the dissolution of the organizations comprising the old Stahlhelm. The paper cited the signatures of Hitler, von Hindenburg, and others as guaranteeing their right to continue side by side with the Storm Troops. No less interesting than the sus- pension of enrollment in the Storm Troops and Labor Front was the order today banning the Boy Scouts in the Anhalt region because “too many elements hostile to National Socialism” have been enrolled in it lately. If more evidence were needed of the growing difficulties of the Hit- jer regime, Paul Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, today an- nounced that the campaign against “kickers and grumblers” would end June 30th. Orators of the party have been overworked, he said, and aoe a rest through the month of july. 10,267,000 Jobless, 1,400,000 in Building Trades, Says Green WASHINGTON, June 27. — William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, said today that there were 10,- 267,000 unemployed in the coun- try. Although there has been a slow gain in employment, he de- clared, the need for relief is be- coming acute among the jobless. In the building trades alone there were 1,400,000 unemployed, he admitted, but said that 150,- 000 had gone back to work dur- ing April and May. Green made no mention of the fall in wage rates during the last few months as reported by the U. S. Department of Labor. First Weekly Table Shows Slow Gain in Circulation Pea the rapidly advancing political situation at a snail’s pace and far out-distanced by the opportunities, the circulation of the Daily Worker has increased by 672 in a period of somewhat less than a month according to the tabulation, published below, which is the first of a series of weekly reports which the Central Committee has instructed the Daily Worker to publish to provide a complete check-up of activ- ity in ail districts in the campaign for 20,000 new readers in two months. Fourteen districts show some increases since May 31st. Twelve districts show a decrease. Less than three and one-half per cent of the quota of new readers has been obtained. Pittsburgh leads all districts in the gain of new readers with 52.3 per cent of its quota. Denver, North Carolina, St. Louis, Minnesota and Philadelphia follow. Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City, North Dakota, California, Connecticut, Birmingham, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota have culations for May 31. all dropped below their total cir- Revised tables will be published in each Thursday's issue of the Daily Worker, Follow these tables closely and intensify the drive. in (Gontinued on Page 2). ‘ Some Vita To Nerman l Questions Thomas On | The Milwaukee Strike| — By EARL BROWDER General Secretary, Communist Party, U. S. A. E of the most important strikes in the country is now taking place in the Socialist Party controlled city of Milwaukee. It is the strike of the car men and the power house workers. The strikers are fighting for wage increases, for recog- nition of their union, which is affiliated with the A. F. of L., and a stop to the victimization and discrimination against workers because of activity son was forced to admit violation N. R. A., and to withdraw the Blue These are elementary, basic questions, which today concer! | American working class, and which have already resulted in wide- spread strike struggles in industries throughout the country. strike of the Milwaukee workers hi in their union. Even Gen. John- of even the miserable “rights” of Eagle as “punishment.” the This as aroused splendid support and solidarity among the working class of the entire city, with 25,000 work- ers joining witi the strikers to stop the movement of scab-driven vehicles. Under such circumstances, with such solidarity, it is clear that the striking workers of Milwaukee have first-rate chances for victory. At this moment, those workers whi 0 have still remained on the job, are feeling the encouragement of this solidarity, and despite the use of the blacklist and the trickery of the company pension schemes, they are steadily joining the struggle of their fellow workers, Here, as in all the battles of labor, the Communist Party in Mil- waukee has already mobilized all its forces in energetic and whole- hearted support of the strike. Thi ie Milwaukee workers have chosen the A. F. of L. union, and the Communist Party stands ready to aid these workers in the fight to win choice. The issues here