The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 29, 1934, Page 1

Only $4,405 has been contributed te date to the Herndon-Scottshore $15,000 appeal and defense fund. — Funds are urgently needed for day-to-day ex- penses. Rush funds to International Labor Defense, 80 E. 11th St., N. Y. € ol. XI, No. 207 Daily ,.QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST IN Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at > .. York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1934 Success of 360,100 Brive Mavuires $625 DAILY AVERAGE Yesterday's Receipts Total to Date —....+-- $1421.51 949.93 tt enaweaeene — ooo (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents FASCIST VIOLENCE SWEEPS U.S. Au eae ths o AFL Clique Y.C.L. LETTER CALLS'3 Groups Continues FOR UNITY OF YOUTH) ‘Mediation’ TO NEW YORK Y.P.S.L. N.T.W. Calls J Execeutive Meeting to Develop United Action By SEYMOUR WALDMAN (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 28. — “Adjustment” is the name of the compulsory ar- bitration formula announced today by tne Gorman (A. F. of L.) textile strike leader- ship which, with government. co-operation, has been desperately seeking some manner of evading with impunity the demand of more than 500,000 cotton textile workers for a national strike “on or before September 1.” The Gorman A. F. of L. leader- ship is going ahead with its “medi- ation” program despite the wave of rank and file pressure rolling into Washington from all sections of the country. A telegram, signed by C, W. Bolick, the Southern repre- sentative of the United Textile Workers, is representative of the sentiment in the mills. It declared “about 12,000 textile workers in Columbus, Georgia, are ready for strike action at any time, because of much unrest and discrimination by the management of these mills.” Many other messages from all sections of the country told the strike leadership to go “ahead” with the strike. Others called for ‘action.” W. B. Watson, Secretary of the U. T. W. special strike commit- tee, returned here with a report covering the South. “T attended mass meetings and conferences in a dozen cities and I have reported to Strike Com- mitteeman Gorman that the South is ready to strike, solidly and on the hour the strike order takes effect. ... The spirit of the work- ers everywhere is that the action of our conyention is the only ac- tion that can save the situation for them, They are back of the officers in carrying out those in- structions, They will not tolerate any further delay and if anyone should attempt to bring about de- lay I do not believe the workers would remain in the mills.” Meanwhile the National Textile Workers Union, in a statement signed by Anna Burlak, secretary, called a meeting of the National Executive Board of the union, to take place Thursday, Aug. 30, at Room 326, 80 East 11th Street, New York. The call states, in part: “The National Board will consider the following two points: (1) Mo- bilization of all forces of the National Textile Workers Union for full support and active par- ticipation in the impendnig tex- tile strike; (2) To consider ways and means for developing united action by all textile workers, for a united strike, and the creation of possibilities for establishing one union in the textile industry.” Gorman accepted last night’s in- vitation of Lloyd Garrison, chair- man of the National Labor Relations Board, to meet tomorrow or Thurs- day with the Board head and with George Sloan, president of the Em- ployers’ Cotton Textile Institute, to discuss “the issues and explore the possibilities of arriving at some set- tlement.” Garrison’s “invitation” was made in response to repeated pleas made to him by the Gorman leadership to “get into the situation” and help prepare some formula designed to head off the strike and at the same time shield Gorman from the mili- ' tant general membership under the impression that their strike commit- tee head is really snorting fire and brimstone in the direction of the textile barons and the government. Sloan is organizing a committee to be present at the conference. The proposal for an “arbitration board” whose decisions “will be binding and final upon both per- ties” by a man who has been bius- tering strike and issuing blistering ultimatums foreshadows the efforts | which will be made by the open line-up of employers, the Govern- ment and the Gorman A F. of L. crew to repulse the deep rank and file strike sentiment voiced em- (Continued on Page 6) NEW YORK.