The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 14, 1935, Page 1

' | | | | } C. P. Units: Build Carrier Routes Through House-to-House Canvas: Press Run Yesterday—48,600 Vol. XII, No. 39 sing > * Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8 1878 Daily <A Worker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERWATIONAL ) NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1935 by NATIONAL EDITION (Six Pa ges) Price 3 Cents WAGE-CUTTING BILL RUSHED TO SENAT Elevator Operators’ Strike Paralyzes Ser Hearst Private Life AFL COUNCIL | MEN DEMAND HIGHER PAY, One of Debauchery CLOSED SHOP And Feudal Brutality Members Take Action. After Continued Stall- | ing by Arbitrators Early last evening organizers of Local 32-B of the Building Service | Employees International Union de- clared service in 200 buildings was | paralyzed in a city-wide strike of | elevator operators and other butid- ing service employees. | Unwilling to wait any longer for the results of arbitration, as urged | by the officials of the Building Ser- vice Employees International Union, | more than 3,000 operators took mat- ters into their own hands and walked out despite the apneal of | the officials at Monday night’s shoo chairmen’s meeting “not to take things into their own hands.” ‘The buildings included seven sky- scrapers in the Madison Square area and eightyfive buildings in Harlem between 135th and 145th Streets. The seven skyscrapers are owned by the K Realty Company, which the union charged violated the closed shop agreement signed last November at the time of the gar- ment center strike. demands, according | to the union, are for the forty-hour reek, a $35 minimum scale for ele- or operators, a closed shop and union recognition, no discrimina- e of race, color or na- ime and a half for over- , and the eliminination of the! out system, special membership meeting > union last night was ex-| pected to bring about the spreading of the strike. The confidence of the workers in compulsory arbitra- tion as a solution to their demands hes long since worn thin. Numerous workers stated yester- day afternoon that they would raise the question of setting up a broad strike committee at the meeting and would propose that no final settle- | ment be made without the approval | of the strikers. Labor to Fight Sales Tax SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Feb. 13.— ‘The California Federation of Labor has asked all local unions and cen- tral labor bodies to help defeat Gov- ernor Merriam’s new tax plan, which | orders a three per cent sales tax, does not touch inheritances, and only slightly raises income taxes. ‘The sales tax is 24% per cent at the present time. In addition to the} boost, the new plan provides special | taxes on gasoline, amusements, to- | bacco, liquor and utility services. Unity Parley Is Held for 18 (Special to the Daily Worker) SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 13, — Ninety organizations from twenty California cities, including eighteen American Federation of Labor unions, were represented at an enthusiastic united front con- ference in this city for defense of the eighteen Sacramento criminal syndicalist law victims and for re- peal of the criminal syndicalism law. Of the eighteen American Fed- eration of Labor unions, fourteen had regular delegates, while four sent observers. There were dele- gates from four independent unions, the Utopian Society, six Democratic clubs, Epic groups, World War veterans,.the California conference of the Methodist Episcopal Churches, unemployed organizations, student ahd language groups, the Communist Party and the Young Communist League. The Mooney Moulders Dae‘ense. Committee was officially repre- sented by Anna Mooney, sister of Tom Mooney. Mooney himself sent greetings to the conference and a five dollar donation for the defense of the eighteen Sacra- mento defendants. Some 500 workers jammed the hall in a stirring demonstration of solidarity with the Sacramento de- fendants and the campaign for the repeal of the criminal syndicalism law. Seven of the defendants at- tended the conference and were of- ficiatly seated. A resolution was adopted on program and policy. The resolution calls for broadening of the defense and repeal campaign, The conference unanimously adopted a resolution favoring a , twenty-four hour state-wide gen- eral strike against the Sacramento prosecution, for repeal of the cri- (minal syndicalism. law and for the \immediate liberation ‘Mooney. of Tom Lives Like Roman Emperor Surround- ed With Fear-Stricken Servants— Keeps Marion Davies in M Dollar Palace Nearby By James Casey ARTICLE V This is a chapter on Hearst’s private life. What are his interests? does he attack the Communist Party and the Soviet Union? Every worker and farmer in America should know the How does Hearst live? answers to these questions. Hearst does not want a proletarian dictatorship in “GALLS TIGHE | TO CAPITAL Steel Union Head Will Confer on Expulsion of Militants llion- (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 13.