The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 5, 1935, Page 3

AILY WORKER. Ww RK, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1935 sie! Page 3 , WORKERS’ RIGHT TO VOTE U.T.W. WOOL CONFERENCE THREATENED IN CHICAGO SHOWS MOOD FOR STRIKE Candidates Abtiaetiy | Ruled Off Ballot by Election Board Carries Million Words A Day Railroads Get Tax Back “yee Nie Movement New Stamp ‘Act in. Ohio | Legislative Act Recalls Mass Protests of American Colonists 160 Years Ago CHICAGO, Feb. 4—The boldness of the Democratic machine of Chi- cago in its efforts to abolish Alder- More Than $4,000,000 Returned to Four Big By John Weber manie elections in Chicago by keep- ing opposing candidates off the bal- iot, is demonstrated clearly in the hearings now being conducted in the City Council chambers by the Board of Election Commissioners. Time and time again the Alder- manic candidate points out that the complaints against his petition were mimeographed, showing that even the pretense of making a case on individual merit has been aban- cloned. The election commissioners, a vart of the machine, keep up the vretense of impartiality, protected as they are by the fact that no deci- sions are rendered while the can- didates and objectors are in court. All cases are taken under advise- ment. For all practical purposes their decision is final. An appeal can he taken to the courts, with little chance, however, of getting a deci- sion in time to be in the race, + Must Intensify Protest In the meantime the workers must intensify their protest by sending telegrams and letters to the Board of Election Commissioners. A sood start was made by the Racz’ demonstration in the council cham- bers Friday, but it must be followed by a loud protest in behalf of the Workers’ Aldermanic candidates. The tricks of the election com- missioners smell to high heaven. The stench has at last offended the delicate nostrils of some of the “best” citizens who have carried tales to the state legislature, to the committee set up to investigate elec- tions’ frauds, Democratic Pretense Abandoned No better evidence of the demo- ralization of Chicago's “democratic Rovernment” was needed than the the meeting of the “opposition” can- didates for Aldermen, called last week by an Independent Aldermanic candidate. There, 75 bewildered Al- dermanic candidates met in sole conclave, accepting the premise that heir petitions, signed by American voters, were at the mercy of the Democratic machine. The only con- crete proposals made were those by the workers’ candidates present, led by A. Guss, Communist campaign manager. Following the meeting, the “opposition” candidates gath- ered around Guss, offering to fight with him on his proposals. They have been trekking to Communist headquarters ever since. In the wards this complete demo- ralizing is working to the advantage of the workers’ candidates. Some of them have been invited to address Republican meetings. Others have received sincere offers of aid from Democratic precinct committeemen who declare their disgust with the two old parties, Socialists and Communists In one ward, the Socialists, fail- ing to collect sufficient signatures to put their own candidate on the ballot, offered to re-solicit signers for the workers’ candidates petition. In the second ward, a visit of a sig- nature collector led to an impromptu meeting of the neighbors, after which 40 signed for the city Com- munist candidates then and there. At the top is the Hitler-like set up, but there is tremendous unrest and reshuffling of lines at the bot- tom, as the workers listen to and are won by the Communist pro- gram, Already 20,000 citizens of Chicago have signed to have the Communist Party on the ballot, in spite of the Héarst-American Legion campaign against it. Every other candidate in the city, no matter what his political affiliations, senses this unrest and revolt, and tries to get votes by declaring that he is “practically a Communist.” These other candidates study the platform of the Communist Party in order to get “good talking points.” The Communist Party has set aside the first two weeks of Febru- ary for a mobilization of the Party and all sympathetic workers, for the collection of signatures that will place Karl Lockner, Herbert New- ton and Sam Hammersmark on the baltot. WHAT'S ON Philadelphia, Pa. Answer the vicious Nes of Hearst and his press. Answer the lies of 2!) enemies of the Soviet Union. Com to the Mass Meeting on Friday, Fe? & at 8 p.m. at Broad St. Mansion, S.W. cor. Broad and Girard Aves. Prominent speakers. Adm. 20c. Aus- Pices, Friends of the Soviet Union. Labor Defender Concert and Dance Friday, Feb. 22 at Ambassador Hall, 1704 N. Broad S8t.; Nadia Chilkovsky in a series of revolutionary dances; well known violinist; entire Freiheit Gesang Ferein chorus; _ excellent dance orchestra. Adm. at door, 50c; in advance through organizations 35c, Tickets at 49 N. 8th St., Room 207, Chicago, Til. Save