The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 17, 1934, Page 5

| CHANGE ---_— By SENDER GARLIN FRANCISCO has struck terror into the craven hearts of the capitalist newspaper editors. The sweep of the gigantic general strike movement on the Pacifie Coast has hurled these publicity agents of the capitalist class into a fit of frenzy. AN The capitalist press today, true to its historic role, is engaged in a desperate attempt to break the San Francisco strike with words: ae | WORLD! | the first line of defense of the bosses. If the words fail, they will at least have prepared the way for armored cars of the U. 8S. Army. “Past General Strikes Failed As Labor Crumbled Under Respon- sibilities,” announced the “liberal” World-Telegram. “General Strikes As a Rule Have Not Succeeded,” sententiously declares Arthur Brisbane, Randolph Hearst, himself a leading California capitalist. “Violence Breaks Out In San Francisco On Eve of General Strike,” | announces Hearst’s New York American, and then proceeds to reveal that this violence was a clash between a National Guardsman and a drunken strike-breaker. “The General Strike Is the Way of Suicide for Organized Labor,” the Werld-Telegram says editorially. - “Famine Menaces San Francisco; Stores Looted In Strike Crisis,” blares the New York Herald-Tribune, organ of finance capital in the United States. . “Dees Labor Want the Menace of Civil War?” foams the editorial writer on the Daily Mirror. “Cops Fight Vandals On Eve of Frisco General Strike,” is a thor- oughly misleading headline in the Daily News. “Fog Over Frisco” is the caption under a cartoon on the editorial) page of that great “friend of the workingman,” the New York Post. ‘The cartoon shows a sinister-looking figure in overalls stalking over the roof-tops of San Francisco carrying a sign labelled, “Strike.” . . Murder in Full-Dress AS usual, the keynote for the attack against the inspiring action of the Pacific Coast workers is provided by the olympian New York Times, whose attack upon the strike is no less murderous because of its “restrained” and dignified, stodgy English style. Under the title, “Holding Up a City,” The Times whimpers that “the obvious and avowed aim of this united movement is to... inflict such hardship upon the people of the city that the authorities will yield to the demands of the strikers. The assumption seems to be that the wives and children of the men who quit work will not suffer from the lack of food and other necessaries...” This touching and belated solicitude of the Times for “the wives and children of the men who quit work” comes somewhat as a sur- prise. This is, of course, ‘consistent with the Times’ interest in the millions of unemployed and their families. From readng the Times over a period of years I have failed to observe that their interest in the working class has ever extended beyond “The 100 Neediest Cases” every Chistmas (which, incidentally, has paid for itself many times over in the form of promotion for the paper.) Does the New York Times pretend to be ignorant of the fact that the hunger cries of their wives and children are the most potent influences in giying the strikers the courage te face the terror that the shipowners and their state apparatus have mobilized against them? “There is no law to prevent this sort of thing,” complains the Times, referring to the San Francisco General Strike. Is there a law to prevent the wholesale lockouts of millions of workers as a result of the breakdown of capitalist economy, of which the Times is so assid),ous a defender? “There can be no doubt that the way in which the strike was voted, against the protests of the more steady-going labor unions... has already alienated public sympathy,” continues the Times. The Times, alas, is bewailing the fact that the bureaucrats of the San Francisco Central Trades and Labor Council were compelled te bow to rank and file pressure and fall in line—at least officially—with the general strike movement, * . The Times dips into its stock of ready-made “humanitarianism” to speak of the “determination (of the strikers) to keep food and sup- plies from hospitals and children.” This is reminiscent of the kind of “war reporting” as practised by the traditionally accurate New York Times when it described so vividly the rape of women and children as well as the bombing of hospitals by the “Huns.” . . . The “Times” In 1877 Strike oY Sunday the Times dug into labor history to prove that General Strikes have always failed. We, too, can