— A sub-committee of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor held a heated secret session today on the problem they face be- | cause President Mike Tighe is at-| tempting to expel the majority of the membership of the steel union at a time when rank and file pres- sure has compelled the council to take up the carrying out of a long- promised drive to organize the steel workers, It was the rank and file drive to organize, undertaken months ago, that led to Tighe’s effort to pitch | By Marguerite Young | | Why America. Hearst says the workers and farmers are not out its leaders and ali lodges sup- fit to rulee HEARST WANTS RULE BY HEARST—AND peesies, She Ce ee v 0 ing into the Sub-' oy een MGR GRA tree ROCKEFELLERS, THE MEL- se rd Tighe and vice-president HEARST WANTS RULE BY THE FEW—WITH UNEMPLOYMENT, DESTITUTION, DEATH BY STAR- VATION FOR MILLIONS OF TOILERS. Down in sunny California, Hearst | lives on his San Simeon estate | which covers four hundred square miles. On this estate there are mountains and valleys and enchant- ing forests. The Hearst property Tuns for fifty miles along the beau- tiful coast of the Pacific Ocean. Like “King’s"Manor ~~ In this little kingdom, also, are many museums, a zoological garden, @ botanical garden, a rare Japanese garden, a recreation park and fields for sports and games. There are dozens of buildings on the Hearst estate. But the main structure in feudal king. ceilings costing | TIMES is like a great court of a For example, Hearst has rooms in | his palace with imported walls and thousands thousands of dollars. these rooms there is a ceiling im- | | ported from Italy dating back to} the Sixteenth Century. This ceiling is of natural pine, waxed but un- painted. The ceiling contains fifteen full coffers carved with figure effi- |gies in high relief. ' room. .alone,.. Hearst..paid.at. least ‘Taitors even among traitors, .. . one hundred thousand dollars. Through this Roman-tinged pal- ace, servants move around quietly by the score. Every minute of the day, they pass. in anxiety and the fear that they may displease their |surly and tyrannical master. (Continued on Page 2) Lewis of the Amalgamated Associa- tion of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers |the rank and file’s charges against upon | Tighe with two dodges. ‘i In one of | We Suffer in silence,” was Tighe’s | main reply, | Secretary Leonard again hoisting jtrol the so-called rank and file| crowd. We've got their secret or-| For this one| ets with us. You know, there's | | How else do you think we got their | orders from the Communists?” Evades Direct Questions | When Leonard was asked, “How do you expect to get anywhere with |that red-scare, when you must | know that you've been howling ‘reds’ |at your rank and file for months, {and the only result has been that For Special National Convention Will Be Held by Tr. CU. U4. In New York March 16-17 The Trade Union Unity League | has called a special national con- | vention to be held on March 16 | and 17 in New York City, to take | up the next steps of the T. U. U. L. | organizations in the fight against | the intensified drive of the em- Ployers and their government against labor. The call of the T. U. U. L. Na- tional Executive Board, signed by William Z. Foster, national secre- tary, states the basis of represen- tation to the convention, and takes up the fight for trade union unity. The T. U. U. L. call for the con- vention follows in full: Feb, 11, 1935. To all Affiliated Organizations of the T. U, U. Ly To all members of the Trade Union Unity League, Brothers and Sisters: The National Executive Board has decided to convene a SPECIAL CONVENTION of the Trade Union Unity League for March 16 and 17, 1935, in New York City. The purpose of this SPECIAL CONVENTION is to take up the next steps of the T. U. U. L. or- ganizations in the fight against the increasing capitalist attacks and the fight for the unification of the