The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 22, 1935, Page 1

eo FOSTER URGES HUGE DEMONSTRATION IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN MONDAY By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER Every friend of the Soviet Union must become alarmed at the accurate timing of Hearst’s unpar- alleled lying, vicious, anti-Soviet campaign with the Nazi and Japanese militarist renewed drive for war against the workers’ fatherland. Establish Street the Drive for 10,000 and 15,000 New Vol. XII, No. 46 WAGNER ADMITS BILL AIDS OP Chiefs in New ‘Tru Needle, Fur Workers USSR. URGES Ranks Swell in Support UNION PLANS Company Press Run Yesterday—46,000 -Corner Sales in New Daily Saturday Readers > * ToStrike in Buildings Where Lift Men Qui Bambrick Calls General Strike ‘Unwise’ in Talk to Union Despite a unanimous strike vote by 600 shop stewards of the Bronx local of the Building Service Em- ployees Union at a meeting at Vasa Castle Wednesday night and the setting of a ke “zero hour” for 2 p. m. yesterday, Louis Cooper, president of the local, yesterday agreed to another “truce” with. the Jandlords until 11 a. m. this morn- ing. Cooper's announcement of the postponement of the strike call fol- lowed on the heels of a telegram to the union yesterday from James J, Lyons, Borough President of the Bronx, “suggesting” to Cooper that the strike call be “deferred until the realtors, who are to meet today, have a chance to act.” Meanwhile leaders of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union | and-+the Fur Workers Industrial Union announced that members of their unions would go out on strike in every building where the Building Service Employees Union called a strike. Fifteen hundred workers em- ployed at 322 Kighth Avenue have already walked out in protest against attempts by the owners of the building to operate the elevators with strikebreakers, it was announced at the office of the Building Service Employees Union. Bambrick Against Strike While the widespread demand among Bronx building workers for @ general strike was being dis- sipated in the setting of “zero hours” which were moved ahead whenever strike action seemed im- minent, 6,000 Manhattan members of the union, assembled at a meet- ing in the Star Casino, heard Bam- brick, president of the Local 32B,! say that “a general strike is ise | s £ me.” and s00| Asked whether the 5-cent fare at the present time,” and Brooklyn members of the union listened to George Troy, vice pres- ident of the Brooklyn local, declare that “any strike you start now with- out our authorization deserves to be broken by the realty owners.” Before the mass meeting in Star Casino started, Bambrick issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the landlords (Continued on Page 2) Ledger Halts Strike Parley NEWARK, N. J., Feb. 21—Trus- tees of the Newark Ledger broke off negotiations last night in discussion of settlement of the Newspaper Guild’s three-month strike by refus- ing demands of the strikers. 7 As against the Guild’s demands for Guild recognition, return to the job of all strikers, the union shop and discharge of the scabs, the Board of Trustees offered to take back some of the strikers, refused recognition of the union, and of- fered a minimum wage of $20, One of the Guild pickets, John J, Wilson, was attacked by Joe Don- ovan, sports writer, who first joined in the walk-out and later returned to the job to scab. Donovan, ac- companied by several of his cronies, assaulted Wilson. Police who came to the scene pinned Wilson’s arms while Donovan belabored him with blows on the face. Wilson demanded Donovan's ar- rest, but at the First Precinct police station, Lieutenant Doremus, in- stead of accepting the striker’s charge, asked the scab what charge re would prefer against Wilson. Wilson, whose face was battered, and who later needed hospital care, was charged with “breach of the peace.” He will come up for trial Saturday morning at the First Pre- ‘ginet Police Court. ny || Browder to Speak | At Protest Meeting Tonight on China |] Plans for new and more care- | fully outlined attacks against the Chinese Red Army and the en- tire liberation movement of China have been pushed the past few days, the Friends of the Chi- nese People pointed out yester- day, when the organization is- sued a last-minute call for a record-smashing attendance at the Central Opera House meeting tonight, at 205 East 67th Street. Earl Browder will be the main speaker at this monster protest meeting against the Japanese in- yasion of North China and the present concentration of forces for war against the Soviet Union. The betrayal of Chiang Kai-shek in suppressing the anti-Japanese movement and the aid rendered by American imperialism in the collective drive against the Chi- e people will be discussed at MAYOR BALKS FARE ISSUES |Evades Direct Queries; | Belief Fare Will Rise | | Held Confirmed | | | | Mayor LaGuardia evaded, dodged or simply refused to answer questions about the 5 cent fare at press conference yesterday with a per- istenco that confirmed the belicf in many quarters that a 7-cent o. an 8-cent fare is next in the cards. | wasn’t fixed by law, the Mayor “Listen, I gotta organize this thing first,” he complained. “One thing at a time.” | The “thing” to be organized is the purchase of the B.