—The Young Com- munist League has written a letter to the City Committee of the Young People’s Socialist League in answer to its recent refusal to participate in the Sept. 1 youth demonstration with the Y. C. L. When originally approached by letter for a meeting in preparation | for united action, Ben Fischer, | | executive secretary, replied on be- | half of the ¥. P. 8, L. His letter, which accuses the Y. C. L. of at- | tempting to “split our ranks” by means of united action proposals to individual circles of the Y. P. S. L., follows: “The Young People’s Socialist | League of Greater New York is un- able to accept your proposal of Aug. 21 for a united front on “Interna- | tional Youth Day.” Prior to Aug. 21, prectically every circle of the} Greater New York Federation of | the Y. P. S, L. was approached by | your organization with an invita- tion to participate in the Sept. 1 demonstration. Your present com- munication is therefore clearly stamped as a confession of failure to break the revolutionary discip- line of the Y. P. S, L. by means of insincere united front from below maneuvers. Having tried and hay- ing been thwarted in an attempt to split our ranks, you haye now ap- proached us with an appeal for ‘unity.’ Say Two Weeks Necessary “You approach us only ten days prior to the date of the demonstra- tion to appoint a committee to meet jointly with yours to make preparations when you know full well that the procedure of the Y. P. 8. L. in relation to local united fronts requires at least two weeks for the local units involved to get the permission of the national organiza- tion. “You approach us for & demonstration on a Communist | holiday, the Sept. 1 International | Youth Day, when you know full weil | that it has always been the custom of the Y. P. S. L. of America to joint (Continued on Page 6) Zausner Flouts ‘Rank and File In Settlement NEW YORK.—Without taking the Proposition before the membership for a vote, Philip Zausner, illegal secretary-treasurer of District Council 9 of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers, settled the strike of 5,000 |New York painters late Monday \ night, The settlement, which is hailed as a great victory by both Mr. Ben Golden, executive secretary of the Regional Labor Board, and Philip Zausner, will send the men back to work under the same conditions as before the strike: the seven hour day and the nine dollars wage scale. “We had such an agreement with the Master Painters before the strike,” said Louis Weinstock, leader of the rank and file movement in the union. “This agreement, how- ever, was never carried out. Men worked below the scale and under the most killing speed-up and these violations were winked at by Mr. Zausner and his lackeys in the District Council. ‘The Master Paint- ers Association admitted many times during thé recent strike that the agreement was never carried out.” It was admitted in all locals of the Brotherhood yesterday, however, that it was due to the hard fight of Local 499, whose charter was ordered taken away by Zausner, that Zausner and the employers were forced to retreat from the idea of signing a settlement on the basis of the eight-hour, eight dollar- scale. Workers Mass Tonight to Hit Green’s Edict NEW YORK.—Workers of New York will protest the expulsion or- der of William Green, directed against all militants, at a mass meeting tonight at Webster Hall. Reports from locals and cities throughout the country indicate members of the American Federa- tion of Labor are rising in protest against the provocative anti-work- ing class statement of William Green in which he calls for the ex- pulsion of Communists and mili- tant workers. Green has lined up with vigilantes and the Department of Labor in an effort to make the A. F. of L. an agency for the removal of militant workers who dare to strike for de- cent living conditions. The meeting is a repudiation of this anti-working class stand and will show that members of the A. F. of L. in New York are deter- mined to fight for rank and file control, as against racketeering, and for a militant policy in the face of the activities of William Green and Fur Union Calls Strike In 108 Shops NEW YORK.—One hundred and eight fur trimming shops, including the Bessen Brothers, of which Henry Rosen, president of the New York Fur Trimming Manufacturers’ Association, is a part owner, went out on strike yesterday under the} leadership of the Fur Workers’ In- | dustrial Union, almost completely | paralyzing the industry. The strike | was an answer of the workers, members of the Industrial Union, to the Manufacturers’ Association’s re- | fusal to negotiate an agreement with their union. Mr. Rosen signed an agreement with the A. F. of L. union, which does not represent the workers. At a meeting of striking shop chairmen yesterday afternoon at the office of the union, 131 W. 28th St., Ben Gold, general secretary- treasurer of the union, declared that in accordance with the decision of the furriers’ trade executive board and the national committee of the union, the strike will be spread from the trimming section to every other part of the fur in- dustry in New York. “These strikes are a result of the indifference of the employers and the N. R. A. administration to the demands that the workers presented at the hearing in Washington on Aug. 24 before Deputy Adminis- trator Colonel Berry,” said Gold. Late yesterday afternoon a meet- ing of union representatives and representatives off the Manufactur- ers’ Association was held in the offices of the Regional Labor Board, 45 Broadway. Our Readers Must Spread the Daily Worker Among the Members of All Mass and Fraternal Organ- izations As a Political Task of First Importance! Sign Joint Manifesto Revolutionary Socialists, Schuizbund Body and C. P. in United Front VIENNA, Aug. 28.