The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 2, 1934, Page 1

Be ee Greet the New York Daily Worker! Sunday Night, October 7! Central Opera Hor use, 66th St. & 3d Av. Vol. XI, No. 236 Daily .<QWorker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL ) Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1934 WEATHER: Warmer. Yesterday’s Receipts Total to Date . Press Run Yes (Six Pages) Have You Contributed? eee $ 1,222.17 - $11,428.26 Price 3 Cents ROOSEVELT TRUCE ACTS AGAINST STRIKES Socialists at Anti-War Congress Call for United Action A.F.L. REPORT SHUNS STRIKES, BACKS BOSS BOARDS Rank and File Plans Sharp Fight For Unemployment Insurance And Militant Policy es 6 Officials Tell Workers to Submit Without Any Struggle By Carl Reeve NEW YORK.—The report of the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. given yester- day to the national conven- tion in San Francisco, is a platform of abject surrender of the demands of the Amer- ican workers, for which millions have been striking since the last convention, to the employer-con- trolled boards of the Roosevelt government. In its 157 printed pages there is not a word of encouragement for these millions of workers who have been battling on mass picket lines from coast to coast for their ele- tary rights and .their .economic ids. There is not even rec- ion that this far-flung struggle is going on. The sixteen million unemployed are told that their struggle for federal unemployment insurance cannot be successful. On the contrary, the theme song of William Green and company is the familiar strain of no strike, no struggle, no militant program of action—but co-operation with the employers, The Executive Council's report is completely in line with Greens praise yesterday of Presi- dent Roosevelt’s proposal to outlaw all strikes, ‘The pressure of the rank and file membership affected the report. The militancy of the masses of workers forced Green to include in the report strong “criticism” of the results which the NRA. has brought. He admits that wages have not been bettered, hours have not been shortened, that the com- pany unions have grown. But what is Green’s answer to the question—How Shall We Secure Better Conditions? Green counsels that the workers should go back, hat in hand, to the very employer- controlled boards which have placed them in this deplorable condition. “We must provide for joint em- ployer and employe responsibility and joint employer and employe control,” says the report, “But this must ‘come thorough a voluntary arrangement, not compulsory, through a direct participation of representative of organized labor in the deliberations of industrial administrative agencies.” After painting the blackest pic- ture of the present condition of the workers under the N. R. A., the re- port proposes that the workers rely solely on the government agencies and boards which have brought about these bad conditions. “There is every indication,” we are told, “That the National Labor Relations Board is going to be an effective agency for the enforce- ment of Section 7-a.” This strikebreaking board, which has perpetuated Green‘s sell-out of the steel workers’ demands, and has encouraged the company unions, is recognized by Green as thr successor t¢ Wagner’s National Ly.- bor Board.\ ar the latter, wrich has broken nuuaierous strikes, ©reen has only praise. His only cr’cicism was that it had not enoug}. power. “While these Boards( the National and Regional Labor Boards) settled many disputes, they h’d to suffi- cient power to make t.1em effective agencies in estabis’.ing principles for industrial relat.ons in the new order evolving unuver the codes,” he writes. Unable to fsol the workers re- garding the ravaging effects of the crisis undey the N. R. A, the A. F. of L. Crancil’s report admits that the codes have actually worsened conditiras of the workers. On the questisn of wages, “In many indus- tries’ codes have meant a real de- crease in wages and earnings. . . .” Admits N. R. A. Ravages Regarding hours: “Many of the codes establish, in fact, a longer work week than that which has been in effect in the industry dur- ing the entire depression.” The N. R. A. has brought a growth in company unions, “Com- pany union plans (or constitutions) ‘legal’ under the N, R. A, were worked out and the company union (Continued on Page 6) | Philadelphia Moves Into Lead in Drive For $60,000 Fund The Philadelphia district moved ahead of all the other districts in the Daily Worker $60,000 drive today, when the receipts of the 15th Anniver- sary of the Communist Party affair, held there Friday night, totalled $900. This places the full sum contributed by Philadelphia so far at $2,411.08. Its quota is $3,500. The district it has displaced is Denver. Until today Denver topped the roost with 47.6 per cent and Philadelphia was third. But now Philadelphia has 58.7 per cent of its total. New: Wage-Cut Plan Offered In Washington WASHINGTON, D. C., Oct. 1— A wage-slashing snare - the - work scheme was outlined here Saturday by A. L, Deane, president of the General Motors Holding Corpora- tion, at the closing session of the “1934 Mobilization for Human Needs.” The share-the-work scheme, which Deane said that leading industrial- ists have had under consideration for several months, would provide