The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 16, 1935, Page 2

Page 2 DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1935 RADE UNIONS BACK (She Strikers | pees case iia Detroit AF of MAYOR ‘RESTORED’ AT SCAN , Flay Policies re ‘Auto Unions ’ eee CANDID AG | area Paper Call Parley A Ae eee FOR DETROIT COURT _ set BY TAXING MASSES Resolution Condemns | Unions Condemn Denial | Ae EP RNTE Sige ear Strikebreaking Role Of Autonomy Rights (Cements Unholy Alliance With Right Wing in we een gt eh aaah say Of Baily Forwand By Top Leaders Socialist Party—United Front of Workers Workers Sentenced by Judge of Recorder’s SUMMIT, N. J., Jan. 15. . . Toe May Effect Local Labor Party Tickets Court, His Opponent in Elections bs : : ae DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 15—Local y x 9 I trikebreaking activities of the Jew- unions of the United Automobile heat Sees a yk EE a ish Daily Forward were once more Workers (A. F, of L.) have issued a fs 7 By A. B. Magil prought to light yesterday. The Gall tora conteenie Gl ain wake By Simon W. Gerson DETROIT, Mich., readers of this organ of the right ‘ ng of the Socialist Party among | House of Correction.” triking workers of the Feifer | Judge John V. (Vicious) Brennan of Recorder’s Court a oa eae ean adopted i ry resoluul iemning it. snapped the words out. The two Negro defendants looked “the 175 employees of the com- ~ bewildered as they were led away to jail. Ninety days be- pany are now in the eighth week cause they were walking in thes of strike under the leadership of street and a cop decided to pick the United Shoe and Leather them up! Not in chain-gang-ridden | Workers Union, after the owners moved their shop from New York Georgia or Florida, but in “dynamic »Detroit” the classic city of the (This is the third and last of a series of articles on the first year of the Fusion administration in New York. The first two articles appeared on Saturday, Jan. 12 and Monday, Jan. 14.) * * . ENEY YORK CITY now has a commanding position in municipal credit.” » Thus spoke Mayor LaGuardia in his radio broadcast on Jan. 10, detailing the history of the first year of his administration. ae aRRES CORRE 5-H Tt is, of course, true that city| thus done everything in his power 5— "Ni y y’ . i local unions to take place in Detroit, Seni ont uate scan Sunday, Jan. 26. The conference call is signed by eighteen delegates of local unions, representing the White | Motor, Fisher Body, Hupmobile, Murray Ohio, Bender Body and Na-| tional Carbon locals of the United | Automobile Workers, The call for the conference quotes | and condemns the resolutions | passed by the last A. F. of L. con-| vention which declares that “The} th MAURICE SUGAR in order to escape the agreement | they had with the union and to “American standard of living” with | all that it implies. The official | charge: “vagrancy.” It was all in the day's work for Judge Brennan, and the whole business only took a couple of minutes. He—and not only he—had handed out similar sentences be- fore for similar “crimes.’ It was Teally quite simple. But this time it was not as simple as Judge Brennan thought. A labor attorney, Maurice Sugar, got wind “of it. He has offered his services te the two Negro workers without charge, is appealing the case and demanding a new trial. The In. ternational Labor Defense is also taking action and is preparing to operate under sweat shop condi- tions. The indignation of the strikers, the members of the U. S. L. W. U. and the rank and file of the Boot and Shoe Workers Union, A. F. of L., Was aroused by the strikebreak- ing actions of Mike Tesoro and C. E. Danner, officials of the A. F. of L. union. In spite of the claims of the For- ward to be a “Socialist” and work- ers’ paper, it proved to be the only newspaper, approached by the strik- ers, that refused to publish news of the strike and the resolution of protest adopted by the strikers against the actions of the officials of the B. S. W. U. The resolution A. F. of L. shall for a provisional period direct the policy, administer the business and designate the ad- ministrative and financial officers” organized internationals. “We feel that the auto worker is just as intelligent and capable of electing his own officers, fixing his own