—The United Front of the Revolutionary Social- ists of Austria, the Communist Party and the Joint Action Committee of the Schutzbund (illegalized Socialist armed guards), has been achieved here and is resulting in united ac- | tion against the imminent danger of war and against the fascist Schussnig regime. The purposes of this united front was clearly stated in a joint Mani- | festo issued on Aug. 1, as follows: | “Schutzbundler, Young Workers! | “Comrades! “In Central Europe fascism has any before. ...In Austria the Doll- fuss government has been recently | ‘reorganized.’ It is now concentrat- ing all fascist forces against the working class. Its endeavor is to draw the nationalist elements into its ban and to accomplish a recon- ciliation with Hitler. At the same time it declares its intention of hanging everyone found in’ posses- sion of a toy cracker. The execu- tioners’ government, with its ‘deter- mined’ attitude, is even more rotten than the rule of bloody Hitler. The brutality with which it clings to its position surpasses anything which any Austrian worker could have imagined six months ago. “In order to overcome the inner difficulties of capitalism, the impe- rialist states are preparing for a fresh war. The policy pursued by the Austrian fascist government favors every war adventure which would make Austria the military |base for other countries. “The Soviet Union has firmly es- | tablished its position in the struggle | for peace. The inner weakness of the capitalist countries does not per- | mit them to embark on war against | the Soviet Union at the present time, but the fascists and reaction- oo of all countries have by no | means abandoned this dream. “We class-conscious workers are fully aware that there is only one effective means of preventing from the very beginning a new imperial- ist war: proletarian revolution! “In this period of fresh war prep- arations the question of our revolu- tion becomes a burning one. The unity of the proletariat on a revolu- tionary class basis is the urgent call of the hour, unity against capital and its bloody rule. The more quickly we attain this unity the more quickly we shall be victorious. ‘The C.C, of the revolutionary socialist, the C.C. of the C.P., and the leaders of the united Schutzbund have therefore resolved in joint con- ference to organize common united action now, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the great war. “We call upon the whole toiling population of Austria to fight on August 1: “Against imperialist war! “For the defense of the Soviet Union! “For the release of the prole- tarian prisoners! “For the overthrow of the exe- eutioners’ government! “For the revolutionary dictator- Get Daily Worker Subscribers! (Continued on Page 6) 'LOCKNER MAIMED |night attacked an Interna- | entered a phase more bloody than |; LL.D. Meeting, Injure Several Workers ChicagoPolice andGangs | in Terror Campaign Against C. P. Rallies Ya NAGARA FALLS, N. | Aug. 28.—A fascist gang last | tional Labor Defense meet-| ing called to rally Negro and | white workers in defense of Alphonso Davis, Negro framed on charges of rape. Two workers were severely beaten and others were injured by the hoodlums as police stood by, re- fusing to act. William Fisher, Ne- gro I.L.D. member, is in the hos- pital with cuts and possible skull fracture. He is under arrest with @ possibility of having a murder charge lodged against him as one| of the hoodlums is in a critical con- | dition from blows struck by the workers in self-defense. A mass delegation of Negro and white workers is going to Mayor Jenss this morning to demand that terror against Negro and white workers be halted and that police) support of fascist gangs be inves- tigated. The I. L. D. is calling on all organizations throughout the | country to wire protests to Mayor | Jenss, City Hall, Niagara Falls, N.Y. Chemical bosses, city officials, | Socialist Party and A. F. of L. lead- | ers are organizing a reign of terror against Negro workers in Niagara Falls, attempting to stop the or- ganizing of chemical workers and the unemployed. Karl Lockner Injured (Daily Worker Midwest Bureau) CHICAGO, Aug. 28.