-M. T. by the \city at the price already agreed | upon, $185,000,000 net, and the uni- | fication of the B.-M. T. with the/ | city-owned Eighth Avenue subway. | If this goes through, the 5-cent fare | will definitely be out, it is felt, since | State law requires all municipally- operated lines to be self-supporting. A “Legal” Fare Rise | Under unification, with the heavy | | burden of paying the interest on/ | and retiring the securities that will! ‘be given the present owners of the | |B.-M. T. and meeting the financial | obligations incurred in constructing | the Eighth Avenue line, the subway | system will not be self-supporting. | In order to meet its obligations the | unified line will thus legally “have” | to raise the fare. | To the proposal of John H. De- | laney, chairman of the Transit | Commission, that the new unified line be operated by a quasi-public body, the Board of Transit Control, | to be set up by act of the State Legislature, and thus not come) under the provisions of the State Jaw requiring city-owned lines to be | self-supporting, the Mayor would not commit himself. 3-Cent Fare Smoke-screen That the path to an increased fare might be a devious one was also indicated by the Mayor. Questiorled | about the Possibility of a 3-cent fare on the unified lines a proposal | hinted at the day previously, the Mayor termed it “a possible com- petitive fare.” According to the Mayor's strategy, this would help to bring the price of the I. R. T. down. The 3-cent fare is not looked upon as a possibility by most people con- versant with the situation. It is felt to be a smoke-screen to cover up the real intention of powerful owners of B.-M T. stock—the rais- ing of the fare, The baying of the against the Soviet Union advance in Socialist construction in the Soviet Union, with capitalism floundering in deeper crisis, is met by the enraged bosses with more active hate against the land of Socialism. war hounds of capitalism grows louder daily. Every The immediate rallyin Secretary of State Hull and Roosevelt have done their dirty parts. They have inspired and encouraged Hitler and ihe Japanese imperialists to continue their ceaseless steps to war against the Soviet Union. g point in the campaign to arouse the American people against this war danger is the huge mass demonstration planned for Madison Square Garden next Monday at 7:30 P.M. This meeting, called by the Friends of the Soviet Union, should get a hearty response from all workers, all anti-fascists, all enemies of imperialist war. All out to Madison Square Garden Monday night! Defend the Soviet Union Daily .& Worker CENTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL ) Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the Act of March 8, 1879, BROAD PACTS AGAINST WAR ° Calls for Real Carrying Out of All Plans to Save Peace (Special to the Daily Worker) | MOSCOW, Feb. 21 (By Cable).— | Because of the wide publicity given by the Soviet government to certain features of the recently concluded London agreement between France and Great Britain which would spur fascist Germany to war against the Soviet Union, the French Ambassa- | dor Alphand yesterday asked Maxim Litvinov, Foreign Commissar for the Soviet Union, the opinion of the Soviet government concerning the agreement. In its answer, pub- lished here today, the Soviet gov- ernment pointed out that annulling or weakening the present system of non-aggression pacts and Eastern European treaties would render a general European war imminent. For Security Pacts “We have long since come to the | conclusion,” the Soviet communique | stated, | manifest impossibility of the real- ization of complete disarmament and the difficulty of the control and | limitation of armaments, the only |means of counteracting the ap- | proaching real danger of a new ; armed conflict among the nations is ‘a system of regional pacts, securing mutual assistance among those states which sincerely strive to ward off that danger. “Therefore the Soviet government. learned with satisfaction that the French and British ministers have outlined a scheme of such pacts which would secure the safety of all states in Europe, especially at the most vulnerable points. At the same (Continued on Page 2) Ready for War, Italy Declares ROME, Feb. 21}-The war policy | of Mussolini came out into the open today, when the dispatch of troops |to East Africa was speeded and the Supreme War Council of the Italian bankers and industrialists declared that it was prepared to thrust its war sword into the Negro nation of Abyssinia to the hilt. “The traditional belief that Italy is poor in war materials is no longer justified,” boasted a communique at the end of the War Council's meet- g. It was admitted Italy could not supply enough food stuffs to feed adequately the colonial army of in- vasion