policies, administering his own business, and handling his own fin- ances as are the other workers in any other National or International union” says the conference call. Troops of the international army in the Saar were openly known as favoring the fascists. They refused to interfere as the Nazi “Deutsche The resolution of the A. F. of L. is termed “a denial of the most ele- mentary rights guaranteed to us in law and custom. We claim the right of the auto workers and other newly | + bonds, which had been from 179.5 to 98.5 cents on the dollar, rose to 93.5 to 105.5. Strange to say, how- to keep the credit high.” The bankers’ agreement, in cas@ you didn’t know, practically put the city in hock to the bankers. It ac- tually permits J. P. Morgan and Company to examine the books of the city at any time that. that.com- its appointed agents so From all of the above it is abun- dantly clear that the essential policy of the LaGuardia administration, as Proven by its concrete deeds in its first year of office, has been one of carrying out the fundamental Policies of the bankers under a bar- rage of demagogy. On the one hand there has been the occasional dis- Front” without hindrance terrorized the Saar workers into voting for | to fix our own policies, and admin- play of nose-thumbing at the bank- organize mass protest to back up| Sugar’s fight for a new trial. Laber Candidate Sugar, who is one of the fore- | most labor attorneys in the coun- | try, is now a candidate for the very | office which Brennan holds—judge of Recorder's Court. Brennan him- self is running for re-election. Highteen candidates are to be chosen in the primaries in March, with nine to be elected in the finals >in April. Sugar’s candidacy is probably unique in the entire coun- try in that he has been endorsed by every section of the labor move- ment, from the Detroit Federation of Labor (A. F. of.L.) to the Com- munist Party. Among the many other organizations that are sup- porting him are two independent the automobile industry, the Me- chanics Educational Society of America and the Society of De- signing Engineers. Defended James Victory seeraecensere ene unions of highly skilled workers in| Who is candidate for Judge of Recorder’s Court in Detroit. The Detroit Federation of Labor, the | Mechanics Educational Society, | the Society of Designing Engi- | neers, the Communist Party, and | other labor groups have endorsed his candidacy. U.S. Agent Aided Reign of Terror | (Continued from Page 1) away with Herman and other work- ing class leaders, when George Wil- bur, member of a prominent Wau- Sugar is an outstanding fighter | kesha family, invited Bins to Wau- for the rights of the Negro masses kesha on i and was the attorney last summer | “uncle” was having labor trouble the pretext that his in the famous frame-up of James | in his “plant” and wanted a certain Vietory, Negro worker who was ac- | “agitator” put out of the way. cused of attacking and slashing a Wilbur, who is a member of the white woman. Through Sugar’s| League Against War and Fascism, brilliant exposure of the frame-up,|had another member, Robert Ber- backed by the mass protest organ- | berich, play the part of his “uncle.” ized by the International Labor De- from life clared not guilty. 6 hehe EMmERE eRe = is from the official stenographic ‘for all workers, Negro and white, sible. trial? Mr. Lee: I waive a jury trial. The Court: Very weil. ‘were sworn by the clerk.) The Court: What about + officer? report of the so-called trial before | ,; Judge Brennan held on Jan. 8, 1: MShed bond should constitute the best argument and their organizations to throw all their energies into the campaign to | put a man on the bench in whose { court such outrages will be impos- The Court: Do you want a jury 3i guuty: ; The Court: Do you waive a jury =. trial? §} Mr. Lee: Sir? Pa this, He also had a reporter from the fense and the League of Struggle | Milwaukee Journal sit in’ on the + for Negro Rights, Victory was saved | conference with Bins imprisonment and de- Bins, asked if he could handle the | “job,” boasted that he had taken | Th two Negro workers involved part in the kidnapping of Herman, in the present case are Charles Lee | had pummelled the working class and Monroe Brown. The following | jeader, and later threw