trade union movement. In the past year many of the unions affiliated to the T. U. U. L, dustry. industries. and others. ers union, are taking their industry. The flagrant assault of President Roosevelt on the working class continues unabated. He is carry- ing through the employers’ open shop drive with one hammer blow after another against labor. Yesterday, before the Senate Appropriations Com- mittee, Roosevelt’s spokesmen insisted on pushing through, unamended, the wage-cutting works bill calling for a minimum average wage of $50 a month on all work relief. This would force down the wage level of all workers. E President Roosevelt conceded nothing to the de- mands of the A. F. of L. executive council. All his recent acts against the workers stand. In fact, concealed in his general statement to the A. F. of L. executive council there lies the threat of further moves toward fascism. Roosevelt deplored “the absence, in many respects, of a dis- ciplined order both as it refers to labor and in- dustry,” and favored “highly developed organization of both employees and employers,” bound by arbi- tration. He called for “the full and frank recogni- tion of the unescapable community of interests to have already taken steps in the direction of one union in the in- This was already car- ried through in the mining, steel, textile, auto and numerous other Our organizations are now in the process of carrying through unification in the marine industry, in the dress industry | All of the unions | are taking steps in this direction, among them the furniture work- | the | union, the metal workers union. Not in all cases can unity be achieved in the same manner and with the same results, all cases the T. U. U. L. unions the achieve such unity despite the obstacles placed in their path by | the A. F. L, bureaucracy. As a result of the activity for unification carried on by the T. U. U. lL, unions, many of the in- dependent unions are also taking steps in the direction of unifica- tion and towards one union in The present attack of the capi- talists, the drive for the “open- shop” and for company unions which has the support of the Roosevelt administration, as sym- | company turns down your demands bolized in the recent development. in the auto industry, make the (Continued on Page 2) the steel workers rallied in ever greater numbers to support their | tank and file leaders?” Leonard did not answer. The Sub-Committee, to whom the (Continued on Page 2) | Murray Men | Strike on Job (Special to the Daily Worker) | DETROIT, Mich., Feb. 13.—Yes- | | terday morning at 8 a.m. some 500 | metal finishers in the Murray Body | | Plant refused to start work until they were promised a raise in wages. | | od, x0 ores | time. Issued by Department Com- | mittee.” These leaflets flooded the entire department. The stoppage \ lasted about 15 minutes and was 100 | Per cent effective. It hampered the | work for the entire morning. The company officials rushed into the department saying: “How do |you know that you won't get the |raise? How do you know that you | don't get $1 an hour? work,” Urge More Stoppages |, The workers feeling that they won their point, returned to work. The |department committee of the metal | finishers is issuing a leaflet to all other departments today calling But in initiative to partment for your demands. If the then strike and unite with the maintenance men who are already (Continued on Page 2) 5 AN ED be found in the industry itself.” ‘Translated into plain words, and taken together with the brushing aside of the A. F. of L. unions in the auto industry and the noteworthy absence of any mention of the recognition of the right to strike—this statement means one thing—the encouragement by the gov- ernment of the development of fascist, company unions, more governmental control of the unions and another big stride toward fascism. The Open Letter of the Communist Party to William Green declared, “The arrogant blows de- livered against the trade unions by Roosevelt through extension of the automobile code and his method of handling the question, creates a very critical situation if not answered by a powerful movement of the working class. The whole trade unicn movement is in the most serious danger. An unprecedented ‘open shop’ drive, with the backing of the government, is now fully coming into the open. The government, which with all of its prom- ises, cannot bring about industrial recovery, suc- cessfully brings the recovery of profits and the Mobilizes Doctors Italian Goyernment Be- gins Fake Negotiations fith Abyssinia DUCE MASSES ARMY England andFranceUrge Negro Country to Accept Terms ROME, Feb. 13.