February 16 for Theatre Col- lective Chauve Souris. A three-hour Program of Theatre, Music and Dance followed by dancing to 3 a.m. Remember Saturday, Feb. 16, 8:30 p. m. at Peoples Auditorium, 2457 W. Chicago Ave. Adm. 35c., 100 tickets West Side Section of LL.D. will have twe showings of a Soviet film based on Gorki’s story “Cain and Artem.” All proceeds t6 go for Scottsboro- Herndon Fund. Film will be shown Feb. 6, Wednesday, at the Culture Center, 3223 Roosevelt: Road, 7:30 p. m. and 9 p.m. Adm. at door 25c. Organizations Attention! The Inter- national Workers Order of Chicago is celebrating its 5th Anniversary at Ashiand Auditorium, Feb. 23, P.m. to 2 a.m. An excellent pro- im has been arranged. Kindly keep this date open. By Sandor Voros (Ohio Daily Worker Bureau) | CLEVELAND, Ohio, Feb. 4—The Stamp Act, by which King George Il taxed American colonists 160 years ago without their consent, roused their fighting ire more than any other one thing. The Stamp Act is a symbol of oppression in test against the Stamp Act. New Stamp Act tax on retail sales and to every pur- chase there is now affixed a stamp bearing the legend, “Prepaid Sales Tax. Consumer's Receipt” and the amount of the tax. Arrests Made Arrests of five small store-keep- ers followed the introduction of the tax, A total of $500,000 was collected | text books on American history. The | Boston Tea Party was a mass pro-| But today, in 1935, the sovereign | State of Ohio has its own Stamp |dollar’s worth of merchandise pur- Act. It is, actually, a three per cent | chased with the exceptions of bread, in advance from retail merchants in Cuyahoga County, mostly in pre- paid penny stamps in the several days before the tax went into ef- fect. The resistance to the sales tax is so great, however, that E. J. Quinn, district supervisor, estimates that only about half of the esti- mated 32,000 retailers in the county have taken out their licenses and only one-fifth of them have bought tax stamps. The tax adds three cents to every |liquid milk and newspapers. Canned | milk, vegetables, groceries, clothing, medical sunplies, etc., are all sub ject to the tax. | In line with its policy of “no taxes for the noor, all taxes on the | |rich,” the Communist Party has| |called for a united front confer- jence to initiate a broad, state-wide movement against the tax. 3,000 Jobless Fight Colorado Sales Taxation Dever Workers Block | Wage-Robbing Imposi; Levy Later Passed DENVER, Colo,, Feb. 4 (By Mail). —Three thousand workers demon- strated before the State Capitol |here last Thursday for immediate appropriation of funds for relief and against the sales tax. The 2 |per cent sales tax was rushed |through the legislature yesterday |and immediately signed by Gov- |ernor Johnson, F. E, R. A. money | was withheld from the State in order to buldgeon through the wage-robbing tax. Although every effort was made to prevent the workers from ap- pearing before the Senate and the legislature by barring the doors leading to the galleries, the Gov- ernor was forced to send a note to the Speaker of the House to permit a delegation of workers to present their demands. A committee of representatives |from the Socialist Party, the Na- | tional Workers’ Alliance, Jefferson | County Unemployed Union, Boulder | Unemployment Councils and other | Soups, stopped the vote on the sales tax and forced the house to |adopt a resolution to Harry Hop- | which to find other means of rais- jing the relief revenues. Richard Allander, of the executive commit- tee of the National Unemployment Councils, headed the delegation. Father Winters of the Catholic Workers’ Alliance described the con- ditions of the unemployed and warned the administration that they must appropriate funds im- mediately. He was followed by William Dietrick, Communist leader, and one of the eighteen defendants R. A. strikers last Sept. 6. Dietrick made an exposition of the Workers’ Unemployment and Social Insur- ance Bill, H, R. 2827. The relief administration, in fear of the anger of the workers against the forthcoming relief cut, forced the project workers to remain on the job all day, to prevent them from joining with the other unem- ployed in the demonstration. Always have a few Daily Worker sub blanks in your pockets, This is the second of a series of articles by Carl Reeve on the present reorganization of the N. R. A. The third article will ap- i Pear tomorrow.