—Karl Lock- ner, Communist candidate for Con- gressman-at-Large in Illinois, was slugged, kidnapped, and horribly mutilated by thugs Friday in Staunton, Ill. Workers who at- tempted to rescue him were beaten down, Lockner was speaking at an elec- tion campaign meeting in the town park when several thugs rushed for- ward and began to beat him. At least three workers were knocked out in their attempts to protect Lockner. Lockner was then walked out to a hard road where a car picked | him and the thugs up and drove away. After driving some distance, | the candidate, badly beaten and with half his nose cut off, was thrown out and told to keep going. He was finally found by his friends and placed in a worker's home to recover from his injuries. This attack is only one of many which have been directed against this heroic leader of Chicago's un- employed. Mass Meetings Attacked Two workers’ mass meetings were attacked by police in Chicago Sat- Sage Ne 6 Niagara Falls Thugs Raid (Continued on Page 2) Textile AN EDITORIAL For a United General Strike! strian Socialists and Communists Unite Against Fascism MILL WORKERS URGE STRIKE AS GORMAN SEEKS DELAY PETITION SIGNERS TERRORIZED: WORKERS’ LEADERS KIDNAPPED; MEETINGS RAIDED AND BROKEN ° Authorities in Oregon | Blacklist All Who Aid C. P. Ticket THREATS IN CALIF, Is, D. Sheriff. and Legion HE broadest general strike will take place among the | Men Kidnap, Torture one million textile workers on Sept. 1, if the workers are able to defeat the attempts of the A. F. of L. leaders and the Roosevelt boards, to prevent it. The cotton, woolen, rayon and silk workers are determined to strike. They have been demanding of the N. R. A. Boards, for more than a year, an end of the starvation wages, the unbearable stretch-out (speed-up), and an end to dis- crimination and violence against union members. The tremendous upsurge of the rank and file in the United Textile Workers Union has made it extremely dif- ficult for the A. F. of L. leaders to prevent the strike from taking place. Thousands of textile workers are already on strike in the South, in New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But Green, Gorman and MacMahon are doing every- thing they possibly can to stifle the militant voice of the one million textile workers, as they have done several times in the past. These A. F. of L. leaders are now trying to build up the faith of the workers in Roosevelt’s National Labor Relations Board. After trying to discourage the workers by harping on lack of funds, the A. F. of L. officialdom is attempting at the last minute to call off the strike. the same methods they used auto workers and the steel board is trotted out, federal again being relied on to prev winning their demands. (Continued They are using to defeat the demands of the workers—another Roosevelt government “arbitration” is ent the textile workers from Green has not taken effective on Page 6) $2,000 for ‘Daily’ Pledged _ By Jewish Workers’ Clubs NEW YORK, Aug. 28.—“The National Executive Com- mittee pledges to raise $2,000 and calls upon all Jewish Work- | ers’ Clubs to immediately start collections and affairs for|! Militant Farmers ASTORIA, Ore., Aug. 28,— The Astorian Budget, local newspaper, in co-operation with Clatsop County relief authorities and the District Attorney’s office, has started |@ campaign of terror against all workers who have signed the | nominating petitions of the Com- |munist Party, The newspaper has published a | full list of the workers who signed | the petition and the same issue car- | Ties inflammatory editorial attacks | against all thos whose names are | Published. The action of the newspaper proved to be an advance barrage for the organization of a local | “Citizen’s Committee” which is campaigning to have all signers of | the petition dismissed from their | jobs unless they withdraw their sig- | natures. Signers Denied Relief The Clatsop County relief au- |thorities are denying relief to all | Whose names were published | Astorian Bi t. The Distri torney's office here is operating a |clearing house where wor have signed the petitions are com- | Pelled to make affidavits declaring |that they are not Communists nor | ommunist, sympathizers. A work- jer’s failure to make such an affi- | davit is being punished by denial |‘of his job or relief. The Astorian Budget followed its initial Fascist attack by an offer to | publish statements or retraction bee all workers who wish to with- draw their nominating signatures, Protests Are Organized The attacks of the Budget are | worded to give the impression that all the signatories are Communist |Party members. It pletely the fact that inating petition merely this important Daily Worker campaign,” said H. I. Costrell, | Willingness of the signer to permit secretary of the N. E. C. of appeal of the New York District Campaign Committee’s ap-| The Daily Worker urges the City Clubs, I. peal for action. the Clubs, in response to the) certain candidates to have a place | on the ballot. The Astoria section of the Com- munist Party is organizing a struggle to end this intimidation, It L. D. and Women’s Councils to place the $60,000 drive first nas called on workers to answer on the agenda at tomorrow and Thursday night’s meetings. | Take up collections! memberships! Detroit, and Milwaukee—the quo- ta of the first $3,000 and that of the second $1,000—are already hot in the race to raise the $60,000 for the Daily Worker. Each has out- lined a plan of action and urges the membership of its respective (Continued on Page 6) Amter Condemns LaGuardia’s Tax Relief Plans ? Whalen Fare: Tax Plan Hit by C. P. Nominee for Governor NEW YORK. — Israel Amter, Communist candidate for governor, yesterday