—Not relaxing for a moment its gigantic war mobiliza- tion. against Abyssinia (also called Ethiopia), the Italian Fascist gov- ernment today declared that nego- tiations were proceeding for a sat- isfactory “settlement” of the imme- diate issues of conflict In reality, however, Mussolini is dragging on negotiations with the Abyssinian charge diaffaires, Ne- gradus Yesus Afework, in order to give the Italian army, navy and air fleet more time to mass their forces cist government can demand greater concessions, and be in posi- tion for a major assault. It is clear from the Italian Fas- cist press that any temporary ssinia. complete domination of Ab; Huge War Budget To achieve this end, the Fascist government is providing a war | budget of $859,090,000 for a two- year murderous drive in Abys- sinia, The 250,000 men called to (Continued on Page 2) AFL MEN BACK LABOR PARTY DETROIT, Mich., Feb, 13.— The growing movement for a working class Labor Party with a clear-cut program of opposition to all capi- talist parties received strong im- petus yesterday as the semi-annual State Conference of the American Federation of Labor Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper- hangers unanimously endorsed a resolution supporting such a move- ment. DUCK HEARING ON H.R. 2827 Thomas and Senior Re- fuse to Answer Invitation to Testify on Bill | | BULLETIN Earl Browder, general secre- | tary of the Communist Party, and | Herbert Benjamin, organizer of the National Committee for Un- | employment Insurance, will ap- pear before the Senate Finance | Committee in Washington next | Tuesday, Feb. 19, to speak in op- | position to the Wagner-Lewis Bill and in favor of the Workers’ Un- employment Insurance Bill H, R. | 2827. | Browder spoke for the H, RB. 2827 at the hearings of the sub- committee on labor at the House of Representatives last Tuesday. By Seymour Waldman (Daily Worker Washington Burean) WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 13.— | Negro and white spokesmen repre- senting organizations of veterans, | coal miners, auto workers, railway- | answered reporters’ questions about | around Abyssinia so that the Fas- men, and general trade union and unemployment groups appeared to- |day before the House labor sub- committee to add their emphatic request for the passage of the Workers’ Unemployment, Old Age the tattered banner of the red-| “agreement” would only be a step anq Social Insurance Bill, H. R. | bogey, declared: “Communists con-|to Mussolini's ultimate object of | 2897, to the millions of workers, farmers and professionals who have already registered their support for the bill, | | Two representatives of the Mary- land Unemployed League, a Social- ist Party-directed organization, | added their endorsement of H. R. | 2827 today to other Socialist Party | members who have appeared be- |fore the sub-committee. However, |despite the considerable support which exists for H, R. 2827 among Socialist Party members and groups, Norman Thomas and Clarence Senior, members of the National Executive Committee of the Social- ist Party, have refused even to an- swer a letter of invitation to ap- | (Continued on Page 2) | Soviet Farm | Gains Cite | (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Feb. 13 (By Cable) — “Socialism for the collective farmer.” vice in 200 B Mussolini §,P, LEADERS UNIQN-SM | gratulating the President SCALE IS IN WORK Unions Called to Make Huge Protest Against $50 Pay Scale Answering Roosevelt's at tack upon the living standards of the workers, the A. F. of L. Cor mittee for Unemployment Insur- ance in a statement yesterday called latest upon workers throughout the coun- to arouse 2 pre movement against the $50 a m “security” wage, which brings build- ing trades wages down to 38 cents an hour maximum Every local union is called upon to adopt protest resolutions and tel- egraph them to President Roosevelt to the Senate Appropriations Com- mittee and to President Green. All wires should demand that the pre- vailing union wage scale should be incorporated in the administration's work relief program The committee points out that this attack against. the building trades workers will hit the living standards of all workers, and gen- eral mass meetings should be called everywhere to arouse the workers against it. try general The $4,300,000,000 work relief pro- | gram of