The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 11, 1934, Page 1

= a Workers! Attend United ‘Front Rally Tommorrow at Union Square for Textile Strikers? While day-to-day expenses of the Herndon-Scottsboro appeal and defense mount, the half- $15,000 needed way mark toward the has been passed with 37,517 contributed to date. Rush funds to International lith St., New Y: Vol. XI, No. 218 Labor Defense, 80 E. ork City. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y. under the Act of March 8, “tie 6 Daily .QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) 1879. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBE ER i, 1934. WEATHER: Fair See Campaign Story on Page Three Yesterday's Receipts Total to Date Press Run Yesterday $ 424.36 $3,449.47 . 44,100 (Six Pages) Price 3 Cents RHODE ISLAND STRIKERS BATTLE TROOPS orro Castle Seamen Brand Arson Charge As Owners’ Lie IMPERIALIST PLOT 0 CRUSH CHINESE SOVIETS BARE Arms Firm’s Sales Show Link of U.S., Britain and Japan Promotion of the Chica | War for Investments | Alsq Revealed By Marguerite Young | y Workvr Washington Bureau) | SHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 10.—! A British ajtms corporation selling | ownel by the British Gov- ernment ant identified as “a semi- | official Government agency,” wrote their American agents last March 24 that “to place herself in a for- | midable. position, Japan must either buy over the Soviets or fight them and Japan will do one or the} cher before attending to some more of China.” The British agen- cy therefore suggested that the American agents “approach the United States Department of For- eign Affairs and the War Depart- ment,” and inform them of muni- tions stocks for sale in case “some sudden emergency did arise in the | Fa E | > direct, official evidence that | Chinese and American im- pe: ltt depending upon their governmeni’s co-operation, are ganging up on the Chinese ‘Soviets was presented today in the Senate munitions investigation. It wes one of the day’s spectacular develop- ments. The testimony showed also: Threatened Brazil Tax 1, That American munitions makers used the threat of an American tax upon coffee imports to push sales to Brazil recently, al- though previously, “The Minister of Finance here (in Brazil) has been able to keep off the American cof- | fee tax by promising the Roosevelt | administration that the preference | (in buying munitions) will be given by the (Brazilian) Government to purchase from the U.S.A.” 2. That the United States State Department, asked for information | as to the precise effect of the re- cent United States embargo on arms to Bolivia and T*araguay in the Chaco war, advised an Ameri- can munitions maker to “try to ship your stuff and if the Govern- ment’s agencies [presumably the Customs] block your way, hire the best lawyers available and get an injunction against the Govern- ment.” Push Arms Sales to Colombia 3. That American munitions men, with the aid of foreign repre- sentatives of this Government, were pushing sales to Colombia (as was also being done in Peru) during a time when these two South Ameri- can countries supposedly were ob- serving an armistice in the Leticia dispute. 4. That the British firm referred to above, assuring ‘its American agents that all graft would be taken care of, wrote bluntly that “we fully understood that arms deals are not usually done without some officials getting greased, but if any palm oil is required, it has to be added to the price.” It said, too, that “there have also been cases where certain concessions were giv- en,” the American agent testified that these “concessions’ referred to} timber, oil and other natural re- | sources rights. Committee Pulls Punches Even as these disclosures kent the big hearing room in suspenes teday, spectators freely asked one another how long the Nye-Vanden- berg committee will continue. The questien not whether they will stop short of disclosing ail the in- formation in their possession—but rather where the deadline will be drawn. It is rumored, in fact, that they have already pulled some punches on orders from higher up. They have simmoned Felix and Lammot duPont of the mammoth American firm of E, I. duPont de Nemours, a family having members who were among the heaviest con- tributors to the 1932 campaign of President Roosevelt. The duPonts have alzeady declared that their testimony should be taken behind cl doors. The committee, though unble to do this after once} calling them, obviously cannot de- | yolop all the facts. Your correspondent obtained vir- tual confirmation today, from jupon all workers, N Y. Rally To Urge Aid For Strike NEW YORK.