job-sharing, with a corresponding reduction in wages, on a national scale, Deane described the plans as fol- lows: A monthly survey would be made in each industry to show the aver- age weekly hours of employment “feasible” in each industry. Into this would be divided the number of workers in each industry, and the resulting average would be the num- ber of hours to be worked. Employers would not be required to comply with this average, by’ might set the work week at mre or less than these hours, peying double time for hours in exe-ss of the set number. The workr., how- ever, would receive only “ime and one-half, the other sum going into a national pool. Worders in the same industry who *ere employed Jess than the averye hours would receive half ot the nourly rate from this fund, for /ach hour he was employed less t’.an the set amount. Our Revers Must Spread the Daily Wo «er Among the Members of All 7.ass and Fraternal Organ- izatioy s As a Political Task of First Imp stance! r ® at Parley Struggle on Submission to Bosses and NRA Is Main Issue By Bill Dunne (Daily Worker Special Correspondent) SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Oct. 1.—The fifty-fourth an- nual convention of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor — to which Samuel Gompers al- ways referred in his opening |convention remarks as “this | great parliament of labor”—has opened under circumstances of crisis in the official family and in the face of an accumulation of ques- tions for the organized labor move- ment and the entire working class. ‘The only two conventions of the American Federation of Labor to which for these reasons the present session can be compared, were the Buffalo convention. where the A. F. of L. leadership decided for sup- port of the imperialist interests of the House of Morgan in the World War, and the Montreal convention where the late President Gompers received the greatest political defeat of his entire career when the con- vention went on record for the Plumb plan of reorganization of the entire railway industry. The Montreal convention regis- tered the peak of the atiempt of the rank and file of organized labor to assert the strength it had found through extensive organization dur- ing the war period. From that time on, officialdom became more firrily entrenched and the labor-mapage- ment co-operation theory ang prac- tice was adopted as the program for the trade union movemer%. Sharp Contradiction The 54th Annual “Convention is confronted with a /sasic contradic- tion: The contradiction between the upward surye of the American | working class/against the hunger program of/ monopoly capitalism with its cpsseless attack on labor, and the “official program of the America’: Federation of Labor which has tre National Recovery Act as its emtral point, representing the ext/nsion of the labor-management cr-operation theory and practice— class collaboration—the point where labor officialdom openly works as part of the government machinery. This is the contradiction from which flows the unusually open and sharp internal struggles in the of- ficial family, It is the contradic- tion resulting from the efforts of the bureaucracy to discoved better mtehods of protecting the main in- terests of monopoly capital, and at the same time to retain and broaden their base in the ranks of a’ work- ing class, whose living standard as a whole has been slashed by the five-year crisis and the employers’ offensive under the N. R. A. to a point far below that of the living standards of 35 years ago. Here is to be found the main (Continued on Page 2) 9 Sea Strike Plans Grow In All Ports Unanimous Vote Elects Hudson to Committee for Joint Strike NEW YORK.—With Oct. 8, the strike date set by the calls of the International Union nearing, the strike preparations are assuming ever larger proportions, More than 1,000 seamen attended a meeting of the Joint Strike Prep- arations Committee at South and Whitehall Streets Sunday night. The enthusiastic applause that fol- lowed the speakers clearly indicated that unity of action is the course chosen by the men. Hudson Elected Unanimously A unanimous vote endorsed the request of the Baltimore J. S. P. C., whose telegram proposed to invite Roy Hudson to serve on the Atlantic Coast Joint Strike Preparations Committee here and in other Atlan- tic ports. In New York alone over 3,000 signed up. N. Y. Committee Endorsed Joint Strike Preparation Com- mittees set up in North Atlantic ports have wired their endorsement and authorization of the New York committee to represent them in ne- | gotiations here. In response to the request of the A. C. J. 8. P. C. the following tele- g:'am was received yesterday by the committee: “Since shipping industry has no code our board has no jurisdiction over labor relations in the industry, Our board has not been negotiating with shipowners for any terms in connection with seamen’s demands. Our only purpose in coming to New York has been to impress on ship- owners the gravity of the situation and the necessity of taking some action to bring about improvement. Despite limited nature of my mission I will be glad to meet with you in- formally in Room 305 at 45 Broad- way at 5 p. m. today.” (Signed) Lloyd Garrison, Chairman National Labor Relations Board. Despite Mr. Garrison’s denial of