—EDITOR. Il. TE decision of President Roose- velt, for the fourth time extend- \ing the anti-labor auto code, dem- onstrates to the workers the mean- ing of the present reorganization of the N. R. A. This reorganization aims at sharper attacks on the workers. Roosevelt, refusing to hold even a hearing on the demands of the A. F. of L. and other auto unions, has rejected all of labor's demands. In extending the code, he answered labor's demand for the 30-hour week by allowing a 48-hour_maximum week in the code. He retained the anti-union “merit clause.” He not only refused to abolish the employ- er-controlled Auto Labor Board, but, incorporated in the code the state- ment that this board is “confirmed and continued.” This open and brazen defiance of the auto workers has brought to a head the demand of the auto workers for a strike. Anti-Labor Policy The present attack of the Roose- velt administration on the auto workers, at the moment when the N. R. A. is being reorganized, is a direct development of the anti-la- bor policy of the N. R. A. since the auto code was first signed. \kins demanding thirty days within | | | | | in the recent riot trial growing out | of the police attack upon the F. E. | |ate has done the job of refusing to |bership of the legislature, and the ‘Promises kad Of Sales Tax, ‘But Forgets It | Michigan Governor Gets | | Good Start Breaking His Promises DETROIT, Mich., Feb. 4.—Fitz- | gerald has gotten a good start in| breaking his campaign promises. Less than a month after his induc- | tion into office, the Republican | governor’s promise to remove the | State 3 per cent sales tax from | food and other necessities has gone | glimmering. Fitzgerald not only promised this during the election campaign, but | he even included such a proposal | in his opening speech to the legis- lature. This would have removed $10,000,000 in taxes borne over- | whelmingly by the working masses | of the state. Matter Ditched The mater is being ditched in a way that permits Fitzgerald to do some face-saving. The State Sen- lift the sales tax from fooa. The | State Senate, however, is controlled by the Republicans, so it is clear that the whole business was ar- ranged in advance: the Republican | governor proposes the removal of | the sales tax on foods and other necessities; the Republican Senate | turns him down; the Republican | governor lets the matter gently drop. United in Maneuver That the Republicans and Demo- | crats are united in this maneuver is evident from the fact that the action of the State Senate has been warmly commended by the Detroit News, a paper which usually sup- Ports the Democrats. Meanwhile bills have been intto- | duced in the legislature to put through other proposals made by Fitzgerald which won’t be dropped so readily: reactionary proposals | that are steps toward fascism, such as the cutting in half of the mem- appointment, instead of election, of all state officers with the exception of goveror, lieutenant-governor and “possibly” auditor-general. Also, Fitzgerald’s proposal for the elim- ination of the property tax—which will mean a saving of millions of dollars to the big corporations— will undoubtedly not suffer the same fate as his sales tax promises. The strikebreaking, union-smash. ing role of the N. R. A. is seen: (1) In the provisions put into the code by Roosevelt in August, 1933, and, (2) In the pact engineered by Roosevelt on March 25, 1934, which created the Auto Labor Board and sidetracked the threatened strike. The Yellow Dog Merit Clause The code, as signed by Roosevelt in August, 1933, denied every demand of the auto workers. It contained the “merit clause” which legalized the open shop. This clause states: “Employers in this industry may exercise their right to select, re- tain, or advance employes on the basis of individual merit without regard to their membership or non-membership in any organiza- tion.” This yellow dog principle is lifted from the programs of the company unions and gave presidential and N. R. A. backing to the employers’ company union and open shop drive. This was the answer of the em- ployers and of Roosevelt to the de- mand of the auto unions for recog- nition. \ ‘Was Employers’ Code As far as conditions, hours and wages went, the auto code gave the employers exactly what they want- ed. The auto workers demand the 30-hour week with full pay. The auto code gave a maximum 48-hour week. This clause on hours was cleverly | principled maneuvers to split the| Heavily laden with telegraph front of the Flemington, on trial for the kidnaping of the words a day out of this court, while news of what is happening to the unemployment insurance legislation ton is being shunted into obscure by the country’s capitalist press. N. J., courthouse where Bruno Hauptmann is and telephone wires, this pole in Lindbergh baby, carries 1,000,000 and war preparations at Washing- corners or being entirely ignored Keller’s Career Shows Evolution of Renegade By George Morris Eli Keller, Lovestoneite manager | of the American Federation of Silk} Workers of Paterson, has “resigned.” | But there isn’t a worker in Pater-| son who doesnt know that Keller | was kicked out. His “resignation” came less than two weeks after the| rank and file defeated his reaction- ary slate by a 3 to 1 majority, and on the eve of election of officers with not a chance for Eli Keller. Keller's case is an excellent ex- ample of how a renegad> from Communism finds himself directly into the