—The Labor Com- mittee in Support of the Textile Strike, a united front committec of New York trade unions and work- ing-class organizations, will hold a mass meeting tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 o'clock in Union Square. Prominent speakers from the la- bor movement will include speakers from the Communist Party, A. F. of L. unions, and workers’ mass, fraternal and defense organizations. ‘In support of the textile strikers’ demands the committee has called Socialist, Com- |munist, A. F. of L., organized and unorganized, employed and unem- | ployed, to mass in the Square, The committee demands the im- mediate withdrawal of all armed thugs, police and national guards from the strike areas; for the un- limited right of the textile workers to strike, picket, assemble and dem- onstrate; for the immediate arrest and persecution of all armed thugs, | deputies and police responsible for the murder of Southern textile workers last week, against the) Roosevelt strikebreaking arbitration | schemes, and for adequate relief to all strikers. Strike Ranks Swell to 12,000. inPhiladelphia (Special to the Daily Worker) PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Sept. 10,— Strike ranks here swelled to 12,000 when 4,000 upholstery, carpet and plush workers walked out of twen- ty-five mills this morning. Mass picket lines were on duty at most of these and many other strik- ing mills in the city, with rolling kitchens bringing coffee and sand- wiches to the pickets. Six thousand hosiery workers have been ordered to strike Wednesday midnight, after workers in several mills protested working with scab silk, but the call applies only to un- organized shops, American Feder- ation of Hosiery Workers officials said, and the strike will be called off when the bosses sign contracts in force in union shops, regardless of status of general textile strike. Eyewitness Tells True Fire Story \ Police, Who Blamed Communists NEW YORK.—Seamen of the ill- fated steamer Morro Castle bitterly condemned the stories of “sabotage” and “arson” broadcast yesterday by Ward Line officials at the Federal The ship, which caught fire early Saturday morning, meantime was rocked by explosions as it beached near Convention Pier, bury Park, New Jerse An eye witness sto told by Arthur Bagley, Jr., of 44 Gramercy Park, Castle, who first discovered the blaze and tried to extinguish it with the help of Jerry Dunn, another member of the crew, directly refutes the charge of the ship’s officers, prompted by Ward Line officials, As- igin’ and the Havana police charge that it was set by Communists, Drunken passengers set fire to the Morro Castle, Bagley declared, when they indulged in the “game” of pitching lighted cigarets into waste | paper baskets. Dead and missing, according to reports yesterday morning, were 169. Survivors included 24 passengers and 150 members of the crew, total- ing 391. A total of 560 persons. That the story of “sabotage” and arson was carefully prepared seemed | evident from the fact that Acting Captain William F. Warms refused | | to talk to reporters Sunday but at) the inquiry yesterday clearly stated | | that, in his opinion, the fire was of liGeendlaey origin. The officer went | off on Sunday with Chauncey Clark, | an attorney of the Ward Line, and} did not speak publiciy until yester- | day. Credence to the reports that there is a well-laid plan on the part of company officials to shift the blame for the disaster off their shoulders | and onto those of the crew is seen here also by wired dispatches from Havana in which the port police are reported to have declared that Com- munists are responsible for the holocaust. The head of the Havana ing that one of the passengers on the ship “was carrying chemicals in his baggage and was directed by the Carribbean Bureau of the Third International.” One of the crew, interviewed yes- terday by the Daily Worker, scouted the “sabotage” theory, assailing it as an attempt “to blame the crew pany is responsible.” He was sleep- ing with nine others in the fore- part of the ship, on the D deck, he said, when one of the men who | was awekened by the smoke, roused all the men in that room. “This was about 3 a. m.,” the sea- (Continued on Page 2) | Crew Exposes Cuban) inquiry here at the Custom House. | lay | seamon on board the Morro} that the fire was of “incendiary or-| harbor police is reported as declar- | for something for which the com- | ® General Hosiery Strike | Looms in Carolinas— | Red Scare Raised By Harry Raymond (Special to the Daily Worker) CHARLOTTE, N. C., Sept. 10.