and the starving population. The deficiency was especially sharp in meats. In metals the country “possessed appreciable resources” of iron, lead, zinc, ete. Nitrogen, the basis of all explosives, will be pro- vided by a number of recently con- structed plants, which “are now functioning with satisfactory effi- ciency.” The building service workers have voted on various occasions in membership and shop steward meetings for strike for their The Bronx shop steward meet- ing voted for strike at their meeting Wed- demands. nesday night. The vote of the building service workers in favor of strike shows that the union mem- bership realizes that they cannot employers’ politicians who are the represen- tatives of the Realty Board. The building service workers learned when LaGuardia’s arbitration Board gave its anti-union “award” that the LaGuardia administration was act- ing in the interests of the employ The strikebreaking role of the acministration was once more wher. “truce,” which once more granted of the employers that the “award” should stand for six months, LaGuardia openly “that in the face of the! NEW YORK, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY, 22, 1935 OFF.S.U. Rally inGarden nions, Professionals Join Protest Against Anti-Soviet Acts Scores of labor organizations and prominent individuals have issued | statements endorsing the mass dem- | onstration next Monday at Madison Square Garden to protest the break in U, S.-Soviet trade negotiations, the Friends of the Soviet Union an- nounced yesterday. Among those who have endorsed the demonstration are almost a hundred prominent American writ- ers, educators and editors, as well as many important New York unions. A telegram from J. B. Matthews. to the F. S. U. calling for wide sup- port to the Garden demonstration. | declared: “Hearst-Morgan-Roosevelt pre- pare for war and impoverishment of American workers. Trade Unions, liberals, Socialists, Com- munists, can and must unite in supporting Lundeen bill resump- tion of trade negotiations with U. S. S. R. and in opposition to war and fascism.” J. B. Matthews is to be one of the Ernest Lundeen ICOR; Corliss Lamont, widely- known author and American auth- ority on the Soviet Union, and Dr. Reuben Young. Prominent speak- vers representing cultural, religious, professional and lavor organizations speakers at Monday’s demonstra-| Will also address the demonstration. tion. Other speakers will be Con-| Lincoin Steffens, famous journal- gressman Ernest Lundeen of Min-| ist and author, also sent a telegram nesota; James Waterman Wise, of support to the Friends, of the editor of “Opinion: A Journal of | Soviet Union, in which he warned Jewish Life and Letters”; Prof.) Charles Kuntz, national head of MINE BOSSES UNIONS FIGHT PLAN TERROR SLAVE WAGES Sirikers Look’ for Move su to Spread Walkout | | (Continued on Page 2) Wires Engulf Capitol— Mass Rally Is Called in New York WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (U.P.) | —Despite 2 last-minute message in Anthracite By George Morris (Special to the Daily Worke>) WILKES-BARRE, Pa., Feb. 21.— Thomas Meloney, district president of the United Anthracite Miners of Pennsylvania, announced yesterday |a@ special meeting of all local presi- |dents and secretaries of District One of the union, to take place Sunday evening. While no announcement was revealed at to the purpose of |the meeting, striking miners are |generally looking for a move to |spread the strike and for more de- \cisive measures to counter the at- |tack of the Glen Alden Coal Com- from the White House, the Senate today over-rode Roosevelt's wishes, and, by the margin of one vote, wrote into the works bill an amendment requiring payment of “prevailing wages.” Tremen- dous mass pressure forced the vote. It was indicated that Roosevelt would veto the entire bill. WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 21— | Acministration leaders today ex- |pressed their determination. to push LaGuardia engineered this | pany. _ |the fight against the payment of Following a complete standstill in union wages on the Roosevelt $4,- its mines for five days, and sys- | 880,000,000 work relief bill as the men, the Glen Alden Company an- |demand a favorable Senate vote on nounced today it will attempt to |labor’s demand for a living wage. open six of its fifteen collieries to- | Yesterday Senator Byrd of Vir- morrow. The company chose those |ginia demanded that the entire mines which strategically offer | works program be scrapped as “a them the better opportunity to get proclamation to the world that the scabs. The announced opening period of acute economic emergency confirms the warnings of Unem- in this country is over.” ployed Councils and the C.P. of this) Senator Byrd offered an amend- ~ (Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page 2) AN EDITORIAL mobilized police, etc, against the strike. This “truce” if allowed to stand means. that the main demands of the union are defeated. Where concessions were gained by the union it was because of going on strike or because of imminent