The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 26, 1935, Page 1

—SSSSeeS SCOTTSBORO-HERNDON DEFENSE FUND Only $110.21 received yesterday by the International Labor Defense. $8,999.39 more needed immediately for the appeals. Vol. XII, No. 23 > Daily QA Worker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERMATIONAL ) Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 187% NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1935 NATIONAL EDITION Price 3 Cents (Eight Pages) — BUTLER TELLS FASCIST PLANS BOARD GIVES FALSE NEWS. ON AUTO VOTE Interprets Bargaining Poll as Opposition To Real Unions By A. B. Magil (Special to the Daily Worker) DETROIT, Mich., Jan, 25.—The Roosevelt-appointed Automobile La- | bor Board struck another blow at the trade unions when it issued a Statement designed to create the impression that nearly 90 per cent of the auto workers who have thus far voted in the elections for so- called collective bargaining repre- sentatives are opposed to genuine | trade unionism. The Labor Board’s statement de- | clares that of 38,336 votes cast, 34,273 voted for unaffiliated candi- dates, while only five per cent voted for the American Federation of La- bor, one-half of one per cent for | the Mechanics Educational Society | of America, and the remainder for six other organizations. What the Automobile Labor) Board fails to point out is the| shamele: ickery of these elections | through which collective bargaining | agencies are being established that | really disguised company unions. Most of the so-called “unaffiliated” candidates, for whom the workers | have been duped into voting, are | company union men. | The hatred of the workers for the company unigns is evidenced by the fact that despite the pressure and intimidation which has been | exerted by the companies for| months, the vote for the open com- pany unions in most plants has run behind the legitimate trade union vote, This despite the fact that the leadership of the American Federa- tion of Labor and the Mechanics Educational Society of America have both boycotted the elections. | This is indicated by the results made public today of the balloting in the Dodge Plant, the largest in | which elections have thus far been held. Of 18,428 votes cast, 997 voted for the American Federation of La- bor, 73 for the Mechanics Educa- tional Society of America and only eleven for the company union, with scattered votes for the Auto | Workers Union, the I. W. W. and | the Associated Autorhobile Workers | of America. The Communist Party has issued thousands of leaflets, entitled: “Plain Talk to the Auto Workers,” pointing out the wage cuts taking Place in various plants and_ the great increase in speed-up, and call- ing on the workers not to put their | trust in any new labor boards that | may be established or in the Amer- ican Federation of Labor leaders | who betrayed their struggle last | - Spring, but to set up new rank and | file groups and prepare for stop- Pages, indi ual strikes and a gen- eral strike to win better conditions. The leaflet calls on all production | workers to join the American Fed- | eration of Labor, the union which contains the majority of the organ- ized workers. U.T.W. Chiefs File Complaint A ° ° a5 gainst Mills WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 25— Officials of the United Textile Workers, members of the emergency board. filed complaints yesterday against five violators of recent de- cisions of the National Textile | Labor Relations Board, with At- torney General Cummings for prosecution. It is virtually certain that the Department of Justice will make plans to prosecute, as long drawn out court procedure is one of the means next in line by the national officials of the U. T. W. and of the N. BR, A. to hold off another general strike. The document signed by Thomas McMahon, president of the U. T. W. names the following companies; Duplan Silk Company, Wilkes- Barre, Pa.; Clinton” Cotton Mills, Clinton, S. C.; Indianapolis Bleach- ing Company, Indianapolis, Ind.; Groves Thread Company of Gas- tonia; and Hanna Picket Mills of Rocklingham, N. C. All of these hhave ignored decisions to reinstate union workers, The filing of the complaint fol- lows loud talk by MacMahon and Francis Gorman, Vice-president, that a general strike will be called this Spring, if those mills will not be prosecuted. Upon hearing that the U. T. W. officials are pushing plans to cross swords with it in court, the Clinton Compeny prompily engaged prominent at- torneys in Seuth Cerolina, and an- nounced that it will make the trial into a test of Section 7A of the NLR. A ‘lem Kuibyshev Dead (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Jan. 2% (By Wire- Jess).