— | Although the local press announce: in screaming headlines that “19 Carolina mills have opened.” a ; careful check-un along the strike | front shows that these 19 mills are not. operating in full capacity. but with skeleton crews of professional strikebreakers. stacks of several struck mills in both of the Carolinas, but. the shut- tles. on the looms in these mills stand silent. The fighting slogan. |‘‘Remember Honea Path.” spread like wildfire throughout the strik- |the union headquarters that | Charles L. Rucker. seventh victim jof the South Carolina bloody | Thursday. died in the Anderson County Hospital yesterday. Hosiery Sirike Looms | Meanwhile a general walkout of hosiery workers loomed in the Car: olinas. High Point, scene of the great strikes of 1932 and 1933, is expected to join the strike this week. There are 20 hosiery mills in High Point, employing 7,000 workers. An attempt to raise the “red |seare” in Gaston County was made | this morning following a terrific ex- losion which tore up part of the hignway leading to the Howell mil! at Cherryville. Workers around Gaston considered the exvlosion as a provocation of the mill owners. The Howell is the only one of Gas- ton County's 104 mills which i running—and it is operating wit! |* skelton crew. Call Heavy Armed Forces | While the Gaston County officials | are mobilizing heavy armed forces |of deputy sheriffs and a company [of national guardsmen especially |trained for strike duty, is held | within immediate call. the Gastonia Daily Gazette appeals editorially to the workers to greet the mill own- ers as “neighbors end friends.” “Most of us were raised together here in Gaston County,” says the leading editorial of the Gazette. “Most of the cotton mill operatives know their superiors by their first name or a more popular and affec- tionate nickname. The same is true about the operatives. Both they and their superintendents and many of the executives have played baseball together many a day.” | Unien Activities Increase But a man with a family of eight, who earns $6 a week in a Gastonia | textile mill, told me that there is no chance of settling the strike on (Continued on Page 2) There is smoke trickling from tall | ‘ers’ ranks today as reports reached | | not voting, and one neutral. Main Demands In the Strike The textile workers, 1,000,000 strong, from Maine to Ala- bama, are fighting for the fol- lowing main demands as adopted by the recent convention of United Textile Workers’ Union: (1) Hours: Two shifts of 30 | hours per week with no exemp- tions. (2) Differentials: The estab- lishment of four minimum wages: Unrkilled, $13 per 30- || hour week; semi-skilled, $18 per 30-hour week; skilled, $22.50 per || 30-hour week; highly skilled, $30 per 30-hour week. (3) Machine Load: The revi- sion of all work loads on the basis of reason and ordinary common sense. (4) Recognition of the Union: Reinstatement of all workers | victimized because of union | membershi (NOTE:—For detailed statement of | wage demands for each category of || workers and machine loads in each department see the Daily Worker of Tuesday, September 4.) Daily circulation of Daily Worker doubles in New Bedford, | strike center, from 500 to 1,000. Mass Pickets | Close Biggest Eastern Mills (Special to the Daily Worker) FASTON, Pa., Sept. 10.—Onan- dega, the largest mill here, partially struck today as a result of ma picket lines composed of unorgan- ized, National Textile and United Textile members. Mass picketing continued in at- tempts to bring a complete walk- out in mill, Demos Nicas, Communist Party memb: vas arrested at the picket line for distributing leaflets. Later he was released by the mass protest of the workers. The owners of Standard Mill in| Phillipsburg are attempting to pres | vent a strike by a fake vote. The results of this vote announced are three hundred and forty-one against | the strike, ninety-five for, thirteen | The | vote was taken and counted by a ha Lei committee. Mass picket lines will picket this mill tomorrow, A United Front (Continued on Paye 2) | 6 |Roosevelt May Summon | ufac \w | Winant | tomorrow. | around Washington, | probable that if Francis J. Gorman, UT.W. V the é Sell-Out Conference at Hyde Park By Seymour Waldman | (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) = | WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 10— George Sloan, president of the Man- | turers Cotton Textile Institute and NR.A, Cotton Textile Code head, after conferring several hou! with Winant inquiry and mediati board, today refused to tell newspa- ar thing other than D. Anderson, president of the Bibb Manufacturing Company of; Macon, Georgia, head of the Amer- ican Cotton Manufacturing Associa- tion, and several other cotton man- ufacturers would participate in the manufacturer conferences permen that According to the general talk it is distinctly | strike committee chairman, end Sloan do not get together on} former’s arbitration proposal, | | the President will call both to Hyde| Park for conferences similar to those which ended last Spring’s auto/ strike. In the meantime, Gorman | | is hewing to the Roosevelt arbitra-| | tion line, a policy not contemplated | by the hundreds of thousands | | workers who forced the U.T.W. lead- ership to dispatch the long awaited | strike order. \ Three More Mills Shut (Daily Worker Washington Burean) | WASHINGTON. D. C., Sept. 10.