ranks of the enemies of the workers, and becomes regarded as a renegade by all workers. Keller started by resisting the line of the Communist International. Following his leader, Lovestone, he | was expelled from the Communist | Party in 1929 for taking part in un- Party. Later he was expelled from the National Textile Workers Union of which he was secretary. Soon, Keller was acceptable to the reactionaries as an official in the Associated Silk Workers of Pater-| son. By his vicious attacks against the Communist Party and militants in the union he proved to these leaders that they need not be con- cerned about his past membership in the Party. Splitter in 1933 During the silk strike in 1933, Keller did all he could to convince the Gorman-MacMahon officialdom of the United Textile Workers, that in him they have one of their own. He fought against joint action with the dyers who were called out by) the then existing National Textile | Workers Union, insisted on sepa- rate picket lines. Keller held office for some time. But this was no means due to bril- liant leadership. He succeeded in posing as a progressive because the | rank and file was still unorganized | and too weak to expose him. This, however, was corrected in time. The militants in the union were re-| inforced by members of the Nation- | al, which merged into the locals of the U. T. W. That, however, did not end his efforts to deprive former members of the National from their rights, once they were in. Those elected to of- fice were removed. Others were not permitted to run. The climax of Keller's treacherous career came during the general strike and the events which followed immediately. The Paterson silk workers, of course, came out—con- tract or no contract. Keller, by that, time, knew better than to resist, By worded, “The average employment of all factory employees [with a number of exceptions—C.R.] shall not exceed 35 hours per week from the period of the effective date (August, 1933) to the expiration date (December 31, 1933) and the hours of each individual employe, shall SO FAR AS PRACTICABLE conform with this average and shall in no case exceed the same by more than three per cent. In order to| give to such employes such average of 35 hours per week, it will be nec- essary at times to operate for sub-{ stantially longer hours, but no em- Pploye shall be empioyed tor more than six days or 48 hours in any one week and all such peaks shall be absorbed in such average.” In plain language, the auto code meant that for the short busy sea- son the auto manufacturers can work their employees as long as they pleased, and this is exactly what they have been doing since the auto | code was signed. By establishing | the high maximum of 48 hours, and by averaging up the time to 35 hours, the auto employers evolved a code which, in practice, set no limit on the number of hours worked. Regarding wages, the code set 43 cents an hour for workers in areas of over half a million papulation; 44% cents for cities from a quarter to a half million; and 40 cents for | | workers, with all its anti-labor pro- such sentiment. As we know, Gor- man’s betrayal of that great strike | was a signal for a renewed drive to| cut wages in the entire industry. | But Paterson could have stalled the drive in the silk mills. The workers | could have returned to work in an organized manner, and only after they were guaranteed that union| conditions will remain. That, how- | ever, was not Keller's concern. His | main concern was to jump when} | Gorman cracks the whip. A wire from Gorman calling off the strike | was all he needed. The workers| simply found the strike hall closed | to them, and were ordered back to| work by Keller. Such tesmination of the strike opened a period of wage cuts in Paterson. The bosses declared the contract void. They seemed to be certain that Keller will keep to Gor- man’s promise to the President— that there will be no resistance dur- ing the “truce.” Rank and File Rises The wage cutting served to arouse the rank and file to the danger fac- ing the union and the gains won through hard struggle. The des- perate efforts of Keller and his clique to save themselves from being | ousted marks one of the most, dis- graceful pages in the history of the union. He had a number of his henchmen deputized by police, sup- posedly for keeping order in the union, but really to terrorize the ris- ing left wing. No orderly meetings | could take place, as in all cases Kel-| jer’s agents would provoke fist fights | and other forms of disorder so the membership could make no deci-| sions. Keller became discredited even among his own followers. In elec- tion of delegates to the national silk workers convention he came out badly defeated. At the convention he crawled on his knees before the U. T. W. officials, hoping they would use him. But these slick reaction- aries know better than to place their hopes on such discredited people. So Keller, back