rocks in the windows of bondsmen who had fur- for Herman, following one of his frequent arrests. Wilbur expressed some worry about the business of disposing of the mythical “agitator” in the “uncle's plant.” Bins assured him | there was nothing to worry -about | as he was working with the author- After the defendants pleaded not | ‘ties: “There is absolutely nothing to worry about. You're fully protected. I work with the authorities in Racine. “I'd take him when he least ex- pects it, in the daytime. I learned @ lesson in Racine. The boys told me to get Herman at night. I must (The defendants and the officer have waited fifty hours for him at 534. I can’t remember the street, | Packard Avenue, I guess, where he gets his relief. I went back to the The Officer: Your honor, yester- chamber office and I said, ‘You're day afternoon at 2:30 p. m. in the crazy and I’m crazier still to wait city of Detroit, I arrested these around at night freezing my feet men. They had no job, no home, Off. Why don't you let me take and no visible means of support. him in the daytime?’ They said The Court: What about it, Mon- Okay, and next morning at 11 a. m. roe? I took him. .: Mr. Brown: I live at 914 Sherman U. S. Agent Drove Kidnap Car = Street. | The Court: Have you any job? | “3 hed 80. cars. at,.my” dieposal. Mr. Brown: No sir, not for the One car agency is 100 per cent last month. \okay, he let me have any car I ents ie You are not on| wanted. The fellow that drove for ‘ion? % oe ae | Mr. Brown: No sir. me was a department of Justice The Court: What about you? agent working out of the Chicago Mr. Lee: I have a job. I work | Office. He’s getting a list of Com- | down at the Twelfth Street Ter-|munists and things like that.” minal, down there, 18 or 20 hours a) “Bins then told in detail how he ad broken up the Communist week. I also have an application to! hi Party headquarters at Racine, and report to Briggs this morning. The Court: Are you on proba- of being instructed by persons in Be. aco sie the office of the Association of The Officer: I asked both of them where they lived, and gave | pondsmen who them plenty of time to answer the questions. The only reason they didn’t tell me where they lived was they were afraid we would find had furnished bail He also boasted that |he had been invited to go to Mil- |waukee and “get” Morris Childs, district organizer of the Commu- nist Party. “I waited for that so and so all day at ‘the Medford him on the phone at 8 a. m., one Sunday and kept it up all day, but in question appeared in the Daily Worker on Wednesday, Jan. 9. This action of the Forward ex-| Posed its true character, as strike- breaker, before its own readers among the strikers, who adopted the following resolution: “We, the strikers of Feifer | Brothers Slipper Company shop and readers of the Jewish Daily Forward condemn the action of the announcements of our strike and the resolution of our crew con- demning the officials of the Boot and Shoe Workers Union, A. F. of | L., for their attempt to aid the ses in breaking our strike. Our resolution has been accepted and published by all newspapers | that we have approached. “The Jewish Daily Forward, the so-called workers papers, was the only newspaper that refused to give us any aid to win our str « The resolution was signed by M. Zeitlin, Phil Levine, Nathan Nor- the Forward in refusing to print} By Tex tile Mill Bosses elect delegates to the Jan. 26 con-| jman (reader of the Forward for 23|the E. M. Holt Plaid Mill. years), Morris Katz, Max Fuller, Morris Schiff, L. Sheiner and B. Hoffenberg (reader of the Fo: for 31 years). Engulfs Saar (Continued from Page 1) “peace” army are more than indif- ferent to what is going on. They are actually aiding the illegal set- ting up of Hitlerist power. Not one member of the international police force was allowed to stir in defense of supporters of the status quo while they were being beaten and intimidated during the plebiscite—| and at this moment Major Hen- | nessy, chief of the Police, is concluding his arrest of sixty policemen stationed here on | the Nazi-inspired canard that they | were part of a Socialist force pre- paring a revolution! On learning of the shameful fascist activity of League deputies, Herr Ritzer and Machtz, the former a one-time