delve into history and show just how the New York Times, for example, under the guise of reporting happenings, acted as a conscious strike-breaker in these struggles. On Tuesday, July 17, 1877—exactly 57 years ago today—the New York Times in reporting the great railroad strike which was convulsing the nation, carried the following headlines: “RAILROAD EMPLOYES ON A STRIKE—FOOLISH FIREMEN AND BRAKEMEN ON THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO ROAD—CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE.” (my emphasis). The Times typography has changed, but its technique of strike- breaking remains the same. For we find in yesterday's editorial the observation that “Labor unions are at full liberty to do foolish things, and wait for the consequences to prove their folly.” (My emphasis). Having built a breastwork of words for the troops in earlier issues, the New York Times on Friday, July 27, 1877, proceeds to report: “More Riot and Bloodshed—Serious Conflicts at Chicago and San Francisco— Sharp Encounters Between the Citizens and the ‘Hoodlum’ Rioters.” In another headline the Times says: “A Day of Fighting in Chicage— Frequent and Stubborn Fights with the Police and Military—Four Men Killed and Many Wounded.” Reporting the railroad strike in New York state, the Times says in still another headline: “Van Hoesen, the Leader of the Strikers, Lodged in Jail—The Sufferings of the Military.” * * . Press Only in First Inning 1FHE bourgeois press is only warming up. Its anti-strixe incitements against the West Coast workers will become fiercer and more open as the strike spreads and victory comes closer. The New York Herald-Tribune declares with vicious suavity that “jt is a strike about very little, which presumably means that it is really not a strike at all, but the discharge of pent-up emotions which have been allowed to reach ar intensity extraordinary in ordinary American labor relations.” The workers throughout the country will not fall for this “psyeho- analytie” bunk. They know better, They know that the Pacific Coast workers are fighting for the right to live! STAGE AND SCREEN Soviet Talkie “Broken Shoes” , is more than that. Tt is a human document showing how the strug- Opens Today at Acme | gies of their fathers affect the chil- “Broken Shoes,” a Soviet talkie,| dren and how through the children woduced in the U.S.S.R., will open} these struggles have been carried Today at the Acme Theatre for a| inside the school rooms, out on the Jimited engagement. Nazi Germany ‘grounds and on to the streets. is the locals for “Broken Shoes.”} It is a timely epic of children in eee, closely the porate See politically-torn pe. ustria, France pain, Margarita Barskaya directed film sives a stirring picture of the | “Broken Shoes," her first film. But social forces behind those move-| her skill and experience as director ments, stressing for the first time| of the famous Moscow Children’s the role played by children. Theatre, with which she was asso- “Broken Shoes” might be called} ojated for many years, is revealed a children’s picture as the cast is in the smooth and natural perfor- composed mostly of children from/ mance of the children players in eight to fourteen years old. But it this film. . * “WHAT'S ON” TODAY ON PAGE 3 high-priced pen-prostitute for William | 1 i F f ' at i | i i t, i . u f, i O t f £ ’ afer | { Ls (ette iH it J i i i H i I i efi i an ai (3 fi? fu i a | if f DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1934 How “Times” Aided Bosses in Railroad Strike of 1877 | ? i 4 4 f tl ai i at i iH i tt ite ee tt pits i i me 2 i é Peart EET alae tH f 1 bad _ it ie vf i! } i ip in 1 t s Fe Sheen cip ne en en ee TSS tegatana ene Cor Hh ibs: Photostatic reproduction of first page of the New York Times of ,; Francisco struggle now going on. The “Times” is typical of the cap- | through the country in July 27, 1877, showing how this paper “reported” the great railroad | italist press i BF tH pe its strike-breaking policy. { ci | closed shop union conditions. Page Five Frisco Industrial Association Has Long _ Strikebreaking Record dell told me he had a job from the Industrial Association to get of|some of the high officials of the Molders’ Union.” Still another former Mundell operative, John Francis Higgins, in an affidavit, swore that “Shemwell (another dick — ed.) and I were - in its attacks on the workers, its | $ivén automatic pistols and sent ous. war against the trade unions of that | et @ union men. Shemwell