are clear and unmistakable. recognition for the union of their The Milwaukee workers are fighting in defense of their elementary rights. In this struggle of the Milwaukee workers against their exploiters what is the Socialist administration of Milwaukee doing? What is the Socialist Mayor Hoan doing, he who joined with the self-styled “mil- itant” group of Thomas and Kreuger, at the recent Socialist Party con- vention? In a struggle of the workers against their capitalist employers one would expect that a really Socialist administration would use the (Continued on Page 2) Jail Lamont Picketing in Jersey City Jail Crospie, 25 Others in L. IL; Pack Jersey Court Today NEW YORK—Corliss W. Lamont, a member of the executive commit- tee of the Friends of the Soviet Union, was arrested yesterday while picketing the Miller Parlor Furni- ture Co., 261 Orient Ave., in Jersey City. He was held in $1,500 bail for trial July 5. The American Civil Liberties Union has asked James W. Davis, noted lawyer, to defend him. At the same time Paul B. Crosbie, militant veteran. was jailed with 25 workers yesterday while demon- strating in front of the struck Gar- side Shoe Factory at 36th St. and 37th Ave., Astoria. All were charged with disorderly conduct and were given a hearing in the Magistrate's Court in Long Isiand City. In Jersey City the trial of Alfred Hirsch, national secretary of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners; William Schwartz, worker; Rose Dickster, and Alfred Bingham, editor of Common Sense, will come up at the Seventh Precinct Police Station, Montgomery St. and Bergen Ave., at 9:30 am. today before Judge William J. McGovern, A. J, Isser- man of the International Labor De- fense will defend Hirsch and Schwartz; Arthur Garfield Hays, American Civil Liberties - Union lawyer, will defend Bingham. All are charged with disorderly conduct because they picketed the Miller Co, All workers in Jersey City and in New Jersey are urged by the Furni- ture Workers’ Industrial Union to pack the courtroom today and to send telegrams of protest to Judge William J. McGovern and Mayor Hague of Jersey City and to the National Labor Board in Washing- ton, D. C., protesting against the terror of arrests of workers pick- eting. The Trade Union Unity Council issued a statement yesterday call- ing on all workers’ organizations to protest against the vicious terror in New Jersey, in which 15 workers, observers and photographers have been arrested in four weeks, and denouncing Mayor Hague and Chief of Police Casey for violation of all civil rights and for uniting with all open shop employers, who are mov- ing out of New York and carrying through wage cuts with the full protection of the entire police force of New Jersey. HUNGARIAN MINISTER GOES TO GERMANY BUDAPEST, June 27.—Minister of Instruction Koloman Descilly has gone to Berlin where he will be the guest of Reich Minister of Instruc- tion Rust, it was announced today. The Hungarian Minister wishes to learn the technique of anti-Semitic “Ch iselers!” Mayor McLevy Calls Jobless Socialist Chief. Hurls Insults Testifying Against Workers By HOWARD BOLDT (Special to the Daily Worker) BRIDGEPORT, Conn., June 27.— Socialist Mayor Jasper.McLevy to- day took the stand as the star wit- ness of the state in an attempt to convict unemployed workers for their part in a demonstration March 5, where city-employed work- ers were demanding back pay due them for work done, While McLevy took the stand) after police had testified, Socialist | rank and file workers joined with other workers in packing the court- room, Under direct testimony, and again under cross-examination of International Labor Defense Attor- ney Edward Kuntz, McLevy stated that he had ordered the police to disperse the workers who had as- sembled to petition him for their pay. Following Police Captain Carroll, McLevy testified that several hun- dred snow shovelers who were em- ployed assembled at the armory de- manding their pay (which was two weeks overdue) had elected a com- mittee of twelve and marched on (Continued on Page 2) SS. WEATHER: Warmer, showers. (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents eo Police Stage Brutal Attack; Militia Held In Readiness In Pacific Shipping Centers 6 Attack Dock Strike | DOCKERS MOBILIZE Seattle Men Ask for) General Strike (Special to the Daily Worker) SAN FRANCISCO, June} 27.