So- \cialist deputy in the German Reich- stag, resigned as officers of the Saar Police. In forwarding the plebiscite re- sults to the conservative French paper, Journal des Nations, a spe- heel Rally at Garden the return of the territory to Hitler. { Caroling Union Leader To Tell of Frame-up | “Slim” John A. Anderson, former president of the Pied- mont Council of the United Textile Workers Union of North Carolina, is in town today to rouse organized Jabor for a fight. Anderson and five other textile workers who were active in Burlington, N. C., during the® ~ = general strike were recently sen- | five fellow defendants. Talking, with tenced to terms of imprisonment | his big, workirwgnan’s hands, rest- totalling fifty-seven years on | ing uneasily on his knees, he quietly charges of conspiracy to dynamite | piled up evidence of the crude The | manner in which the mill operators |fight for which Anderson, with the | are trying to take their revenge on |help of organized labor hopes to|the leaders of the textile workers arouse New York workers is a fight | whose flying squads closed down to smash this obvious frame-up. |everyone of the fifty-five mills in) | Like most labor frame-ups this| Alamance County. | one is crude and only thinly dis-| At the moment, all the defend- |guised but that didn’t prevent the | ants but one are free on bail. But judge from charging the jury to | whether or not they all go back for |bring in a verdict of guilty. long terms depends in large meas- ure on the working-class support of the frame-up and of the her | that can be roused“for them, That's general textile strike which pre- | why Anderson, and everyone. else ceded it before a mass meeting to-|who knows about the case, is night at 8 West Twenty-Ninth | anxious to see a good turnout at Street. Yesterday he discussed the | tonight’s meeting, which is being | trial in leisurely, emotionless tones| held under the auspices of the though he is fully aware of the|Committee to Support Southern danger which feces him and _his| Organization. To Hold Lenin | Anderson will tell a detailed sto: Malden, Mass., Jan, 27, at 8 p.m., | 451 Cross St., Peter King. Winthrop, Mass., Jan, 21, at 7:30 | Pm., 231 Shirley St., Peter King. Gardner, Mass., Jan. 20, at 7 p.m., Lithuanian Hall, corner Willow and Main Sts., Mack Libby. W. Concord, N. H., Jan, 20, at 7 p.m., Oak Hall, Jack Lambert, | Krumbein, will be chairman. There Quincy, Mass., Jan, 20, at 3 p.m.,| | will be only two speakers. | Johnson Bldg., Quincy Square, Ella The meeting will begin promptiy | Brooks. |at 8 p. m, and adjourn at 10:30. Lowell, Mass., Jan, 20 at 2 p.m. General admission will be 25 cents | Workers Center, 338 Central Street, Reserved seats at $1.00 and 40 cents | Jack McCarthy, may still be obtained at the Di trict Office of the Communist Party, (Continued from Page 1). | More Meetings ister our own business, based up n the widest possible democracy.” The Executive Council of the A. F. of L. is composed mostly of heads of craft unions, the local unions point out. The call favors a vigor- ous struggle against the miserable conditions now’prevailing in the in- dustry, and condemns the do-noth- ing, no-strike policy of Green. All auto local unions are asked to fererice to discuss these problems. Wilentz and Reilly Suppress Evidence (Continued from Page 1) and intimate friend of Haupt- mann’s. Nothing better than Reilly's ma- neuver to fasten the crime on Fisch and use Uhlig as his main support can be brought to exemplify the stupidity, from the point of view of their own interest, of the capitalist politicians and newspaper publish- ers, who jumped into the Haupt- man trial head first and with their eyes closed. Trying to Keep Issues Hidden When the trial opened, it ap- peared that they woyld be able to maintain the fiction that Haupt- mann was the only criminal in- volved in the kidnaping and mur- der. But as time went on they be- gan to realize that the disclosures they had from the very day of kid- naping two years ago until and even after the arrest of Hauptmann, and which they have been desper- ately trying to keep hidden since the trial began, could not forever be suppressed. Today it can be said without any possible basis for contradiction that the capitalist politicans and news- papers