told y dating back to July, 1921, when |™Me he had been brought from Los it set up, with a slush fund|Anseles by Mundell, employed by of nearly $2,000,000 to break the | Re Leger See eee aa te uilding trades sity, Purpose of shooting five officials o building des unions of that city the Molde’ Ukien and ‘thak: be By 1923, the Associated boasted | was to be paid $1,000 for each man that “today 85 per cent of all men | shot.” who earn their bread by manual By ROBERT W. DUN? The Industrial Association San Francisco, the employers’ as- | sociation attempting to smash the strike in ‘Frisco, has a long record of strikebreaking, espior violence and murder, has been one of the most savage And Tom R. Hilbourn also em- } toil, work under open shop cond: . ti What more complete tran ployed on the Industrial Associa- formation! Three rs ago over tion “jobs” by Mundell, swore in 90 per cent werked under absolutely an affiday “Mundell told me that with a large caliber revolver, with the bullet extracted and buck- Looking at th e 1 strike ir ne aa ‘ee “re substituted, he could make progress today the phrase “What | Shot 2 more complete transformation!” Frank Brown (the molders’ or- | may again come to the lips of this| ganizer—Ed.) look like a sieve, seab-herding association. Only to-| Mundell also said thet the In- day the words would be uttered in | dustrial Association controlled the @ somewhat different tone of volee. courts of San Francisco and the The men who set up the Indus- | Chief of Police.” trial Association and the “American |Plan” strangely enough pictured F R themselves as heroic pioneers and Industrial Association em- | “dreamers”—“men of vision,” to use ployed even more notorious strikebreakers than Mundell. For example, in 1926, it hired the lead- gan of the Industrial Association, ing western strikebreaker, “Black hapbeen a few years ago that: Jack” Jerome, to direct its war “The men who gathered (in the against union carpenters. Jerome Industrial Association—Ed.) for the immediately brought in a small renga to strike the shackles from | army of thugs. gunmen and ex- this community were dreamers. But vi i x ‘their dreams have come true. The SOBVicts, ue he ee Se Denver tramway strike in 1920- men wh the fi vi- oO made the fight had Vi- | Back Jack's slogan to his crews their own characterization of them- |selves. The “American Plan,” or- sions, and their hopes have been ‘ | realized. It is an old saying that Was: “When you shoot be sure {the worthwhile men of the world ®nd shoot straight.” His first as- are the men with dreams and vi- saulf in the Frisco carpenters |sions—the men whose eyes are/| strike was on a disabled war vet= {turned toward the East (could this! eran. mean Wall Strect?—Ed.); the men ‘One “ee | whose mental horizons are limitless; Jerome's men, Harry strike of that year, and the similarity of their methods in the San | Reference to the above is made in the “Change the World” column the men whose heads are with the Smith, testifying in an injunction U.S. Labor History Shows Onward March Of Strike Struggles of Americ By EDWIN ROLFE | With the Pacific Coast labor united today in the most powerful | out. | action, the organs of finance capi- demonstration of its strength and solidarity witnessed in the United States for decades, the entire kept press of the country is, up in arms against what it terms an “unusual” | and “unprecedented” course of ac- tion, The New York Herald Tribune, for example, declares that “the general strike ...is apparently to he attempted in San Francisco this morning for the first time in Amer- ican labor history.” The New York Times with pitifully transparent sophistry, tries to distort the im- portance of this mass outpouring of Western workers by drawing verbal distinctions between a gen- eral strike and a “local” or “sym- pathy” strike. And all the capitalist papers in the country chirp frightened varia- tions on the following theme ex- pressed by the World-Telegram edi- torial:: “The general strike is the way of suicide for organized labor.” Plunged into abject fear by the splendid living proof of the Hercu- jean power and solidarity of the working class, all the forces of capitalism cry out, panic-stricken, against it. Over 125,000 union men, and thousands of additional unor- ganized workers as well, are already In the face of this mighty tal, of big industry, roar that “No general strike has ever been even partly suecessful in this country or in any other, according to rec- ords of industrial