in Paterson, aware | that he was doomed, proceeded to accomplish his greatest “achiev-/| ment” before letting go of the wheel. The silk workers had to find out through the capitalist papers | that Keller is negotiating for a con- | tract. But now guided by an active} rank and file movement, the work-} ers forced: the contract before a membership meeting, and scotched Keller's plan. Keller’s arrangement | provided that an arbitration board is to decide if the manufacturers keep the wage cut. The proposed contract was defeated unanimously, and a rank and file committee was CARL REEVE : those in cities under a quarter of ® million. Minimum Became Maximum This wage tended at once to be- come the maximum, as thousands of auto workers have discovered. A clause applying to “apprentices, learners and females” allowed the chisseling employers to pay these workers only 87% per cent of the code wage. There was no restric- tion on speed-up, which has in-| creased at a terrific rate. | The delegations of auto workers to the N. R. A. hearings, demanding union wages, recognition and the 30-hour week with full pay and abolition of speed-up, were given brusque treatment and their de- mands ignored’ when this code was written up by General Johnson and the manufacturers, This is the company union code that President Roosevelt signed in August, 1933. Since then he has four times extended the code, in defiance of the demands of the auto visions intact. William Green now attacks this code, and urges the workers to ig- nore it. He is rather late. In the August 29, 1933 issue of the Daily | Worker, a front page editorial de- clared of the auto code which had | just been signed, “This is just the | N. R. A. form of the yellow dog con- | tract, applying to all workers, | whether they sign it or not. The| {wing Socialist Party organ, Railroad Corpo WASHINGTON, Feb. 4.—Four big corporations received more thar one million dollars each in tax re funds from the Bureau of Intern Revenue, and total refunds to \ ous individuals and corpora totalled more than $48,000,000 1934, it was announced today. The refunds were based on exam- inations which showed that the government had taken “too much” from .these corporations. Railroad Bosses Gain Railroads were especially heavy beneficialies, with the Pennsylva- nia, a Vanderbilt-Morgan road, col- lecting back taxes to the tune of ms in | $3,191,000, and the Lackawanna col- lecting $1,526,000, The New York Life Insurance | Company topped the list with a re- fund of $4.427,000. Large Refunds Especially notable were the re- Denny Defies Court as He IsGivenTerm Portland Unemployed Leader Imprisoned For Aid in Strike By Dawn Lovelace PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 4—"I am not guilty of any crime. I am here before this court because I organ- ized the workers to struggle for bet- ter conditions,” Edward Denny, or- ganizer of the jobless single workers told Circuit Judge James Staple- ton when he appeared before him for sentence under Orgeon’s anti- labor criminal syndicalist law. Denny was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. The sentence is being appealed. He is the fourth worker to be convicted in the past few months for sup- porting the strike struggles of Portland longshoremen last sum- mer. Dirk DeJonge, leader of the unemployed, is now out on bail pending appeal from a seven-year sentence. “I am of the working class, this court is of the ruling class—we have nothing in common,” Denny quietly told the judge. “That's true!” Stapleton muttered savagely. Denny ignored the interruption. “I am not here begging for mercy. I dont expect leniency from this court. Throughout the trial you have shown your bias. But remem- ber you may send me to prison but that’s not going to stop the Com- munist Party! That’s not going to stop the working class! The Com- munist Party will continue to grow. You may send me to prison but that is not going to solve the economic problems facing us.” elected to negotiate. He still tried hard in the election for the executive board. The right the Jewish Daily Forward, put its full support behind him. Charles Zim- merman, manager of Local 22, In- ternational Ladies Garment Work- ers, also a Lovestoneite, who sees in Keller's fate the handwriting on the wall for himself, was brought to Paterson to campaign for the Kel- ler-Forward combination. After such an unenviable record, Keller in his post mortem in the last issue of the Lovestoneite weekly seems unable to understand why he was sent back to his grocery store in Passaic. Keller will undoubtedly continue to serve the mill owners, but his record from the time he was expelled from the Communist Party EVERY DEMAND OF LABOR IS FLOUTED BY ROOSEVELT N. R. A. the much heralded ‘char- ter of labor’ as the Socialist and A. F. of L. [leaders] termed it, turns out to be the vilest form of the open shop and yellow dog attack.... There is only one power that can help