— Three more textile mills were shut down this morning in Georgia in| the face of a “supreme effort” to) open all mills, Francis J. Gorman, | chairman of the special strike com- | mittee of the United Tex’ Work- | ers (A. F. of L.) told correspondents this morning. “Our vice-presidents report that the situation is in splen- did shape, North, East, South and West and that the lines are holding tight. There has been no slipping back. On the contrary, the strike front spread,” he added. Mounting totals will swell the number on strike by the 59,000 up- drapery and pile workers who walk out to- morrow and the 85,000 hosiery work- ers who have been ordered to leave | WAY eae. machines Wednesday at mid-| | night. Sloan Confers With Board | George A. Sloan, president of the | Employers’ Cotton Textile Institute and head of the N.R.A. Cotton Tex- | tile Code Authority, conferred, dur- | ing Gorman’s morning press con-| ference, with the banker-dominated | Winant textile “inquiry” and media- | ion board. Sloan's Washington talk followed his refusel late yester?ay to accept (Continued on Page 2) fabric |” ordinary pigs.” In Brief Troopers set up machine guns as Providence workers surround mills with mass picket lines. More Georgia milis continue to close, despite employers’ efforts to re-open. Sloan confers with Reosevelt Board. Entire National Guard out in North and Sovth Carolina. Penrsylvania mills shut. ily guarded by deputies. Hosiery workers joining the strike. Girls receive third degree by Alabama police for selling Daily Worker. Unity established in Easton between U. T. W. and N. T. W. for rank and file committees. Strikers begin to organize their own relief kitchens in Low- ell, Massachusetts. Upholstery, carpet and allied trades begin to swell strike ranks by thousands in Pennsylvania. Fred Biedenkapp, Communist leader of Shoe Workers’ Indus- trial Union, to speak on strike Thursday, Sept. 13, at 3 p.m. at Hazelwood Park and 7 p.m. at Brooklawn Park, New Bedford. Mills wholly shut. heav- News of Strike | AS gh Leaders Aids Fight Against nity: F (Special to the Daily Worker) PATERSON, N. J., Sept. 10.— Henry Yaeger, Socialist leacie: hurled insult) after insult at the Paterson striking silk workers today when many objected to hearing him speak. A!though the si been on since last 1 have not been called out on strike. | Eli Keller, Lov pestonelte manager of the A. F. of S. W., said that they |would have to wai: orders from Washington. When he evaded the questions of the workers and intro- | duced Henry Yaeger of the S. P. he) was greeted by boos from the | workers. Yaeger took time to tell the work- ers who didn’t want to hear him that their behavior was “lower ‘han He also stated ihat (Continued oa Page 2) ORGANIZE FOR VICTORY IN THE TEXTILE STRIKE LL reports from Washington that the U. T. W. strike lead show conclusively | ership, headed by | likely to do; down 100 per cent. th: are closed down by the flying squ2drens and mass This the mill owners are not y will close down only when they Francis J. Gorman, is already preparing a retreat in the textile strike. On Saturday Mr. Gorman talked of a general strike to back up the militant textile strikers in the face of the murderous attacks of the bosses. Yes- terday Mr, Gorman retreated on this, backing up the declaration of William Green that, “We are not even considering a general strike. Sympathy strikes will not be approved.” Mr. Gorman even attempted to stop mass picketing and the effective work of the flying squadron. At the same time, completely disregarding the murderous manner in which troops, both state and federal, have slaughtered workers in the past (San Francisco, Toledo, etc.), Mr. Gorman asks Roose- velt to call out Federal troops to “protect” the work- ers. What workers today believe that troops will be called out to aid and protect workers? The very suggestion is absurd. Finally, to touch only the main points, Mr. Gor- man agrees to give full power to Roosevelt's three- ‘men arbitration hoard, with the pledge in advance that the U. T. W. will accept any decision whieh (Continued on Page 6) this board renders. Of course, as a purely face- saving device, he insists that first the mills close picket lines of the strikers. Mr. Gorman talks of this visionary 100 per cent shut down as a condition for arbitration only to prepare the workers for arbitra‘ion. It will be followed by acceptance of Roosevelt’s tricky arbitration scheme without any conditions whatsoever. The handing of the workers’ demands over to Roosevelt's three-men board would mean defeat for the textile strikers. The textile workers would get exactly what the workers of Minneapolis, Toledo, San Francisco and the auto and steel workers got—NOTHING! All the proposals of Mr. Gorman, the entire strike strategy of