warfare... .” (World-Telegram). What miserable, ignorant lies! This is deliberate distortion, aimed to “prove” that what is happening in San Francisco today cannot re- sult in vietory for the workers; aim- ed to intimidate the strikers them- selves by tellin§ them that “you ean’t do this because it has never This is the way in which the defenders and apologists of capital- ism distort history. They try to isolate each incident in the glorious, living continuity of working class struggle, they try to separate each action from its predecessor, to iso- late. and make a static thing of a glorious dynamic tradition — the class struggle tradition, (ee ee | SHOULD be stated at the out- set that San Francisco in 1934 is net the first American city ever to be in the grip of a general strike. A general strike tied up the city of Seattle, Washington, for more than four days as recently as 1919. It is manifestly impossible here to treat every mass working class action in American history. A few outstanding examples epitomizing this whole glorious tradition, must suffice. We can mention, at random, the great “populist” movement which swept through the midwest during the first great crisis in this country in 1819, the widespread growth of the labor movement and trade work- ers’ organizations from 1824 to the middle years of the 1830's. We can mention, as early as 1741, long be- fore the American Revolution, the walk-out in New York City of jour- neymen bakers. All of these, and thousands of other small and large labor actions, accumulated as the years went by, forming the historic pattern and growth of the working- class movement here. Each little “fsolated” action made use of the lessons of previous similar actions. Each one, as it moved forward toward its victory or its temporary General Strike in Seattle in 1919, Many | Others, Were Prelude to Friseo 1934 of the genera] historical develop- ment of the movement. 6 exe 5 8 UTSTANDING in the labor his- tory of the United States is the period of militant struggles which lasted roughly from 1873 to 1880. During this period occurred the mighty strikes of 1877, coming in| the midst of and lasting beyond the tail-end of one of America’s periodic economic crisis. ‘Wages in 1887 were lowered in most industries, a widespread reduc- tion which found its most militant opposition and resentment among the railroad workers. The Pennsyl- vania Railroad announced a 10 per cent wage cut to take effect on June 1, 1887. This followed a previ- ous 10 per cent cut ordered in 1873. Other railroad companies through- out the country followed suit. The reaction of the railroad work- ers was immediate and militant. Employes of all railways which had their termini in Pittsburgh went about the organization of a secret railway workers’ union and to plan a nationwide strike. They were de- termined to keep out Pinkerton de- tectives who, by informing the rail- road barons of their plans, had en- abled them to frustrate their strike on midnight of April 14. The strike, however, was not yet to take place. Dissension and squabbling among the top leaders, who had petty quar- rels of their own, caused the col- lapse of a general strike movement scheduled to break at noon on June 27. nee THESE sell-outs and difficulties were merely a prelude to greater, more militant actions, which began on July 17 on the Baltimore and/ Ohio at Martinsburg, West Virginia, following the 10 per cent wage slash. Trainmen in great numbers de- manded their wages be restored, vow- ing that no freight train would leave until this was done. Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers did not join the strike actively, but their sympathy with the trainmen was so pronounced tht they did not offer any resistance in attempting to keep the trains moving. Local militia, called out against the strikers, would not at- tack their relatives and friends, their own fellow-workers, ‘The strikers were in complete con- trol here for two days, until Presi- dent Arthur Garfield Hayes sent 200 Federal troops to the scene. The strike ended in Martinsburgh, but spread overnight to other nearby sections. In Cumberland, Maryland, troops were also called in. The be- sieged strikers set fire to the depot in their desperation, and dia not permit the firemen to subdue the flames, Here too a great section of Guardians of the “New Deal’ in Action sei SR aa ait th BLESSED BY THE BLUE EAGLE.