issued a statement in which he condemned both Mayor La Guardia’s taxation proposals for unemployment relief and the pro- posals of “his alleged opponents who are led by ex-Police Commissioner Grover Whalen.” Amter’s statement follows: The tax proposals of La Guardia, which were adopted by the Board of Estimate, to impose a tax of one- half of one per cent on all gross business receipts without any grad- uated increased levy upon those in his lieutenants of the Executive Council, the higher brackets is obviously an attack on the relief of the unem- (grossly understated. There are at ployed, and on the incomes of workers, small businessmen, profes- sionals, etc. Consumers Victimized “In any case, this tax will be handed on to the consumers, the great majority of whom are the workers and the unemployed of New York, In addition, the tax would raise a maximum of $35,000,- 000, which, plus the grants from the state and federal government, would mean a sum of no more than $140,- 000,000 a year. This would reduce the amount of relief per family to an even lower figure than it is at the present time. “We declare, in agreement with Mr. Hodson, that more and more families are ‘coming to the end of their resources’ and therefore the figure of 500,000 families which he gives as dependent on relief is least 200,000 families more in New York without any form of relief. In addition there are at least 150,- 000 unattached men and women who receive no relief. “In view of the above facts, we must categorically reject the pro- posal of Mayor La Guardia even though such so-called labor leaders as Joseph P. Ryan, President of the Central Trades and Labor Council and David Dubinsky, Socialist, Pres- ident of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, support Mayor La Guardia in this shame- Jess attack on the workers, unem- ployed, professional, white collar and small businessmen of the city. Whalen Wants Fare Tax “The ex-policeman of New York, Grover Whalen, who headed the delegation composed, among others, of representatives of the New York State Economic Council which pro- }re declared i Seakives Mayor’s Tax: Will Be Taken from Workers, Jobless poses that those on relief shall be denied the right to vote, did not have the courage to bring forward the proposals that were indicated in the press—namely a two-cent tax on fares and a direct sales tax. This is ‘democracy’ of this Tam- many Hall aspirant to the Mayor- | alty. “The Communist Party supports | the United Action Committee in its | demands that a moratorium shall immediately on the| bankers agreement which calls for | annual payments of $168,000,000 to the Wall Street bankers as the first (Gontinued on Page 2) Spread baci drive through your entire at the relief offi (Writer Hails Bob Minor’s NEW YORK.—Harry Raymond, | who served a six-month sentence on for their part in the March 6 dem- onstration in 1930, yesterday greeted Minor on the approach of his 50th birthday, which will be observed on Thursday night by a banquet in Irving Plaza Hall. “In prison, as on the fighting front, Robert Minor has always | Shown the greatest fortitude. I re-/ member him, a dangerously sick man cooped up together with me in a dingy cell on Welfare Island, fol: demonstration. The sufferings he | endured were tremendous. But he | hid his sufferii and continu Party work, as much he could | within the prison walls,” Raymond | declared. “Comrade Minor is made of that stuff that it takes to make a revo- lution. He is a Bolshevik. And thi 50th anniversary of a Bolshovik i an event of no little importance,” 20th Birthday | Staff member of the Daily Worker, | Welfare Island with Robert Minor | lowing the great 1930 unemployed | |these attempts at | ordination” by mas: Fascist “co- demonstrations and at the of- fices of the County Prosecutor. Workers’ committees are being or- ganized to demand reinstatement of all workers fired for signing the petitions. The Communist Party here has also called on workers and | Workers’ organizations throughout | the nation to send messages of pro- test to Judge Boyington, Clatsop County Relief Committee, Astoria, Ore., and to District Attorney Willis | West, Astoria, Ore. Death Threats In San Diego | SAN DIEGO, Calif. Aug. 28— Paul Shapiro, organizer for the Young Communist League in San Diego, and Elya Bressler, member }of the Epic Youth League in that city, received threats of death last week. | Letters bearing scrawled drawings |of cat-o-nine tails and hangman’s nooses, with warnings to get out of town, were received by both boys, The letters in each case were pre- ceded by phone calls of the same threatening nature, followed by | violent, abusive language. ‘When complaint was made to the istrict attorney, Thomas Whelan, he politely and courteously stated that nothing could be done until | actual harm had been accom- | plished. | This lumping together of rad- licals and mild liberals, as typified in the case of Shapiro and Bressler, | is cencrete evidence of the fact that | the fascist terror at work is not (Continued on Page 2) nee