Vigilantes Gang Upon Labor As Unions' Strength Grows
VigilantesGangUpQnLdBor As Unions' Strength Grows A. F. of L.-C.I.0. Gains in California Fought by Heavily Financed Industrialists' Stooge "Committee"—Los Angeles Times Leads...
...Ifs most effective work is among the wives...
...The other strike is a CIO affair and involves the thousands of workers in the steel plant...
...The joint labor protests were directed against legislation empowering the government to change collective labor agreements without consulting the parties thereto...
...Legislation against any political philosophy provokes farther legislation against other political philosophies and in the end will bring about the destruction of oar democratic form of government...
...the high cost of living, including a workable solution of the milk costs, utility rates, high rentals and prompt construction of low-cost housing...
...The open shop forces in the state are united in an organization called the Southern Californians, Ine., which is devoted to enticing runaway shops from the industrialised, and unionized, sections of the East...
...Our grandmothers kept out the French," .these women say, "and well hold up the Germans and Italians...
...The Thomasite Socialist Party in this state enrolled 8,271 members, a considerable drop from last year...
...He "decided to call together a group of men I had been associated with," one of whom was Shields...
...Bessie Abborr Ochs, no relation to the New York Times family...
...The issues on which the A.L.P...
...Chairman Scores Duplicity Chairman O'Connell, in his public statement, declared thai...
...In addition to this sensational development, the hearings provided a detailed picture of a typical vigiante movement which broke a big strike in Johnstown last June...
...Following the distribution of thousands of pamphlets by local Communists at the eleventh hour in the primary campaign, Harry T. O'Connell, campaign manager of the FarmerLabor forces, publicly denounced them for their "support," and the' "Union Advocate," official organ of the Trades and Labor Assembly, declared: "What Labor must do is to repudiate these breeders of discontent with the same vigor Labor assails the employment of stool pigeons, private detective agencies and sweatshop tactics...
...At the same time, a hum from the East, rising to a roar, warned the Loyalist garrison of the rapid' approach of a rebel air armada...
...This measure threatens the fundamental and baste principles upon which our government is based...
...Front...
...In addition to this sensational development, the hearings provided a detailed picture of a typical vigilante movement which broke a big strike in Johnstown last June...
...The witnesses had destroyed or concealed records subpoenaed by the Senators, their memories were complete blanks and they admitted nothing until they were confronted by deadly evidence otherwise obtained by the investigators...
...These events have disturbed the j interests which have consistently tried to use the Catholic unions to break the international trade union movement in Quebec...
...civilization* "Spain, ttodJB William O'Connell of Boston wj» answered ^g^»lnt^|jt>M cnureS...
...Rose stated: "The American Labor Party vehemently opposes- the McNaboe Bill which was passed by the State Legislature and is now before Governor Lehman for signature...
...James Mark, a steel strike leader, told how Shields sent heavilyarmed police and plain clothes men to "kidnap" him and C. W. Jones, vice-president of the Trainmen, and tried to terrorize them into leaving Johnstown...
...LaFollette showed, from the chamber's records, that Stanton's membership was paid for by the Pennsylvania Electric Company, a subsidiary of the Associated Gas A Electric Company, notorious utility combine which spent over $1,000,000 on fake telegrams to Congressmen and other propaganda against the Utility Holding Company Act...
...The back-to-work movements and company union angles aren't ignored by any means...
...Stanton admitted that he could not...
...Nevertheless, the labor movement in California, is growing...
...It worts closely with the Merchants and Manufacturers Association and the local Chamber of Commerce in their efforts to sell cheap labor to sweatshop corporations...
...In this way the A.L.P...
...This is the latest effort to institute regimentation of thought and will subject those in the Civil Service and in the teaching profession to spiritual and intellectual blackmail...
...The letter of the bishops to tin hierarchy asked it to psi ihajj Franco and "his Nazi and fascist allies to cease the hideous bombing of cities that, like Barcelona, a predominantly Catholic city, are by every rule of war civilian and noncombatant" The letter also painted out that American army strategists nave declared that if the United States is involved in war it will not resort to this barbarism...
...You told our investigators you could give them signed affidavits of 30 or 40 cases of violence by strik...
...By ALBERT h. JENKINS In Washington Labor JF Daniel J. Shields, ex-convict mayor of Johnstown, Pa., escapes prosecution, it will be a surprise to those who attended the hearings of the Senate Civil Liberties Committee last week...