any official influence in the secret negotiations, the press reports that the American lines “... will act soon as a result of the ‘big stick’ wielded by the Administration to avert the seamen's strike... .” Olander Agreed to Slave Wage It is known that Victor Olander, secretary of the I. 8S. U., and the owners secretly agreed several months ago on the $50 slave code but the code was rejected by the administration. Olander did not make this known to the seamen at any time. The code was rejected by Roosevelt due to opposition of foreign steamship owners who fought certain stabilization features of the freign rates, etc. But the fact is that Olander agreed to the $50 a month code. Olander’s strong point with the bosses is that if they do not deal with him, the rank and file will take over the leadership of the strike movement and force them to grant more than they would have to, if he is aided in preventing the strike, a For Unity To Leaders | 2,000,000 Chose 3,332 Delegates, Report Discloses By Joseph North (Daily Worker Special Correspondent) CHICAGO, cialist delegates attending the Sec- | ond United Congress Against War and Fascism—forty-nine of them, all braving expulsion for their ef- forts to forge working-class unity— stirred the assemblage yesterday with the announcement that they had called upon the National Ex- ecutive Committee of their party to officiaily enter the League and “to declare a united front with the Communist Party of the United States and all workers, liberals and pacifists.” This marked the high point of the conventions drive toward unity of all who are against the horrors of war and fascism, It was on a par with the enthusiasm of the congress, which opened with 17,000 | persons at the Coliseum mass meet- ing on Friday night. ci the other high lights of yesterday proceedings: the report of the credentials committee. Gains Since 1933 The results compared with last year are: 1934, 3,332 delegates; 1933, | 2,600 delegates. The delegates were | chosen by the following number of workers and middle class people: 1934, 1,807,201; . 1933, less than 1,000,0000. This year 749 delegates | were young workers and students. | They had been sent to,Chicago by 200,000. Willie Sue Blagden, of Boston, a member of the Socialist Party,| brought the convention to its feet) with the following announcement: “We, members of the Socialist Party of the U. S, A. in attendance at the Second United States Con- gress Against War and Fascism representing either locals of the S. P., or as members of the S. P. rep- resenting other organizations at this Congress, or as visitors, call upon the National Executive Committee of our Party at its Boston meeting to officially enter the American League Against War and Fascism and to declare a united front with the Communist Party of the U.S. A. and all workers, liberals and paci- fists.” Protest Threats, Explusions In addition, a resolution was signed by all the Socialists here to be sent to their State executives and the National Executive Council of the Party and the Y.P.S.L. to “protest threats and explusions for united front activity.” Among the 49 signers were Willie Sue Blagden, Mrs. Victor Berger, Dr, Kurt Rosenfeld, the Rev, Com- pore of Milwaukee, Richard Whit- ten, of the New Orleans Local of the S. P., who is also the National} head of the Students League for Industrial Democracy. Willie Sue Blagden closed her speech with the following state- ment: “All of us who are here would have preferred to be repre- senting our locals here. When I , Ill., Oct. 1—The So- | ¢ (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, D. C., Oct. 1— A hint that compulsory arbitration at vital stages of capital-labor dis putes lurks in the new Roosevel| proposal for “industrial peace” came today when Frances Perkins, Sec- retary of Labor and one of the new Roosevelt N. R. A. policy-mak- manent relation.” Asked if the President’s radio an- nouncement that he will call on those “truly” representative of cap ital and labor to use dispute-settling machinery to stop strikes didn’t mean compulsory arbitration, Miss Perkins hastily said, “No.” Re- quested to state her own attitude Compulsory Wy bierdlion darks | In Roosevelt ‘Truce’ Schemes, Secretary Perkins Implies toward compulsory arbitration, she gave a long discussion of why ar- |bitration is not “true arbitratio inless it is “voluntary,” and I don’t think compulsory arbitra- tion is a sound permanent rela- tion.” She added, however, that there are “certain cases” in which |both sides can’t agree—and at such ing committee, said she disapproved | times, the implication was she ap- | struggles, of compulsory arbitration as a “pre-| proved compulsory arbitration com- | | pletely. She didn’t mention the |fact that industrialists invos: com- |pulsory arbitration only in those certain cases” where strike action too effective to be beaten. ;equal vagueness about just what (Continued on Page 2) Talking at great length and with | ‘Anti - Fascist Workers Fight Police Ban NEW YORK.