both are heartily sick over the fact that they ever began to make a Roman holiday of the trial. They have been playing with dyna- mite in this trial and they realize it. The conviction that Hauptmann is not the only one guilty in the kidnaping and murder, and that both the Prosecution and defense attorneys know it and are supress- ing evidence that would involve well-known figures in the crime, is so strong among newspapermen Commerce to “take care” of the reason they did not know was that hotel,” Bins said, “started calling | population could have learned only cial correspondent wrote in high in- | Henin bee inectinge UAE | dignatio: out the country include the follow- “The Plebiscite Commission had | ing: epee ge ne ey be Bd tt &) Youngstown, Ohio, Jan. 19, at 7:30 | secret vote. Yet the freedom of a Ay a aii secret vote was completely lacking. pin. Central Auditorium. William} German propaganda poured across | Weinstone, speaker. the border through radio broadcasts | Philadelphia, Pa. Jan. 18, at 8 pnts Heiress pees p. m., Market Arena, 45th and! ‘or the publication of placards and|,,_ 4 i iy leafiets. On the other hand the | M@rket Sts. Speakers, Earl Brow Persecuted United Front of Com-| ‘er and Manning Jonnson. \ munists and Socialists issued only Sede ttae Rg ley ee Beane | a few newspapers. It required a | P3 * ve. R heroic spirit indeed, to issue such ers, Ben Careathers and Jack John- | a fighting paper such as they had.| Stone. “In the light of such a situation} New Britain, Conn. Jan. 20 at 3) the population of the Saar was/P- m., William Taylor, speaker. H never correctly informed concerning | _ Boston, Mass, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m.,| many things. They did not know, | 113 Dudley St. (Roxbury). Speaker, | for instance, that a vote for the pte a aes sora afer a ere status quo did not mean a final rovidence, R. I., Jan. , a separation from Germany—and the | Be Se One men Hall, 5 estnu' . other Bloor. ja second plebiscite was deliberately | Worcester, Mass., Jan. 20, at 8 p. jpresented by the Nazis as impos-|m., A. O. H. Hall, Trumbull Street. |sible. They did not know that at | Mother Bloor. the last minute the Vatican,| Norwood, Mass., Jan. 20, at 8/p.m., |through the bishops of Trier and| Finnish Workers’ Hall, 37 Chapel Speyer, acknowledged the road to|Court. Fred Roberts. |the status quo, a fact which 8 | Aca eee = Me 8 pm., | orthend St, Edwa evens. Maynard, Mass., Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m., Russian Hall, 20 Powder Mill |through the Social-Democratic and |Communist press. At the Plight of Jobless (Continued from Page 1) falling from the ceiling of one of! the large rooms in that building. Alderman John Cashmore, Brook- | lyn Democrat, speaking at the reg- | ular meeting of the Board of Alder- | men attacked Mayor LaGuardia | sharply for blocking the appropria- tion of $25,000 for the investigation, If the Mayor would not vote the| sum, Cashmore threatened, he would call for popular subscrip- tion of the sum through the poli- pers of the city. Cashmore recently declared that the relief rolls “were | packed with aliens.” ‘The Board adopted a resolution | offered by Alderman Lambert Fair- child, Manhattan Republican, ap- proving the work of the investi- | gating committee. developments foreshadow a sharper \partisan fight around the relief | probe, with the Democrats doing everything possible to embarrass Fusion appointees. LaGuardia, of | latest, | tieal clubhouses and the newspa- | lished | _ Close observers feel that the new | couldn’t get in touch with him.’ ; 5 3 : 3 3 Fa 3 3 3 : 3 . : 3 i some stolen property at their home. | Mr. Brown: I have a room at 914) Sherman. Mr. Lee: The only thing the of- ficer asked me was to get in the car. | — | “Oh, sure, bs have to get him. s Why do you know Childs is the one I. Amter Will Address who is running a school on Com- i it munism in Milwaukee? We'll get Lenin Rally In Detroit 72" ight Bins was then asked what would DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 15. — I, the job in hand cost. He would Amter, national secretary of the | leave that up “to the office,” he Unemployment Councils, will be the | replied, but took $10 as a retainer. chief speaker at the mass meeting | Bins was placed under