the workers, and that is their own organization and might.” Green Offered Praise What has been the position of William Green? On August 27, 1933, almost the very hour Roosevelt was signing the yellow dog auio code, Green broadcast a speech over the radio, praising the N. R. A. and urg- ing the workers not to strike against its codes. Green said of the N. R. A. “A wider distribution of work is being made through a reduction ot the hours of labor. For obvious reasorts, the wages must also be increased as the hours of labor are reduced.” Thus Green fooled the workers as to the anti-labor character of the auto code, Green continued, “Labor is expected to do its part, The na- tion is enlisting men and women in a great war against powerful forces.” William Green and John L. Lewis, as members of the Labor Advisory Board, approved of the auto code with its open shop merit clause, on Saturday, August 26, 1933. To cover up their treachery, they issued the following statement: “The Labor Advisory Board gives its approval to the industrial Watch for Important Contest Announcement?! rations by U. S. refunds were after they had y to consumers in the processing cor both the increased ic tax at the same time profit. The Roosevelt tax working out to levy ir - dens on the poorest sections of the population. The so-called excise taxes and general taxes on consumption on such articles as tobacco, medicine, gasoline, and so on, took more than $800,000,000 out of the pocketbooks of the consuming masses in 1934 |In addition, the processing taxes cotton and wheat, which are passed along to the consumer in higher prices, took approximately a half a billion dollars out of the pay lenvelopes of the working class. Mayor McLevy Balks on Negro Rights Demand Refuses To Admit That Negroes Are Discrim- inated Against HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 4 “Negroes are not discriminated against any more than other groups of workers,” declared Jasper Mc- Levy, Socialist mayor of Bridge- port, in refusing to endorse two proposed amendments to the Con- necticut Bill of Rights. The amend- ments, presented to the Socialst mayor by a delegation of Negro and white workers and profession: are aimed against current relief discrimination and police terror Bridgeport and other Connecticut cities. During the delegation’s interview with McLevy, the case of the police murder of Lorenzo Brown, unem- ployed Negro worker, was brought to his attention. Brown was ar- rested by McLevy’s Bridgeport po- lice and brutally beaten. He died shortly after the beating. A coro- ner’s inquiry completely white- washed his police murderers. De- spite the well-known facts in the case, McLevy denied to the delega- tion that his police had murdered the Negro worker, Bridgeport Negro ministers, to- gether with the International Labor Defense, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights and other groups op- posing McLevy’s police terror against Negroes, are conducting an open hearing on Brown’s murder this Friday evening at the St George’s Hall. Invitations to ap- pear before the hearing have been sent to Mayor McLevy and other city officials. already presents a complete por- trait of a renegade. In Paterson, with reactionaries in the silk and dyers locals deposed, a new life is entering the unions. New members are joining. The workers are inspired with a new hope and a fighting spirit For the position held by the out- cast Keller, the rank and file has put forward Sarkis Phillian, a mill worker, who was active in the union for years. Every member knows him as a sincere worker, always fighting in the interest of the weav- ers. It was he who took a leading part in uniting the small indepen- dent groups of workers and the Na- tional into the present strong local. He will be able to unite the best active members into a fighting lead- ership. The vote on Feb. 16 should express a united front behind him code for fair practice for the auto- mobile industry, with the under- standing that no section or sen- tence contained therein modifies, qualifies or changes section 7a of the National Recovery Act... and furthermore that the sentence in the code following section 7a [the open shop merit clause—C.R.] does not establish a precedent to be followed in the preparation or acceptance of any other code.” Of course, this clause was used as a precedeni to bring forward the company union all industries. Thus did Green and Lewis accept and hide from the workers the true nature of the anti-labor auto code. As late as Jan. 1, 1935, Green sent out a New Year statement praising in unstinted terms Roosevelt's ad- ministration and the N. R. A. and its boards. And Matthew Woll, Green's lieu- tenant, declared on Jan. 29, 1935: “The principle of high wages un- derlies the N. R. A. and the entire recovery program .. . the very mo- ment a recovery program was form- ulated in Washington the high wage principle was made a basic feature and was