strike, because of mass pressure, and in spite of the arbitration board of LaGuardia. But in spite of the vote of the building workers for strike, the strike is being de- Jayed by James Bambrick, president of the union, and some of his district lieutenants. Louis Cooper, head of the Bronx local, again delayed the Bronx strike, using the grounds that he was requested “by a very prominent Bronx official” to postpone the strike. Cooper referred to the Tammany leader and borough president James J. Lyons. Thus in the Bronx, Cooper is repeating on a district scale what Bambrick did on a city- wide scale—delaying strike action at the be- demands rely upon met. BUILD ers. LaGuardia confirmed week's the terms UNION! tematic soliciting of scabs by fore- |forces of labor were marshalled to | TO SPREAD DRESS. STRIKE 10,000 Out in Chicago for New Weekly Pay Minimum ees | CHICAGO, Feb. 21.—While police | seized scores of pickets in the walk- | out of 10,000 wash dress workers here, plans were laid down by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to open additional strike halls to strengthen the strike All of Chicago's shops in the in- dustry, union leaders said, are spread over a wide area, and ad- ditional halls will make the strike more effective. The strike was called, according to Morris Bialis, vice sident' of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and manager of the Chicago District, against 30 manu- | facturers, who, after forming a new | union-smashing apparatus, refused to grant union recognition and ‘wage increases. The strikers demand $16 a weck minimum wages, 15 per cent in- crease for cutters, and more equal | distribution of work. | The newly-formed manufacturers’ group voted last night to continue its refusal to recognize the union, |but several firms have applied for a settlement Marshal Field Shop Closed Marshall Field’s shop in an out- lying section has been closed down, and pickets are stationed at the Wholesale Division in the Merchan- dise Mart. | Declaring that the strike call has! not yet reached all shops, the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union today offered its assistance in bringing out the workers in the South Side especially, where the strike is weakest. DECATUR, Ill, Feb. 21—Twelve pickets were arrested here today in the wash dress strike that has been called in four shops. | Paris Toilers Rap Fascists PARIS, Feb. 21.—Ten thousand Socialists and Communists massed | tonight at the Fast Railway Station in a huge demonstration against the fascist Austrian government, | Which drowned in blood the heroic | defensive uprising of the Vienna workers ast year. The occasion was the arrival of the Austrian Chan- cellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, and For- eign Minister Egon Berger-Wald- enegg. The Socialists and Communists ; chose an excellent hour for their | demonstration. Four thousand | police and Mobile Guards deployed | strategically around the station, | with reserves hidden in the sub- ways, but they were foiled by some 50,000 commuters who entrain at the station between four and six o'clock, Building Service-Men--Defeat Arbitration! hest of representatives of the employers. Reliance on politicians will not win the of the union. The strikebreaking actions of LaGuardia have shown that. The . LaGuardias and Lyons are only interested in saving the profits of the building owners and defeating the demands of the union. The only way the building service work- ers can win their demands is by striking every building where their demands are not THE BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS UNION INTO A MASS UNION! ORGANIZE ALL UNORGANIZED BUILD- ING SERVICE WORKERS INTO THE STRIKE FOR THE DEMANDS OF THE UNION WHEREVER THE UNION’S TERMS ARE REJECTED! DO NOT ACCEPT ANY MORE ARBITRA- TION BOARDS OF THE LAGUARDIAS OR OF TAMMANY POLITICIANS! Demand $16 Minimum | ’ NATIONAL | EDITION (Six Pa ce’ as Bronx Elevator Men Vote $$$ ges) Price 3 Cents EN SHOP Strike Unionism Upheld in Measure, N, Y. Senator Says Farmer in Montana On Relief Sends $1 For Scottsboro Fund “IT am sorry I couldn’t send the dollar long ago, but as I am on relief, I get $9 a month, and I can’t get hold of a cent any other place, and I had to wait until I got the check today. ‘I am sorry I can’ instead of 100 cents.” This letter from a farmer in Montana is typical of the re- sponse, mainly from the poorest people in the country, to the ap- peal of the International Labor Defense for the Scottsboro-Hern- don Defense Fund. With the Herndon case coming ‘| up for argumént befére the United States Supreme Court within the next couple of weeks, and the decision in the Scotts- boro cases pending, funds are urgently needed to carry through the legal defense and the mass campaign. Rush funds for Scottsboro- Herndon defense to the national office of the I. L. D., Room 610, 80 East 11th Street, N. Y. C. SACRAMENTO JUDGE RILED Shouts When Gallagher Attempts to Introduce Evidence send $100 By Michael Quin (Special to the Daily Worker) SACPAMENTO, Calif. Feb. 21.