—Anti-fascist work- ers last night massed to continue to picket the Academy of Music, a 14th St. theatre, at which the National Fascist Band, headlined as “Mussolini's Favorite Musicians,” is appearing. Picketing raeched violence late Sunday night after a gang of thugs, emerging from the theatre and em- hundreds of police and patrolmen, attacked the picket line. As they emerged from the theatre the fascist gang poked umbrellas at the pickets and attempted to start a brawl. With rigid discipline the pickets held their ranks solid, re- fusing to be provoked. While the pickets remonstrated with the fas- cist gangs, attempts were made to wrest the placards from the work- ers’ hands. Picketing remained peaceful, however, until Mayor La Guardia’s police swung into the crowd, Hundreds of police swarmed into the streets clubbing the workers, Seventy-five mounted police rode the streets in cossack fashion and attempted to terrorize the thou- sands of workers who assembled at mass meetings opposite the theatre. The workers held their ranks and refused to be provoked. Scores of detectives, the police admitted, were secreted in the crowd of workers attending the mass meeting. At a prearranged signal, scores of police radio cars which patrolled the area (Continued on Page 6) (Continued on Page 2) boldened by the mobilization of| Silk Workers ‘Hit Renegade ‘Attacks on CP Muste, purveyor of Fascist doctrines wrapped in revolutionary phrases |coined by the American Workers | Party, and James Cannon, Trotsky- ite renegade, received no sympathy |from the more than 100 textile workers whom they tried to con- vince on Sunday that the Commu- |nist Party had failed them in the | textile strike. Statements by Muste and Cannon |that the Communist Party could not provide political leadership to the rank and file upsurge in the American Federation of Labor were | met by the audience with vehement protest. During a question period, which was limited to eight inquiries from both speakers, textile worker after textile worker made clear his dis- trust of the two armyless generals of social fascism. Several workers asked point-blank of the speakers, “Where were you during the textile strike?” When Cannon, in an effort to defend himself against the pointed criticism of the workers, declared that the National Textile Workers Union permitted its workers to scab during the strike of Paterson United Textile Workers Union members in | 1931, he was loudly booed. (Special to the Dally Worker) LOWELL, Mass., Oct. 1.— More |than 25 discrimination cases have (Continued on Page 2) “TRUCE? TALK A SIGNAL FOR NEW DRIVE ON LABOR IDENT ROOSEVELT'S “fireside” radio broad- cast Sunday night, greeted so avidly and enthu- . Siastically by William Green, should arouse the whole working class to the dangers of a new at- tack on their living standards, on their union rights and on the weapon of strike that confronts them. Roosevelt's speech was carefully timed with the opening of the A. F. of L. convention, Momentous problems face this convention, and every worker Obviously, the N.R.A. has smashed At the same time, it has raised the profits of the employers, as Roosevelt in the country, down living standards. and his associates boast, ‘Tremendous strikes have taken place against this employers’ offensive under the flag of the Blue Eagle. Tens of thousands of textile workers have been blacklisted. Every effort is being made to quell the growing strike movement in marine and in other industries through Roosevelt’s scheme of arbitration boards, What did Roosevelt propose to meet the mount- ing struggles of the workers against the battering down of their living standards? Why did Green react so quickly in accepting Roosevelt's proposal for a truce in the strike struggles?,- Why was Roose- Let us look Hoover in 1930, workers, asked other A. F. of the opportunity would be per cent, That ard of living of he has used to workers, Here 1s what Under the code, “no strikes.” there would be no “wage cuts.” But what happened? The whole working class of the country had its wages slashed more than 50 AN EDI velt silent on the most burning issue confronting the 16,000,000 unemployed, unemployment insurance? to the inspiration for Roosevelt’s speech. He proposes that the entire working class cease its struggle for higher wages. Remember, when the crisis first struck the the same thing. Green and the L. officials at that time seized at to pledge the employers that there The employers promised truce was the signal for the most unabashed, the most vicious drive against the stand- the American workers, Roosevelt wants to repeat this onslaught on the American workers, this time under the specific con- ditions of the N.R.A., under his maze and snare of arbitration boards, under the whole scheme which hike the profits of the employers and smash down the standards of living of the happened in the textile industry. the workers living standards were beaten down so low, the speed-up increased so fast, TORIAL their union rights frittered away so viciously, that 500,000 workers came out on one of labor movement. Roosevelt now wants to stop th: struggle, while the employers bring does this under the guise of a trea Steel workers, auto workers, aluminum workers, and all others member his previous promises. Wei ers! Auto workers! conditions, Instead, he fastened an arbitration board that has helpe against labor. Textile workers! tear gas and the club. boration of the employers and the and militant strikes in the history of the American artillery of attack against the workers. And he the effects of Roosevelt's arbitration