definitely embodied in the N. R. A.” gram, Jan. 29, page 2.) ent day, Green has not taken one concrete step to organize a fight or prepare a strike of the auto workers against the anti-labor auto code. against the Negro population of | New York Tele- | Since August, 1933, up to the pres- | (A. F. of L.) met Eagles Hall and Thomas F. McMahon i that no action be taken ts of the Winant Board’s nm” in the woolen and ry until 1 silk and cotton as weil further comment this action of the workers in ections of the textile industry for another e in line with Feb. 1 at the e ged meeting the Executive Council of the ion of Labor. This ion was that “unless we are to confess the futility of unionism, barring a great remedial movement in general eir declaration within the next few weeks, the nae lenced and more complet in our last great conflict McMahon Blames Workers But the real meaning of Mc- Mahon’s recommendation became clear when he swung from radical phrases to a vicious attack on the workers, blaming them “for pres- ent conditions.” Horace T. Riviere, New England organizer, demanded that no local | take actual steps for any strike | without sanction of the national officers. Every effort was made to hamstring the militant rank and file and prevent any action being pre- pared other than normal organiza- tion work. Complete reliance was demanded on the national leaders in their maneuvers behind closed doors in Washington, in the textile hearings from which, McMahon and Gorman hope, they will be able to keep out the militant voice of the masses of discontented and disillu- sioned rank and file workers. McMahon completely discouraged any form of local strike action for partial demands, against the intro- | duction of new speed-up and against discrimination. | McMahon and Riviere completely | avoided any mention of the Inter- | state Anti-Stretchout and Discrimi- nation Council, a rank and file body | originating in Connecticut, fearing |that any statements against it | would bring up even more expres- sions of resentment from the floor. But it is evident that the resolution | of confidence in the national offi- cers was directed. clearly against | this movement. | Don't Mean Strike | It was practically admitted by the | leaders that they did not really mean the “strike threats” they had |made at the A. F. of L. Executive | Council meeting on Feb. 1, that it | was only intended to frighten the manufacturers. How simple-minded they try to make the textile mag- nates appear! The truth of the matter is that McMahon, Gorman, |and Peel were compelled, and the textile magnates know it, to hold | out the promise of a general strike unless there was “a great remedial |movement within the next few weeks” (1), because their sell-out maneuver ending the September general strike is now coming to the end of its four-months rope. Tremendous numbers of textile workers, having already experienced widespread discrimination, against which they were left disarmed and helpless by Gorman, and feeling the pinch of lightened pay-envelopes for which they have to slave under increased speed-up, will now become completely disillusioned by the Wi- nant Board reports, and lose faith in the mediation of “our-friend-in- the-White-House” Roosevelt. At the conference, McMahon had to admit that the Textile Works As- signment Boards and the Textile Relations Board “can do nothing” and that the Code Authority, which consists of the manufacturers, “is the law.” He is fearful of the rap- idly mounting sentiment among the embittered rank and file for another and bigger general strike, which will not be dominated so easily by the radio-general Gorman, a strike which will far out-reach the last one in militancy and which the workers will not give up without winning substantial improvements. Board Elected So uneasy are the McMahons and | the Riveres, that, feelng the rum- | bling demand at the conference for independent rank and file control of the locals and of the union, they were compelled to concede to the demands from the floor that the present full-time organizers be barred from the elections for the Executive Board of the woolen and worsted division. | The new Executive Board of the woolen and worsted division con- sists of a president and three vice- | presidents together with one repre- | sentative from each State. | They are: President, William Dunlop of Rockville, Conn.; vice- | president, Taylor of Massachusetts; | second vice-president, Graham of | East Greenwich, R. I.; third vice- | president, Werner of Worcester, | Mass.; treasurer, Velleti of Ux- | bridge, Mass.; secretary, to be ap- | pointed by the national officers; | Maine, Desire; New Hampshire, Jennings; Massachusetts, Latour; | Rhode Island, Zanetti; Connecticut, Cooley; Pennsylvania, Blackwood. | The next meeting of the division will be held in Maynard, Mass., the date to be designated by the presi- dent. than ENTER SUBSCRIPTION CONTEST THE DAILY WORKER