arrest. He Sunday, Jan. 20, in honor of the | was almost immediately released, lith anniversary of Lenin’s death. | however, on $1,500 bail. The sto: ‘The mass meeting will be held at | Of how he was trapped by the in- 2 pm. at Arena Gardens, Wood- | Vestigators was published on the | ward Avenue and Hendrie Street. | front page of the Milwaukee Jour- | An elaborate program is being ar- al, which also reported that his ranged for the occasion, in which @!Test had “thrown those involved | the John Reed Club, the Freiheit |@d those supposedly involved in| Gesangs Farein and other organiza- the ‘war against Communism’ into tions will participate. a flurry of excitement.” ra Officials of the Association of ; Commerce hastened to disassociate Don’t allow your copy of the Worker to lie around the Leave it on the subway or Daily house. -street-car or give it to someone else | themselves from their trapped agont. American Legion officials, | while denying that Bins isa mem- | ber of the Legion, visited him in| |Jail immediately after his arrest.) |fraudulent maneuvers and false re- ports did not fail the Nazis. THE SAAR VOTED UNDER TERROR.” last | Road.: Joseph Day. New Bedford, Jan. 20, at 8 p.m., North End. Sam Winn, course, will try to cover his own | People as much as possible, it is felt. |The unemployed will simply be the |here that some of their viewpoint is seeping into their accounts of the trial notwithstanding the dan- ger to the Lindbergh myth which their intimations carry. Reilly's Fisch Story Reilly’s intention to try to link Fisch to the crime and his in- tended use of Uhlig is a case in point. Both District Attorney Foley of the Bronx and Hauptmann him- self, according to Wilentz, have exonerated the furrier. Moveover, the very newspapers which today gravely argue over the merit of the statement by Uhlig that Fisch gave Hauptmann. the money which was found on the latter at the time of his arrest recently pub- statements by Uhlig that Fisch could not have given any Money to Hauptmann. The proceedings inside the court- room here are as dull as the facts which are not being divulged are interesting and important. How Jong the barrage of silence which the press and politicians are laying around the significant facts will last, will depend on many factors, not all of which can be discussed as yet. The case may break wide open suddenly, or it may collapse into oblivion just as quickly. Finished with your Daily Worker? Leave it on your street- subject of discussion—that's all. car seat for someone else to read. Chi I. Hot upon the heels of its chal-| lenge to Cleveland, the Chicago Dis- | trict of the Communist Party yes- | terday issued its plan of work in| the Daily Worker circulation and | subscription campaign. Thirty delegates from Communist | Party units and Chicago working | class organizations have accepted | the plan. Chicago’s quota in the} drive is 1,500 daily subs and 2,250] Saturday subs. | “We must spur the Chicago | | working class into immediate ac- | tion,” the District resolution de- clared, “Especially now, when all the forces of reaction are bearing ex- pression in the Hearst press, The es Plan of ‘Tribune’ and others are daily slandering our workers movement and the Soviet Union. What other English daily paper in the coun- try will answer these falsities, but the Daily Worker? “The question of subscriptions and circulation must be placed boldly before all workers and working class organizations. “Workers, answer this urgent appeal! Get subscriptions and more subscriptions.” | New Prize in Subs Race | With the free trop to the Soviet | | Union, which the Daily Worker is | offering as a first prize in the sub- | scription contest, Chicago is offer- Work in ‘Daily’ Campaign | | | | | tions, for Friends ef the Daily | |ing its own second prize of a free | trip to New York for the May Day | celebration. Twelve points are in the two parts of the Chicago program. They call for shock brigades and Socialist competition among the units and sections, for responsible | Daily Worker Committees, for in- | volvement of the mass organiza- Worker clubs, for intense canvas- sing, for wide publicity on the campaign, and for weekly reports and check-ups, Action for Subscriptions Each unit and mass organization liver sample