the administration specifies that. no ene employed on any of these projects should receive more than $50 a month for 130 hours work—less than 38 cents an hour as maximum wages. With this an- nouncement the administration of Roosevelt eliminated the prevailing union wage scale clause mlyil on every city, county and Federal job. The Master Builders Association, the most powerful group of employ- ers, has already announced a wage cut in the industry. They are con- for his insistence on the $50, and they say this will bring back the boom in the building industry. At present the prevailing union wage scale in the building industry is between $1.20 and $1.65 per hour. The 38 cent rate would reduce the wages to one-fifth Building trades locals everywhere have adopted protest resolutions against the elimination of the pre- vailng union wage scale clause. Be- With delegates present from all declared Y. A. Yakovlev at tonight's cause of this pressure, the Execu- parts of the State, the convention, on a motion by Local 37 of Detroit, discussion by the farmer and shock- ‘worker delegates at the historic tive Council, 24 hours after making a truce with Roosevelt, was com- Go back to | | as well as their agents in the labor | movement.” | Agricultural The proposal for a working class |Communist | party, which the resolution called |a “United Workers Ticket,” was em- ‘adopted by the convention. | Urge “United Ticket” | This resolution urged that “such a ‘United Workers Ticket’ be organ- | workers’ orders and all | class organizations, working in gen- | eral for the proposed program.” “Socialism,” | bor leadership, which, in practice, | \leads to subordinating the workers | |to the old capitalist parties. (Continued on Page 2) ITORIAL ‘open shop.’ THIS POLICY, NOW OPENLY PRO- CLAIMED BY ROOSEVELT, IS A LONG STEP TOWARD ESTABLISHING IN AMERICA A REGIME ESSENTIALLY SIMILAR TO THOSE OF MUSSOLINI IN ITALY AND HITLER IN GER- MANY—THAT 1S, FASCISM.” William Green knows very well that Rooseve‘t’s “open shop” drive is an attack which increases greatly the fascist danger. Green himself said, “They (the auto workers) protest against the im- position of a code upon them by the government at the hehest of automobile manufacturers without being given an opportunity to be heard, and against their will. SUCH ACTION SMACKS OF FASCISM IN A MOST AGGRAVATED FORM.” (N. Y, Her- ald-Tribune, Feb, 4.) In the face of further attacks, “smacking of fascism” on the part of Roosevelt, since Green made this statement, how does Green propose to fight against this fascist danger? | The Communist Party, in its open letter to | Gteen, posed the question, either Green continues |A leaflet was distributed reading: | declared that it would support “only Farm Congress, here “means the re- “No one starts work at 8 a.m. today. such candidates to be put forward | placement of small individual farms, | We'll win $1 an hour. Now is the | who will carry on a serious fight | which only engendered want and ig- | against the attacks of the capitalists | norance, by big social farms!” Yakovlev, who Department of Party of the Soviet Union, led the discussion on “What is socialism for the farmer as Marx | bodied in.a platform of eight points and Lenin understood it, as Stalin teaches him to understand it,” the | vigor and expertness with which the | collective farmers present handled |the whole question indicated the ized and supported by trade unions, | striking development of revolution- unemployed organizations, fraternal | ary consciousness in the new social~ i working | ist farmer genezally. continued Yakovlev, “means the equal obligation for all | The resolution sharply condemned | to work and receive an income ac- upon them to follow this example. | the so-called “non-partisan” policy | cording to labor and not according “Organize stoppages in every de-|of the American Federation of La-|to property, according to capital. Good Life for All “Socialism means the conversion | of technique, which formerly served | In addition two other important the aristocrats only as a means of (Continued on Page 2) pelled to appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee to protest | against the lower wage scale. is head of the the Governor Asks Troops | Against Relief Strikers LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 13 Governor J, M. Futrell today issued |@ statement saying that there was | “urgent need” for National Guard | troops in Sebastian county, where | several hundred relief workers