—Valerian Kuibyshev, mem- ber of the Political Bureau and Central Committee of the Com- munist Party Soviet Union, and vice chairman of the All-Union Council of Peoples Commissars of the U. 8S. 8, R., died from heart sclerosia. This sad news was communi- cated to the delegates who had already gathered at the Seventh All-Union Congress of Soviets, after which a decision was taken to postpone the Congress for three days. He will be given a state funeral, with burial in Red Square. Party comrades said Kuibyshev had appeared in good health earlier today. He suddenly com- plained of a slight illness, and died a few hours later. The Executive Committee of the Communist International has directed the following mes- sage of sympathy to the Central Committee of the Communist Party Soviet Union: “The Executive Committee of the Communist International sorrows deeply along with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, all the working class of the U. S. S. R., and the whole International of the Proletariat in the loss of Comrade Valerian Kuibyshey, member of the Polit- ical Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who died in Moscow, Jan. 25th.” Ford Sends Sum to Help Defend Boys The following letter, accompanied by a contribution of $25, was received by the International Labor Defense Thursday from James W. Ford, member of the central com- mittee and organizer of the Har- \ section of the Communist Party: “Anna Damon “Acting National Secretary “International Labor Defense “Dear Comrade Damon: “The decision of the U. S, Su- preme Court, throwing the appeal of Tom Mooney back to the Cali- fornia courts where he was framed up, should alarm us into strength- ening the fight for the freedom of the Scottsboro boys. “Noting the appeal of the LL.D. for funds for their defense and following the example of Earl Brow- der, I am herewith enclosing $25, a part of the sum received by me for participating in the debate against Oscar DePriest and Frank R. Cross- waith on Janu y 18 in Harlem, “I urge every worker and sym- pathizer of the cause of Negro free- dom to do what she or he can do immediately to help the financial drive of the LL.D, for the Scotts- boro defense. “Fraternally yours, “James W. Ford.” Funds urgently needed for the! Scottsboro-Herndon appeals, should be rushed to the National Office of the International Labor Defense, Room 610, 80 E, 11th St., New York City. 10,000 BABIES DIE COLOMBO, Ceylon, Jan. Ten thousand babies died here in a malaria epidemic now sweeping over the island. The epidemic is becoming more deadly each day. Blame for this appalling plague Tests squarely on indifferent im- Perialist policy of Great Britain, | 25.— | JAPANESE KILLHUNDREDS OF CHINESE Charge Kuomintang | | Killed Missionaries (Special te the Dally Worker) PEIPING, China, Jan. 26, (By | wireless). —Indignation reigns in| Ohinese circles here against the | unprovoked advance of Japanese troops in North China in battles that have now lasted for four days, cost- | ing the lives of hundreds of Chinese | |people and scores of Japanese troops. When no resistance whatever was | offered to the Japanese troops at | Dushikow, a severe aerial bombard- | |ment was directed against the} | peaceful villagers, killing many of | them. Great destruction was caused | in the town. Four Japanese air- | | planes and ten tanks participated | jin the bombardment. The fight | | lasted for twenty-four hours. | | It is now revealed here that when | the Japanese presented their ulti- matum to the Chinese authorities, | the local militarists completely ca- | pitulated to the Japanese militarists. Termed Pretext | But this was only a pretext for the further invasion of North China, |and for a drive towards the Mon- | golian Peoples Republic, The Japanese war drive began on the very day when the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Hirota in a parliamentary speech had made | assurances of Japan's “peaceful pol- | icy.” in China particularly. | Latest reports from the fighting | area show that the Japanese troops jdid not restrict themselves to the occupation of Dushikow and the en- tire “disputed” area, but are now continuing to move. westward | towards Dolon Nor. | Local Japanese circles have good |reason to speak openly about the | importance of Japanese control over |Chahar from the point of view of |the “gossibility of cutting the Trans- | Siberian Railway at the right mo- ment.” Kuomintang Troops Killed Mis- sionaries | | SHANGHAI, Jan, 25.