— No Digression From Status Quo, Senate Is Informed By Marguerite Young (Daily Worker Washington Bureau) WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 21.— Senator Robert F. Wagner, bluntly declaring it his purpose to “stabltize and improve business,” and to “res duce the likelihood of another con- flagration of strife such as we wit- nessed last Summer,” today revived his labor disputes bill. The measure “The National Labor Relations Bill,” would legalize company unions, revitalize the National La- bor Relations Board and lay a basis for compulsory arbitration, thus in- fringing on the right to strike. It would label the Labor Board an “independent agency,” but would have its three $10,000-a-year mem- bers appointed by President Roose- velt. For Status Quo Wagner, the Tammany who headed Roosevelt's National Labor Board and dominated the making of strike-breaking policies which led workers to call the Board part of the “National Run Around,” presented his bill to the Senate. At the same time the Senator inserted in the record a speech saying “Let me emphasize that nothing in the measure discourages em- ployees from uniting on an inde- pendent or company union basis. It does not even state that Con- gress favors the policy of the closed shop. Far from suggesting | a change, it merely preserves the | statas quo.” | The bill was referred to the Sen- ate Committee on Education and Labor. At the moment, it lacks full Roosevelt Administration support Senator . H because the dominant industrialists Yesterday’s session in the framed oppose the Wagner bill's proposal to |criminal syndicalism trial here of declare majority-rule the standard. 15 worker defendants was marked by bitter clashes between Leo Gal- lagher, International Labor Defense attorney, and Judge Dal M. Lem- mon, as Gallagher vigorously fought | the combined efforts of the court. and the prosecution to block the defense’s exposure of the prosecu- tion’s distortions on the Communist, Position against individual acts of terror. | An attempt by the court to pre- vent the reading of an editorial \from the Western Worker by Sam |Darey, Communist candidate for Governor of California in the last elections, was defeated by a stub- |born struggle by the defense. Judge Shouts When Darcy was told by the court not to read the editorial, | Gallagher declared he would put another witness on the stand to identify the paper as one sold in |the Workers’ Book Shop here at the time of the vigilante and police raids on the shop. Judge Lemmon declared he would “not permit such foolishness,” and Gallagher re- torted by citing him for error. Lemmon, losing his judicial “dig- nity,” shouted, “Quote any more of this, Mr. Gallagher, and you and |I will have a private session by our- selves.” | Gallagher, unruffled, removed | Darcy from the stand and swore in |the defendant, Fred Kirkwood, for- |mer literature agent, and had him \identify the paper as among the | literature seized in the raids. He then recalled Darcy to the stand, land forced the court to allow the | reading of the editorial, entitled | “Workers Demand the Right to De- fend Themselves.” It was printed last February in connection with the attacks by landowners and their vigilante bands on Imperial Valley | and San Joaquin strikers. | Communist Position The editorial, clearly defining the Communist position on force and violence, cautioned the strikers against any individual acts of vio- | (Cominuad ok Page 2) This provision is designed to revive the illusions of workers who have struck and restruck against the present Labor Board's tactic of call- ing sham elections. Green Gives a Hand While Wagner pushed his bill, President William Green of the American Federation of Labor joined a House Committee in ad- vancing another means of propping up the N.R.A. structure. Green en- (Continued on Page 2) Mine Strikers Vote to Return By Tom Keenan (Special to the Daily Worker) WASHINGTON, Pa., Feb. 21. — Three thousand miners of the Vesta Coal Company voted last night to end the walkout which has kept Vesta Mines No. 4, 5 and 6, of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corpora tion shut down tight since Tuesday morning. The return to work is bes ing made only on the basis of furs ther consolidating forces th-ough> out District 5 of the United Mine Workers The strike, which started Monday in Vesta and quickly spread to the other two shafts, was called spe- cifically against enforcement by the management of a clause of the cone tract covering the wearing of safety goggles. But basically it was a walk- out against accumulated grievances against which the Lewis contract gives the miners no recourse. At local union meetings during the shutdown, many voiced senti- ment for continuing the strike against the agreement, for a new wage scale, for the $6, 6-hour day, 5-day week, etc., but it was finally decided to build towards April 1, A mass meeting is called for Sun- day afternoon in Daisytown by the joint pit committees of the Vesta mines, to which delegates from the |g. and L. steel workers are invited,