scheme, re- Remember he promised you N.R.A. elections. Now you have been forced into company unions. Remember he promised you better What did you get? You were betrayed by Gorman & Co., and you got the blacklist, the yellow dog contract, the bayonet, Now Roosevelt wants to extend these benefits of | a “truce” to the whole working class, so that while | the hands of the workers are tied by the colla- cials, the government can carry forward at greater the most heroic ‘is movement of up their heavy | truce, cherous truce. textile workers, who have felt irton steel work- on your necks d the employers | his schemes. trusts. | tions. Roosevelt on the N.R.A. by carrying out the A. F. of L. offi- ft: Speed, with more daring, with more audacity, its efforts to increase the profits of the bosses at the expense of greater starvation for the masses. The steel trust is now preparing for a 10 per cent wage cut for its workers. Under Roosevelt's already accepted by William Green, deplores every struggle of the workers for their rights, this wage cut would be put over, and the government would step in on the ground of “ar- bitration” and the “truce” to stop strikes or other resistance of the workers. Roosevelt's “truce” is the first step forwards com- pulsory arbitratoin, a forced ending of the growing strike struggles, in order to carry forward the offen- sive of capital against labor. Let us see the sources Roosevelt used to justify He quoted Elihu Root and the deeds of the British national concentration government, the worst reactionaries, who and friends of the big Elihu Root was a dye-in-the-wool reac- tionary Republican, a lawyer for the big corpora- answered the Republicans’ attacks quoting Root to prove that he was policies of the big trusts, the poli- (Continued on Page 2) PATERSON, N, J., Oct. 1—A. J. | To Bind Labor Not to Struggle Against Growing Boss Attacks ‘Industrial Peace’ Plan | IsStepin Preparation | for New Price Rise | WASHINGTON, D. C., Oct. 1. — To stem the mounting strike struggles against tho miserable wages of the N.R. A. codes, President Roosevelt lin his “fireside” radio broad- cast Sunday night heartened the big trusts by his use the y to effect a ‘ coming mo 1 j;of those t ntative large employers of labor and of large groups of organized labor, i establishing what I may a specific trial period of ind | peace.” Roosevelt™ in. His speech, at the |same time, resorted to actual dis- j tortion of the facts when he de- |clared “the extent and severity of | labor disputes during this per: | has been far less than in any p: | vious comparable period.” In real: | the period he discussed was ma | by some of the | | American labor , 2: larly the textile strike and the San Francisco general strike. It is precisely against these strike | Struggles, and those threatening in j the marine industry on the East Coast that Roosevelt made his proposals for a “truce” in order to prevent the workers gaining their demands through struggle. Repeating his promises to the | workers utilized in all of his strike-breaking arbitration propos |als in steel, auto, coal and textile, Roosevelt declared: | “I shall seek assurances of the |making and maintenance og agree- | ments which can be mutually relied ;upon under which wages, hours and working conditions may be determined, and any later adjust- |ments shall be made either by | agreement or in case of disagree- |ment, through the mediation, or | arbitration of State or Federal agencies.” In order to delude the workers into the belief that their right of strike is not taken away, Roosevelt stated: “I shall not ask either employers |or employes permanently to lay | aside the weapons common to in- dustrial war.” In the meanwhile, however, lower wages will be riveted on the workers, the company unions will |be given added impetus, and the | fighting capacity of the unions will | be crippled long enouzh to aid | Roosevelt satisfy the wishes of the big trusts and other employers. He is concerned primarily now, with the huge strike wave gripping the country, to set the machinery of government into motion to force |a truce, so that the bosses’ profits will not be interfered with by the growing militancy of the workers’ | strike struggles. { Roosevelt’s speech, carefully timed j with the strikebreaking conclusion j of the textile strike, and the open- jing of the 54th annual convention |of the American Federation of Las bor at San Francisco, is the une mistakable indication that Rooses velt is moving shrewdly and relents lessly toward the outlawry of strikes as the major objective of the gov- jernment in its efforts to maintain the again dwindling profits of the Wall Street monopolies and as a measure of militarizing the coun- | try’s industry in preparation for war. Side by side with this preparation |for the outlawry of str: was @ deliberate silence on the question of unemployment insurance. Silent on Inflation Roosevelt's speech was also notes worthy for its studied silence on the question of inflation and the stabilization of the dollar. With the tension growing sharper on the in= ternational excha: 's, and the pres- Sure of the com! on of British and Japanese imperialism taking in- creasing shares of can busi= ness, this silence signifies that toe | Roosevelt government is planning (Continued on Page 2)