—Undeniable | | proof that throws light on the kill- | ing of missionaries in China by their | ;own allies, the Kuomintang armed | forces, is brought out here by the| missionaries themselves in Tungjen, Kweichow Province. Feets were revealed today, long suppressed by Chiang Kai Shek and other Kuomintang authorities, that Kweichow Kuomintang troops and |provincial forces (not the Red |Army) attacked anc looted the | American Evangelical Church in Tungjen. It was charged, for instance, that the Red Army in Anwhei killed the missionaries, Mr, and Mrs. Stam. But now it turns out that in Kwei- chow province it was the troops pursuing the Communists in West- ern China “who got out of hand and forced entry into the church mission properties.” Workers Win Sugar Strike | In Porto Rico PONCE, Porto Rico, Jan. 25— Powerfully organized in united struggle against the imperialist sugar barons, and their shipping com- panies, longshoremen and sugar workers here won a major victory today after more than a week of a general strike which paralyzed the | island. The workers gaired an eight-hour day and full recognition of their) union, The negotiations concerning | wages are still continuing. Although Governor Blanton Win- ship, Rooseevlt-appointed governor of Porto Rico, is still intriguing to break the strike, | Shaw Declares With Executions in U.S.S.R. His Sympathy (Special to the Daily Worker) LONDON, Jan, 25. (By Wireless). —George Bernard Shaw in a mes- Sage today sharply denounced the brutal colonial policy of the Engiish imperialists and greeted a huge meeting held here to protest against anti-Soviet slander by declaring his complete sympathy with the stern justice meted out by the Sov- jet Union to the assassins of work- ing class leaders. Writing to the vast number of demonstrators, who had gathered from many parts of England, the world-famous playwright declared: “We hope the Soviet government has forgotten that when the British chicf-commander was slaughtering thousands in the absorption of Egypt by the imperialists, the Brit- ish government expressed a desire to interrupt the flow of the river Nile with the view of wiping out the entire Egyptian population. We would feel awkward should the Kremlin remind us of this just now. “As far as I know this execution of terrorists is no massacre over the | grave of a murdered leader, as the anti-Soviet pres; represents. Al- ready a year ago the Soviet govern- ment realized that the terrorist | movement had grown and precisely | at the moment of the murder of} Kirov the measures undertaken by it matured.” Glass Workers Union Issues Strike Order To Call Out 8,000 CLEVELAND, Ohio, Jan. 25.— Eight thousand flat glass work- ers of the plants of the Pitts- burgh Plate Glass Company and Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Com- pany will come out on strike at midnight, unless the demands of the workers are met. Organjzed in the Federation of Flat Glass Workers, the workers demand wage increases and union recognition. Glen W. Mc- Cabe, president of the Federa- tion, stated that if the strike is effective automobile production will be tied up. Plans to call the strike last week were halted when the companies agreed to meet representatives of the union, but no agreement conld be reached, RAKOSI HITS WHITE TERROR Hungarian Soviet Leader Exposes Savagery of Rumanian Troops (Special to the Daily Worker) BUDAPEST, Jan. 25 (By Wire- less).—Crowded into every bench in the court-room and intently lean- ing forward as Matthias Rakosi was | about to speak in defense, not only | of his own life, but for the honor and inevitability of the proletarian | revolution, reporters and high offi- cials of the fascist Boemboes go ernment prepared to listen to this new Dimitroff. “We Communists, too, have much to say concerning the ques- tion of armed struggle,” began Rakosi. “We, too, from the stand- point of necessity, must seize up- on every thinkable means to es- tablish ‘the “rule of the workers and peasants. Among these means belongs the weapon of armed in- surrection. In the citadel of the proletarian dictatorship over the oppressors armed insurrection is the steel spine which maintains it erect and victorious. “But this doés not mean that we advocate violence for its own sake or when its application is no longer necessary. And when I de- clare that in the seizure of power we use no more force than is nec- | essary, let me emphasize that on your part—the part of the exploit- ers’ dictatorship — violence and brutality have absolutely no limit when we present any serious con- | opposition, Later I shall explain in | detail those instances where we | (Continued on Page 3) Socialist Daily Publishes Ads For Uneeda After striking two weeks, 6,000 employees of the National Biscuit Company have kept the New York, Philadelphia, Newark, York, Pa., and Atlanta, Ga., plants completely shut. A week of efforts on the part of the company to hire scab truck drivers in New York, resulted in complete failure. as mass picket lines patrolled all streets leading to the huge plant at Ninth Avenue and Fifteenth Street. Reports of captains of the units of ten organized by the strikers, in- dicate that Nabisco products are being cleaned off the shelves of stores in all neighborhoods. The chain stores in New York, which are receiving goods from the out- side plants, chiefly through parcel- post, are the main problem still facing