—While President Roose-| velt late yesterday was plac- | ing his signature and seal to} an executive order designats| ing the setting up of a board composed of friends and agents of | the shipowners “to deal with the| longshoremen’s strike,” militia, troops from the Presidio and two hundred armed thugs were being | mobilized aaginst the strikers to open the port. | Edward McGrady, assistant N. R. A. administrator and member of Roosevelt's newly-appointed board, | who has been here for some time| as a mediator, is using the press to slander the strikers and thus justify the use of violence and ter- | ror against the longshoremen. Roosevelt's board, which is iron-| ically called the National Long- shoremen’s Board, is composed of the following worthy representatives of the steamship owners: Arch- bishop Edward J. Hanna of San| Francisco, Edward F. McGrady, who has a long record of strikesreaking in the fur indi and O. K. Cush- ing, a San Francisco lawyer. The setting up of this board by the President, his giving the board | full powers “to make findings of fact” | and arbitrate, is part of one plan of the government and _ shipowners, which has already mobilized troops, to break the sti and send the} men back to work without winning | their demands. The Central Labor Council passed a resolution Monday disassociating | themselves with the Communists, | but the rank and file overwhelm-| ingly rejected a motion to remove| the militant strike leaders who were|!0 wing accompanying statement, | attacked as Communists. | With Andrew Foruseth, the police, | troops,. and now the Roosevelt | Board, driving for the acceptance | scribing the present situation in the| of the shipowners’ terms, the strike has reached a critical point. Lo e-| shoremen and seamen are mobil ing all along the strike front to| prevent scabbing. | Seattle Workers | Ask General Strike (Special to the SEATTLE, June | the shipowners, with the aid of| y Worker) i} Mayor Smith, to open shipping at|Green proposal was a reversal of | Pier 40 is meeting with stiff re-) sistance on the part of the mari- time strikers. A permanent police camp has been established at the; pier for the protection of scabs and to intimidate pickets. Strikers and sympathizers meet- ing at a solidarity mecting called yesterday by the Communist Party greeted the proposals of Roy Hud- son, national secretary of the Ma- rine Workers Industrial Union, and | speakers from the International Longshoremen’s Association and other A. F. of L. unions for one strike committee, citywide mass (Continued on Page 2) |Roosevelt Board Moves | gijont on. Sitike Issics| Socal 'To Aid Troops, Thugs | Daniel W. Hoan, Socialist Party leader and Mayor of Milwaukee, who has maintained silence while the Milwaukee police clvb and ar- rest street car strikers, and while gangsters are brought in to the | * city to protect scabs. Steel Union In Capital, Rejects Green Plan |Gives Economic De-| mands of Steel Work- ers, Hits N. R. A. (See Editorial on Page 6) The Steel and Metal Workers In- dustrial Union delegation presented this week to the Department of Labor in Washington, proposals for the gu: eeing of the rights of the workers to organize into unions of their own choice. The delegation submitted the fol- condemning the Green proposals for government supervised elections and compulsory arbitration, and de- steel industry: The Steel and Metal Workers In- dustrial Union, repre: organized workers, is d posed to the proposals President Green of the American Federation of Labor for the situa- tion in the steel and adopted at the rece: 1 con- vention of the Amalgamated As- —Attempts of | Sociation of Iron, Steel and Tin| Workers. The adoption of the the decision of the regular A. A. | convention of last April and in our} opinion does not in any way meet the needs of the rank and file of the A. A. membership. President Roosevelt signed the revised steel code in agreement with the steel companies, headed by the U. S. Steel trust and the American Iron and Steel Institute. It com- bines within itself the functions of policemen, prosecuting attorney, judge and jury, as well as certain legislative powers, all of which in the aggregate give it absplute con- trol not only over the economic (Continued on Page 3) “Build Irish Workers Clubs,” Says Sean Murray, Returning to Ireland Urges Support of Irish Workers’ Voice, the Party Paper NEW YORK.