—Their rifles ready to mow down more West Coast strikers, National Guardsmen are posted at a pier in San Francisco. Notice the Blue Eagle by the side of the flag | | setback, took its place in the line of the shipping companies and the “stars and stri @ an Workers the militia sided with the strikers, Great Railroad Struggles of 1877; Four-Day And here too, after several days, Federal troops arrived to put down |stars while their feet remain on| trial at the time, said that a datly solid ground.” list to be “beaten up” was fur- | . nished by Jerome. He told how he . Dooley, ‘THERE can be no doubt that these | ee een eer men kept their feet firmly! named Daniels in his home. When |planted on the ground. For twice arrested, they had the cards of within five years the Industrial As- | : sociation raised a million dollars, |‘ attorney for the be cprviag ia and in 1926 it levied assessments on | S0c!@tion in thelr pockets. ‘The; the merchants and manufacturers | t0ld the police that he was their of San Francisco to pay for its bit-| attorney. Smith also testified that ter fights against the carpenters,| the Industrial Association had a | molders, cigar workers, taxi men, | regular scale of prices for slugging, garment workers, metal and other! which ranged from $10 to $50, unions. Here are some of the cor-| depending on the extent of the Porations that contributed to one | “massage” accomplished on the the strike. . Yo |unions. All of the following gave at least $10,000 at one crack: Alexander and Baldwin, Amer- | puT again, as strikers in one sec- |¥ tion were repulsed, new mili-| tancy surged in other sections. On ican Factors Co., Bank of California June 19, when the Pennsylvania |; 5,000 thi Me * |road attempted to fire almost half Ady Mkts cau eae |of its workers by instituting a neW| Hawaiian Sugar Co. ($25,000), Cali- | arrayed against the workers again, | system of double-locomotives. haul-| fornia, Packing Co. Crocker Na- jing haley of 34 instead of bi a tional Bank, Hawaiian Commercial | 5 se larke' reet ilway Co. The population was, almost to a | Mercantile Trust Co., Pacific Gas man, with the strikers—the same eter Co. Ghent Santa Fe) population which, in the present 01 Co. ($15,000), Southern | events in San Francisco, the cap- | Pacific Railroad Co, ($30,000), Pa- | italist press calls the “public,” the | cifie Oil Co., J. D. & A. B, Spreckels | public which it tries to arouse |©9. ($25,000), Standard Oil Oo. hgainst the workingmen fighting | ($30,000), Union Oil Co. ($15,000), Wells Fargo National Bank ($15,- for their elementary rights. Local | |000), Associated Oil Co. ($15,000). militia was called out, but their lA s 1 |An article by Labor Research Asso- sympathy was with the strikers, ati 5 with whom they fraternized. qa geawhece Hes, this ene ia The bosses then called in troops} corporations are ‘led in with the | seregieem yeep stig St a aaa hae | |tered 26 workers, who re-formed] 1) the strikes which it tried to their ranks and surrounded and | smash, the stool pigeons of the In- |fired the roundhouse in which the |qustrial association “dreamers” re- pases 8 Fe ee ah Baa’ on | sorted to every form of violence, For | were under the constant fire df the | the Mundell Detective Agency, em- | embattled strikers. a ployed in turn by the Industrial | Strikes spread to Harrisburg) Association, made an affidavit stat- Philadelphia, Scranton, Reading,|ing that “Mundell told me that we | Altoona, to Buffalo, New York and| had to go out and get some union | jother industrial and railroad hanibessiel He testified that he rt |ters. Miners and mill workers| others were furnished with rifle ~ walked out in sympathy and soli-| equipped with Maxim silencer~ darity. Militiamen fraternized with| were “ordered to trail rt the strikers. A general strike move-|Frank Brown, | secretary ment swept across the breadth of | Molders’ Union.” Be, : the land for the first time in Amer-| | And James Edward Noblet, also ican history. The use of Federal/@" employee of the Mundell agency, | troops during these struggles o0-| #8 an affidavit, testified that “Mun- curred for the first time. ee The strikers did not reach the) i | goal set for themselves, but ihe|by the amount of militancy and | spirit of working-class solidarity | control over the strike whieh the | surged to every corner of America.