copies of the Daily Worker in a concentrated area for six days, with an especially pre- pared circular. On the seventh day the workers to whom the papers were delivered are to be personally visited and urged to subscribe. Outlines for discussion are being sent to each unit. The units are to ‘issue special leaflets. They are also to arrange special symposiums on the role of the Daily Worker. “Under no circumstances,” the resolution declares, “is attention to be detracted from street sales of the Daily Worker. They must grow side by side with the sub- is to assign several workers to de- 1 scription lists!” MAYOR F, H. LAGUARDIA ever, this caused no flutter in the hearts of the workers of New York City. The crowds of relief clients in the Home Relief Bureaus and their families in the firetrap tene- ments failed to stand up and cheer. | Wall Street undoubtedly appreciated it; Mulberry Street somehow didn’t get the point. This has been fundamental to the entire LaGuardia regime: the “re- construction” of the city’s credit at | the expense of the broad masses of | the city’s population, In plain lan- | guage, it has meant payless fur- | loughs and wage cuts for municipal employes, cutting down of essential social services, the passage of the sales tax—all this in order to meet the payments of interest to the | bankers. What this means in practice was | shown dramatically by events with- in the relief administration. Police terror against the unemployed at the relief bureaus was a common occurrence, Discharge of competent relief workers who were active in organizing the Home Relief Bureau | Employes Association and publicly | opposed the use of police against | the unemployed became an estab- lished policy of the LaGuardia- Hodson relief administration, Words and Deeds to Negroes The Negro masses were given many and large promises when the Mayor was candidate. LaGuardia considered it the better part of! valor, however, to ignore this ques- | tion in his radio speech, And for a| good reason: thousands of Negroes | in New York are disgusted with the | Jim-Crow policy of the administra- tion, a policy covered by the slimiest of evasions. The case of the Queens County General Hospital leaps to mind. Negro physicians, supported by many white workers’ organizations, j demanded that a number of Negro doctors be placed on the staff of the new Queens hospital. They have | consistently been given the run- around by the administration. The Mayor is quite alert to the growing disillusion with himself. He is therefore pushing forward a series of new proposals. He has now become the “champion of the people” against the “vested inter- ests, the utilities.” He will force the reduction of rates, He will build | | a municipal power station. Or so he says. The Mayor demands a low rate, of credit on Federal money loaned the city. Boldly he demands un- employment insurance . . . when he is far away from New York and has a national sounding board. (Here he refused to see a delegation of New York workers who come ask- ing the endorsement of the Work- ers’ Unemployment and Social In- surance Bill, known as H. R. 2827 in the present session of Congress.) The “Socialistic Plaything” We do not intend to go into a long discussion of the spurious type of “municipal socialism” of which LaGuardia is an advocate. The Daily Worker will discuss these spe- cific proposals more at length on some future occasion. How “social- istic” these proposals are we will let The New York Times say. That staid organ of finance capital, writ- ing under the heading, “One Year of Fusion,” said editorially (Jan. 2, 1935) : “He [LaGuardia] seems always to want to have in hand some socialistic plaything or other. Just now it is a municipal power plant.” ¥ ~ A dangerous radical, indeed. this man LaGuardia! He must have a “socialistic plaything, some “social- istic” rattle to distract the atten- tion of the masses, This, of course, is just a mere whim and is understandable in a politician who seeks to get back into the national political arena in these | if nothing else, is understanding. LaGuardia may need a plaything, but when it comes to the banker, he lays it on the line. We quote: “It is much to his (LaGuar- dia’s] credit that he has stood faithfully by the agreement be- \LaGuardia’s