—Sean Murray, sec- retary of the Irish Communist Party, sailed for Ireland yesterday, after a three months’ tour of the United States. The Irish leader, a veteran of the revolutionary movement already at 35, former captain in the Irish Republican Army, who was in the thick of the armed struggles against the Black and Tans a decade ago, gave through the Daily Worker a farewell message to the working masses of America, and especially to the Irish in the U.S. “I visited many cities in the United States,” he said, “and I can bring back to the masses of Ireland the heartening news of great and growing class battles in the U. S. “Here, especially, I met hundreds of Irish workers. I found none who retained an ounce of faith in capi- talism. I found them shaking off the influence of the political bosses here, the greatest curse of the Irish cultural practice, the report said. , (Continued on Page 2) The Handclasp of International Solidarity | Sean Murray (right), Secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland, who recently completed a tour of the United States, saying good-bye | to Earl Browder, secretary of the States. Murray sailed for Ireland yesterday, Communist Party of the United (Daily Worke: aft Photo) Y | law so as to prevent the e ” Mayor Silent | As Thugs Run Armored Street Cars |47 CARS WRECKED Co. Union Threatens Troops; S. P. Says Nothing | : (Special to the Daily Worker) MILWAUKEE, June 27. — | Twenty-five thousand men, | women and children demons | strated Tuesday night in sun- port of the car strikers, on , the South Side of the city, |near car barns. Starting with | ngs in the late afternoon, the | crowd swelled and grew ani by | nightfall a real demonstration was which lasted long a mide | night. | urging masses surrounded all | Street cars, drove out motormen, ripped the steel cages off armored cars. The Electric Company's armed | thugs and gangsters as well as poe lice attacked indignant workers, bruising heads, tea: lothes, and arresting ww: shouted br Socialist Party in Action Thirteen were i: neluding a 13-year-old girl, and 15 were are | vested, including three small boys; | 47 street cars were wrecked, and | several derailed. Socialists boast that no private | detective agencies and police are | permitted in Milwaukee, yet the | Electric Co. is an armed camp | with hired gangsters and thugs car= | rying weapons. The Socialists boast | that police are neutral; the Mil- | waukee police department acted as open strikebreakers. | _ Led by “Sail Into "Em Drewniak,” Inspector of Police Depart: the | police were most brutal 'S: Sion of the rights of the workers to picket. | Hoan Silent | _Mayor Hoan and City Attorney | Raskin are maintaining complete ilence during the strike. The ac« tion of Raskin in interpreting the e of jit- | ney buses, is a_ str’ reaking | measure that will help the Electrie | Company Some union offici Ss well as the police and the are rais- | ing the “Red scare” and blaming Communists for starting demon- strations. Berrong, a union official, has done this to dodge responsibil ity for poor organization carried on by officials before the strike, and when workers take tho initiative to | sive help, he stabs them in the | back, The Communist Party pleads guilty to the accusation that it will alweys take the lead in fighte ing for the rights of the workers, Co. Union Wants Militia MILWAUKEE, Wis. June 27. Harold N. Ranels, head of the coms pany union, whose scabs are runs ning gangstcr-protected and are mored cars in the Milwaukee street car workers strike, said today that Gov. A. G. Schmedeman will be asked to call out the National Guards “if police are unable to cope with strike riots.” Following ‘the demonstration in support of the s rs, hundreds of workers went to the south side pos lice station and demanded tie ree lease of a worker imprisoned there, Four policemen threatened to fire | on the w: with riot guns. | | Finnish Police Jail 19 as Communists NEW YORK.—Police in Helsings fors, Finland, arrested 19 persons charged with being members of the Communist Party of Finland, ace cording to despatches received here today. One of those arrested, it is claimed, is Herta Kuusinen, daughs ter of the Finnish Communist leads er, O. W. Kuusinen, secretary of the Communist International, s Bremen Nazi Court Gives Heavy Terms To 26 Communists BREMEN, June 27.—Twenty- six Communists were sentent to terms varying from two et in prison to two and a half years in solitary confinement, to- day, under the wide and vague terms of Nazi laws banning > activities “harmful to the state.” ay