the U. T. W. and A. F. of L. lead- ership are .designed to kill militency of the s-rike and to trick the workers into ene or another arbitration trap. . * . ‘HE central task of every militant textile worker, Communist and non-Communist alike, is to arouse the masses against these arbitration pro- posals. Arbitration must be blocked. The demands of the textile workers, those adopted by the workers’ delegates at the recent U. y ‘ AN EDITORIAL sa es T. W. convention, can serve as the only basis fora | ovkers. setilement beneficial to the no retreat from these demands. There can be | the workers th: The enly way to. move forward to victory nzelyes to take control of the is for strike. The slogan e ere should be: 2 199 per cent strike, with every mill closed tight, until the tex! bestes grant the demands as adepied by the U. T. W. convention. The workers in every mill and in every locality should emphatically inform Mr. Gorman that his arbitration agreements will not be accepted by the workers. Gorman’s field representatives may try to pre- vent the militants from being heard at local ma: meetings. But everywhere the job is to break through all such efforts to deny you the most ele- mentary trade union democrecy. Every striker has a right to be heard at any union or strike meeting. A point has been reached whore to prevent: a retreat, to go forward to v make their voices heard ion, Resolutions and telegrams should flood Gorman’s literally Woshington office azainst his arbitration preposais and retreat strategy. This is the immediate task, but this alone will not prevent the betrayal of the strike. At best it can only make Mr. Gorman’s retreat more difficult to execute \ committees at once, and to t2i necessary to carry the strike Specifically we urge the following meas- s before ev mill to prevent the reop: ning of ‘the mills before your convention demands are granted to all textile workers. 2. Canvass the surrounding territory. If there is a mill operating, organize flying squadrons and mass marches to close the mill. Bring every mill, wool. cotton, rayon, silk, and auxiliary plants out ike until all demands are won. Above all, undertake at onc2 to org: and file strike committees fr: workers at your mill, choosing the worthy and militant workers to represent your terests. Pledge them to continue the strike until the convention demands are granted 4, Get in touch with the similarly organized (Continued on Page 6) Mill Puirivi Pind Into Bloody Battleground As 5,000 Defy Gas Barrage, Guns and Pistols; Roosevelt Conference to Sell Out the Strike Looms ° Women Aid Strikers in Fight Against the Guardsmen By Carl Reeve (Special fo the D: PROVIDENCE, More than 5,000 as ly Worker) is is I stood at 3 o’cleck on the Lanse me Avenue mill entr: Ths of strikers had been growing steadily for an hour and the fir strikebreakers began to come out. One of them as he passed the mass picket mg at a crowd surged around moment’s delay, the State troopers Set off tear gas grenades, Troopers Gas Strikers For moze than “2 hour t | . The strikers, parti cu= larly the younger ones, were in the front lines, defending their ranks | with cobblestones and bricks and anything which came handy. Again and again the workers retreated a few feet, only to reform th: i }and charge back toward the leading to the mill entrance. Stones | filled the: air, Strikers Repulse Troopers The hats of the State t | Were dented in. Some of them e nping. The young st r uid © A moment to wipe their eyes and then return to the front ii | After the fight the strikers wi [still within a half a block of their starting point, and the re score of tanding sullen- up the bank on mill proper their fingers on the triggers of rifles and riot guns stood behind their machine which faced the on The tear gas the wind back Rhode Island to the faces of the State troopers. Trooper Clubs I saw one worker |by a trooper’s club, taken off to the Worker badly injured rear in an automobile. The strike ers opened the way for their wounded fellow workers like a well . Save al women jerhaps Ss of the tear during the fi ers routed. |derly and t | formed and c! ing. The State troopers wore tin hats, carried bags of grenades over their shoulders, Jong clubs and a number carried tear gas guns and rifles ready for use. More than 1.000 workers are still picketing around the mill and de- they will fight until it closed. This mill is a ey res zed with rocks fly= are in Toxtile Mills Stopped | A teur of Rhede nd textile zs which begen early this ed that the strikers their objective in textile centers in New England clos Ninety per cent of the New En- gland owing the greatest are determined to morning I visited the North m mill where the Hope Fin- Company has imported more | than five thousand gunmen to guard their plant. Here, too,-we saw scenes (Continued on Page 2) b perm“ rte RRM