parlous times. The Times’ editorial, | tween the city and the bankers, * made before he took office, and ers; on the other there have been the heavy body blows directed against the city’s masses in the form of sales tax, wage cuts of municipal employes, slashing of es- sential social services, police terror against strikers and the unemploy- ed and systematic strikebreaking through “arbitration” and the denial of elementary civil rights to work- ers on divers occasions. LaGuardia and the S.P. Right Wing But all of this would have met with far greater resistance from the ranks of the labor movement in New York were there not a new element in the situation. . That now factor was the systematic. support rendered the LaGuardia administra- tion by the right wing of the So- cialist Party and the official lead- ers of the American Federation of Labor in New York. It is common knowledge that La Guardia has had the closest fo rela- tions with the right wing crowd in the 8.P. For years he was known as a “labor lawyer.” He has even picketed with workers during strikes. He has “fought” injunc- tions and spoken against the sales tax. Within the garment industry, and particularly among the Italian clothing workers, he was a power. Prior to his election LaGuardia got the support of the City Affairs Committee, dominated by Socialists and liberals. Paul Blanshard, “mil- itant” Socialist and executive secre tary of the City Affairs Committee, threw overboard his Socialist con- victions, such as they were, and climbed aboard the LaGuardia bandwagon. He wanted to - play “power politics,’ Blanshard ex- plained. He went into real-politik with a vengeance, writing most of nice, pro-labor speeches, it is said. Along with Blanshard came a number of lesser lights in the S.P.—Henry J. Rosner, Beatrice Mayer and others. Within the Socialist Party, sharp differences’ between the fundamen- tally middle-class right wing and the confused proletarian elements began to assert themselves. The right wing began to gravitate sharp- ly towards LaGuardia, a more or less “natural” political affinity. The relations that had been illicit be- came open. Panken, Vladek and Block became parts of the municipal apparatus, appointed by the Mayor. LaGuardia, gushed Abraham Cahan, big gun of the Socialist right wing, “is one of ours.” This rapprochement of the right wing of the S.P. and LaGuardia be- came more apparent after the Fusion candidate for City Control- ler, Joseph D. McGoldrick, was de- feated by the Tammany nominee, Frank J. Taylor, in the recent elec- tions. Acutely conscious of the strong third party developments in the country, the Mayor is grouping around himself, locally and nation- ally, a number of forces. His speeches ih the West in support of the Progressives, the LaFollette brothers, his close relations with the pseudo-progressives like Senator Nye in Washington, all of these are in- timately related and indicate the direction in which the Little Flower is travelling, albeit warily and in a most circuitous fashion. Unity Can Defeat Bankers, La Guardia For the workers of New York, this political development poses a num- ber of tasks. In the space of this article it is impossible to go into this question more fully. However, this can be said: the growth of the united struggles of the workers and small tax-payers of the city will be the main factor in the political resistance to the LaGuardia-banker policies. Toward the creation of this united front the Communist Party is bending its energies. Whether a united front of So- cialists, Communists, trade union- ists, members of unemployed and neighborhocd organizations will be formed that will find its re- flections in local Labor Party or Workers’ Tickets in the Fall Al- dermanic elections is as yet hard to say. The Communist Party would, however, welcome such a development. In a number of working class neighborhoods in the city—Brownsville, Ridgewood, the lower East Side—such a situa- tion is entirely within the realms of possibility. A united front—on the industrial and political fronts—built up on the basis of the workers’ mass organi- zations will be a tremendous factor in the fight against the unholy, anti-labor alliance of the right wing Of the Socialist Party and the banker-LaGuardia administration,