| workers exercise against their | Workers grew strong in the knowl-| bureaucratic and betraying leaders. | edge of their own mighty numbers, The cry of “suicidal” in the capi- dj f thei might; bers, | The f “suicidal” in th ih their militancy, their pewer. The) talist press is really an echo of | years that followed witnessed the| the capitalists’ own fears and the | virtual Loans oe bat labor | fear of their labor lieutenants. | movement, the sprea strikes as a i ike | weapon of workers in their fight for| gu are panic Gorey pe thee rane | their rights, the organization of... ri . Fl - Meg favorable prospect for victory. If mighty labor organizations such as K the Knights of Labor, ete. the workers retain the remarkable si Mennttndeay enthusiasm and solidarity they iB anaes tiatoales varied: 10 showed in coming out on strike, bal | they are able to defeat th: ma-| (outcome. Some made alti neuvers of the misleaders within | soe te he 'e- their own ranks, gain complete | Kind. ‘ategled. the whale. American magnitude can be wen not only -for labor movement to a fuller realizo-| 1.0" San Pranci coke fait de| tion of its tasks and difficulties. ‘2 San Francisco workers but for | the entire American working class. | i} u along the line which leads to daily | of these funds to help smash the victim, For a full “polish,” or kill- ing, anywhere from $250 to $1,000 was demanded by the Jerome agency. These are some of the forces of “law and order" that will be in the present strike. TUNING IN 7:00 P.M.-WEAF—Baseball Resume WOR—Sports Resume—Ford Prick WJZ—Grace Hayes, Songs WABO—Fats Waller, Organ; Beale Street Boys, Songs 1:18-WEAF—Gene and Glenn—Sketch WOR—Comedy; Music WdZ—Jack Parker, Tenor WABO—House Beside the Road Sketch 7:30-WEAF—Appollon Orch. WOR—Talk—Harry Hershfield ‘WJZ—English Local Government Prof. D, W. Brogan, London Schoo . of Economics WABC—Sylvia Proos, Songs 1:45-WEAF-=Sisters of the Skillet WOR—The O’Neilis—Sketch WJZ—Frank Buck's Adventures WABC—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAF--Reisman Orch.; Phil Duey; ariel Wilson, Soprano «ayne King Orch. Dance Orch. Prank Munn, Goldman Band Concert, Prone pect Park, Brooklyn WABO—Lyman Orch.; Vivienne S¢--~ gal, Soprano; Oliver Smith, Tenor - 9:00-WEAF—Ben Bernie Orch. i WOR—Variety Musicale WJZ—Alice Mock, Soprano; Guest, Poet; Goncert Orch. WABC—George Givot, Comedian 9:30-WEAP—Dramatic Sketch WOR—Michael Bartlett, Tenor WJZ—Symphony Orch., Frank Black, Conductor; Doris Doe, Contralto WABC—Himber Orch. 9:45-WOR—Eddy Brown. Violin 10:00-WEAF—Operetta, Blue Paradise witl Gladys Swarthout, Soprano, a Others WABC—Confict—Dramatic Sketch 10:15-WOR—Ourrent Events—H. E. Read ‘Troopers Band WABO— | 10:30-WOR—Brogale Orch. WJZ—Tim Ryan's Rendesvous WABC—Melodic Strings 11:00-WEAP Wireless Amateurs—Sketoh WOR-—Whiteman Orch. WJZ—Berger Orch. WABC—Party Issues—Talk 11:15-WEAF—Coleman Orch, WJZ—Robert Royce, Tenor WABC—Dance Orch. 11:30-WEAF—Duluth Symphony Orch Paul Le May, Conductor WOR—Davis Orch. WJZ—Press-Radio News WABC—Jones Orch. 11:35-WdZ—Vallee Orcb. 11:45-WABC—Reichman Orch. 12:00-WMCA—Dance Music (Also WABO, WOR, WJZ, WEVD) WEAF —Press-Radio News 12:05-WEAF—Dance Orch, gains and ultimate victory. The same course of development is true for other lands. The Van. Every battle carried them forward AMUSE MENTS couver workers who quit work yes- terday to collect almost $2,000 for the striking longshoremen in San Francisco feel the blood of class struggle in their veins, they re- member the general strike which tied up Winnipg in 1919. The | Swedish workers will never forget | the general strike of 1909. The, British wor‘cers will some day make powerful use of their heritage of decades .of struggle, of the great, general strike of 1926. | Such general strikes, such class movement of workers as the one BROKE SHOE “Superior to Famous ‘Road To Life’"—N. ¥. TEMES 4 ACME THEATRE ‘THE WORKERS’ IN THE STRUGGLES N Soviet Talkie Prodt fi "Zaria Hus léth STREET and UNION SQUARE JAMES W. FORD Says: —— “By all means Negra and white workers should see stevedore CIVIC REPERTORY THEA. 105 W 11 St. | taking place in San Francisco to- day (and perhaps on the entire! West Coast tomorrow) besides ad- vancing the solidarity of the work- ers and impending the attacks of the bosses, always win certain defi- | nite gains for the workers, the full maximum of which is gauged only Eves. 6:45. Mats. Tues. & Sat. 2:45 Wo-10e-Ghe-75e-$1.00 & $1.50, No Tax 'TADIUM CONCER' Sicncebcieh, Serioaha Ss Amst.Ave.&138 Bt. Sym, Programs Sunday thro —— Nights, 8:30 Cont by x Opera Per! ances with Friday and Saturday Conducted by + 250-50e-$1.00(1 $$$... / —— An Epic of Children in Politically-Torn Europe! —~ AMKINO'S Film Masterpiece 5 OF THEIR FATHERS ~ AGAINST REACTION! —