are on strike against a wage cut which cent. Meanwhile, Fort Smith police started a drive against the organi- zations of the relief workers, and | arrested Horace Bryan, a young coal miner of Mansfield, who has been active in relief struggles. About | 1,500 county relief workers struck | last week when the wage scale was reduced, A. F. L. Members! Form United Front of All Labor To Win Demands! his traditional policy of co-operation with the e! ployers and their government, either he continues to support the employer controlled N. R. A. and its boards, or he enters a united front of all labor to defeat Roosevelt’s wage cut drive, to build the A. F. of L. unions and prepare strikes against the anti- labor drive. Green, since his visit to Roosevelt, has given no indication of backing up his words criticizing the Roosevelt program with deeds. Instead, he has followed a line which leads to surrender of all labor's demands to the employers. Since the visit with Roosevelt, Green has ac- cepted in good faith the statement of Roosevelt that he will “cooperate.” But this “cooperation” with Roosevelt is on the employers’ own terms, without a single concrete demand of labor having been met and with the whole open shop program of the em- ployers’ going through. The editorial in the New York Times of yester- (Continued on Page 2) |ranges from twenty to thirty per ™ uildings ASHING PAY RETAINED RELIEF PLAN Roosevelt Machine Goes Rough Shod Over All Opposition works bill ¢ h the Sen Appropriations Committee wage would 1 government work relief pro s Under an amendment to the bil which was offered by sell, of Georgia, wages the government on the projects, if they “endanger ing rates” on nilar co: may be changed. Th complete denial of even the “ the established union ages under the Ru ment will remain at $50 a month The further gives Roosevelt than heretofore granted more power under the works bill to fix the rate of pay in all sections under the wot jects. The low pay thu work relief endangers the w wage level of all worker: or | In the face of ri from all quarters tion senators moved bill out of com: for enactment with the w: provisions intact. Chairman Gar- ter Glass of the committee said t he had been authorized to rm the bill at once. The Senate committee, which is in all probability will report the bill to the floor of the Senate tomorrow, voted 1—Approval amendment gi ority to fix work of a substitute relief w: i out in any way being bound to pay even “prevailing wages,” not even considering union hourly rates. 2.—Rejection of an amerdment to cut the appropriation in half and required a direct relier rather than a work relief program. 3.—Elimination of a provis which would have required contr: on all projects in which 10 per cent or more of skilled labor was used. Fascist Laws Menace Labor By Anna Damon ‘Acting National Secretary, Inter- national Labar Defense) In Sacramento, California, 18 workers’ leaders are facing the courts on a charge of “criminal syndicalism.” Their crime was or- ganizing workers in a fight for bet- ter conditions which admittedly won for them considerable improye- ment. how going on in Sacra= utmost importance hole working class move- ment in America. In Congress, four federal sedition bills, more repressive than any state measures now in force, have been introduced, along with fourteen measures iy di the foreig: In California, a 3 of bills has been intro- uced to outlaw practically every form of working class activity. In other states, such as Georgia, and Washington, such bills have also been introduced, The eyes of the Roosevelt N.R.A, administration, are on Sacramento, California, This is their test case, Laber Backs Defense | The whole working class move- | in California is being organ. idly behind the defense of e eighteen. Groups, such as the EPIC. and the Utovian Societies, as well as scores of American Fed- ion of Labor lecals, Socialist arty branches, are being brought into this united front of defense. Leo Gallagher, the courageous international Labor Defense attor- ney in the Reichstag fire tzial, in the Mooney case, in the “sedition” case of A. E. Smith, head of the Canadian Labor Defense League, is carrying through a militant line of cefense of the trade union and revolutionary movement in the Sacramento court-room, Similarly, throughout the United States, it is necessary to rally the broadest masces behind the fight for the Sacramento eighteen, for the re- peal of all criminal syndicalism | (Continued on Page 2)