the strikers. Charney Viadeck, managing edi- tor of the Jewish Daily Forward, and Julius Hochman, vice-president of the International Ladies Gar- ment Workers Union—both leading “old guard” socialists—are endan- gering the strike by raising the red scare, While pretending support to the strikers, Vladeck’s paper, the Jew- ish Daily Forward, prints advertise- ments of N. B. C. products. In the Thursday issue, while running a/ picture of striking pickets on the front page, it displayed a full page advertisement inside for the Kras- dale Food Stores, Inc., with a large insert advertisement for N. B. C. products, which reads as follows: “UNEEDA BAKERS “Graham. Crackers —-Pound Package, 17 cents “National Zwieback —Pound Package, 15 cents. “Tune in on ‘Uneeda Biscuit’; Let's cance 3 hours of dance mu- sie. Every Saturday Night, 10:30 pm. WEAF.” The food store advertisements make a special display of N. B. C. products which are difficult to ob- tain now Nee eae | | Major-General Smedley D. Butler, to whom proposals were made by Wall Street interests to lead a fascist army for “an advance on Washington” at such a time when Roosevelt’s demagogy was no longer | able to fool the people. Krumbein Takes Charge Of New York Circulation | Declaring that “special unprecedented steps” must be taken by every Communist Party section and unit in the face of the “utmost political importance” of the drive, | Charles Krumbein, New York District Organizer of the Communist Party, yesterday took personal charge of the campaign to double the circulation of the Daily Worker in New York. | The action followed closely upon |one of the most far-reaching moves |yet made in the drive—the signing |of a contract, Thursday night, be- | tween the sections, through their | | Daily Worker representatives, and Krumbein, representing the Cen- tral Committee of the Communist | Party, for the successful carrying | | through of the undertaking. | Independent Apparatus With the signing of the contract, a special, independent apparatus for promoting the sale of the Daily Worker was authorized. To be in effect for six months, the contract provides for seven specific points. While it is in force, the Daily | Worker representatives who signed it and what apparatus-personnel is | selected will be unremovable by any |Party organ save the Central Com- | mittee. The contract provides for the {section signatories to devote all j their time and energy to the sale and promotion of the Datly Worker, ito the exclusion of other Party | activity and assignments.” It calls for the organization of a thorough cection apparatus, for | the recruiting, directing, organi- za‘ion and training of Red Build- ers, for a thorough survey of con- centration pomts for Red Build- ers, for contacts with mass or- ganizations in each section to bring about sales amofig their memberships, for a _ regular branch office of the Daily Worker in each section and for the Soliciting of advertising. “Is it possible,” Krumbein as- serted, “to get the required num- ber of readers by July Ist? Of course, it is! “In our own organizaticns we have at least 100,000 members. We reach many additional tens | of thousands in the course of our day-to-dzy work. These can be easily secured as regular readers. “Is there a more important work than securing thousands of new readers in each section? It is absolutely unpolitical, un-Com- munist approach to regard the sale and promotion of the Daily Worker as merely a_ technical task. “We must make up our minds | that this drive must succeed. “Yes, it would not he at all bad if we became ‘fanatical about the Daily Worker’.” General, In Interview, Admits Bids From Wall St. Spokesmen ry Federal Government Aware of Activities Fascist Organizations But Fails to Act— Groups Flood Butler with Offers of Hearst Backed Veterans’ Oufit, Correspondence to Butler Shows Letters from Fascist, Semi-Fascist Groups ta General in Possession of the Daily Worker—Published for First Time By MARGUERITE YOUNG During a three-hour conversation with Major General Smedley D. Butler I learned, for publication, a number of new facts related to the Wall Street effort to persuade the mercurial Marine to lead a fascist army. The retired “leather-neck” General, shouting com: mandingly, bounded down the big staircase leading into a spacious reception hall in his home on Goshen Road, New- town Square, seven miles out of Philadelphia. “Good morning! Well, come now, Miss Young, let’s get this over!” he called. “You know, you've got no busi- negs invading my Sunday. I told you I didn’t want to do this on Sunday! I don’t want to do it!” The General “At Home” He had given the appointment reluctantly in a tele- phone conversation following a three-hour discussion be« tween us on the closed-in porch of the same house on the day before this, Sunday, Jan. 20, 1934. I had waited a few minutes in the hallway. I was impressed by the tone of emphatic displeasure~in his shouting. It rolled on con- | tinuously while I followed him into his study off the hall. | He sat down across the desk from me. “Please don’t shout at me so, General,” I said at the first available opening. Another three-hour conversation followed In the course of it General Butler added to the general picture of events which, I shall show, clearly threatened @ specific determination by big business men to organize a Fascist offensive against labor long before the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee began to whitewash it. Among these facts are the following points 1. Before May 18, 1934, General Butler turned over to States Secret Service a sheaf of literature which had come Ppossession—literature of a number of orrganizations, Silver Shirts, 2. General Butler himself, while receiving correspondence and literature from at least 100 organizations during the past two years, decided that the purposes and backing of some of these “patriotic,” “veterans” and other groups were “obscure” and would bear investigation to determine just what they were. I do not mean to say that General Butler told me he believed all these organizations to be Fascist or even potential-Fascist outfits. What he did say is that he thought they should be investigated 3. Recently a man who “strongly implied” that he was working for William Randolph Hearst wrote General Butler that he believed Mr. Hearst would be interested in backing a veterans’ group “again,” especially if General Butler would lead it. General Butler said the “again” referred to the fact that this man two years ago ‘strongly im- plied” to Butler that he was working for Hearst during the Bonus March of 1932. 4. One Thomas N. Jarrell, self-described as connected with the Key Men of America, asked General Butler during the Bonus Expedi- tionary Force encampment in Washington in 1932 to speak for or to help to organize a society to be formed following the B. E. F. 5. A man who was identified with General Butler as a publisher told the General in Indianapolis some months ago that a Wall Street bankers’ crowd had held a meeting and that this crowd had $3,000,000 for organization purposes, The Purpose of Interview I went to see General Butler in the first place, as I quickly explained to him at the outset of our interview on Sunday, because in the process of this investigation of financiers’ maneuvering for a Fascist offensive, Thad run across much material in which other people and publications used his name. His name, I told him, had not been mentioned as a plotter, but as the object of many people’s desire to use him in a maze of plotting. Furthermore, I had talked with a close friend of the General, who had asked me to check with him on certain things which this friend believed to be true. Calming down, the General muttered something about “blowing off steam.” And we began. This was not the last of “between-you-and- me” conversation by the General and naturally I shall report only what he said for publication. This much, however, needs to be said here. In the course of this confidential conversation, I told General Butler that, in the light of what I know of the way the financial- political world clicks and has clicked in the past both here and in other countries, I was convinced that his conclusions about certain things | Were incorrect. In fact, as the Daily Worker has declared repeatedly, such con- clusions are not only incorrect, but are dangerous to the working people in that the latter might be lulled and gulled by them into a false sense of security. This false feeling of security, which the big publishers and other employer-class propagandists attempt to spread, is necessary to keep the people unsuspecting while the fascist plotters attack labor and prepare to continue and broaden this attack up to the point of open fascist cictatorship. | But we will come to the General's quotable political views later. e United into his including the | | Gave Material to Secret Service I asked him whether he had not turned over to the Department of Justice, or some competent authority, materiel on these Fascist develop- ments. “I gave the Secret Service all the stuff I had at the time,” he said, “T gave it to Mr. Houghton. I told you yesterday.” On the day before, the General not only told me this, but said that I might have a collection of letters and literature which his friend had told me I might ask for. Among these letters and literature was all the documentary material reproduced with this article. One of them tg from the U. S. Secret Service men to whom the General referred, William H. Houghton, Operative Charge at the U. S. Treasury Dee partment’s Division of Secret Service F.eld Force, at Philadelphia. In this letter, dated May 18, 1934, Mr. Houghton thanks General (Continued on Page 2) |