...Rev...
...N.A.M...
...the Labor-Progressives had never soaght the support of the Communists in any campaign and added: "What's more—we never wilL" He pointed out that there was nothing new in this Communist maneuver, "but its recurrence every two years has become nauseating" and that there "is no way that we can combat these trouble-makers other than to repudiate them publicly...
...Hoffman said in bis speech that "what we need in this country is a man like Dan Shields in the White House...
...Other testimony showed Rev...
...The Committee is active among the oil, shipping and auto workers in the Long' BeachSan Pedro area...
...John H. Stanton of the Johnstown Presbyterian Church testified that he was the man who first suggested formation of the Citizens' Committee...
...On Wednesday it became knew* Franco^to ^V'^n^Wn?'du...
...Incidentally, the decision of the leaders of the Catholic unions to collaborate with the internationals indicates their recognition of the extent of the rally of French-Canadian workers to the internationals since the latter took the leadership in the fight against the Fascist tendencies of the Duplessis administration...
...and against legislation prohibiting a worker dismissed for any cause seeking redress in the courts except by tfts express permission of the prssuer in his capacity as Attorney-General...
...Can you give us even one...
...This is an effort to institute thinking by decree...
...While the upstate enrollment is less than was expected, the state leaders of the party are confident of a huge increase because of the many new local organizations which have sprung up throughout the state during the three months of this year...
...After a conference of representatives of the Quebec Federation of Labor (international) and the Federation of Catholic Unions, a joint delegation waited on the Duplessis government, and lodged protests against its labor policies...
...A labor reporter then wrote that "to understand what has happened here, it must be remembered that the Bethlehem Steel Company plant is tied up by two separate strikes...
...Either Shields lied repeatedly, or a half-dozen witnesses who flatly contradicted him gave false testimony...
...Six times their anti-tank gunners repulsed the powerful tanks...
...His eyes were opened, he said, when Shields and the committee tried to drive labor leaders out of town, put highly inflammatory anti-union ads in the papers, "tried to beat the strikers into submission," invited labor-hating Congressman Clare G. Hoffman (Rep., Mich...
...Kautsky and his wife will remain as guests of the Amsterdam local organization.' Communists for CP...
...Fortunately, this eleventh-hour aid to Labor's enemies did not affect the results of the primary...
...The A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. cooperate in many cities to fight off the menace of industrialists' vigilantes Kautsky Arrives In Holland from Czechoslovakia Labor men and Social Democrats, long acquainted with the great literary work of Karl Kautsky for democratic Socialism, were happy to learn from recent press dispatches that he and his wife had arrived by airplane safely in Amsterdam from Prague, Czechoslovakia, as a refugee from Hitler's Nazis in Vienna...
...From another source, the Board <s>of Elections, came further evidence that the Labor Party was in a fine position to start a new drive for membership which will culminate in the fall election campaign...
...All of the Farmer-Labor candidates were nominated, with John J. McDonough leading the field for Mayor with a vote of 28,366 to 22,584 for his nearest opponent, A charter amendment providing for four-year terms for all elected city officials and opposed by Labor was also hopelessly defeated by a vote of 4 to 1. Social Democrats, naturally, supported the Farmer-Labor candidates...
...PAUL, Minn...
...SAN FRANCISCO,—Strenuous unionization drives which IjQgf turned thifr smuty state of California from a wide open' employers' heaven hito a series of *?a?fe*:;atm' tiffm¦ whefce.union shops are beginning- to outnumber the sweatshops and the peonage farms, are being fought by well-organized, strongly financed union -mti ashing gangs, to sty nothing of the lunatic Fascist and phoney colored shirt fringe Seek of these "innocent" fronts,1 fighting in the guise of "patriots" and "decent elements," are the local Chambers of Commerce and the Merchants and Manufacturers Association...
...Gains in California Fought by Heavily Financed Industrialists' Stooge "Committee"—Los Angeles Times Leads Attack—New Propaganda Groups Aim at Wives of Union Men...
...told his officer to watch out for something that looked like a dust cloud moving across the Sierra Carbonal, the officer's glasses found that the "dust" was actually a great mass of tanks...
...Whether the committee disclosures have caused Hoffman to revise that view, he has not indicated...
...In bis condemnation of the McNaboe Bill to bar from Civil Service and teaching positions persons of unorthodox political beliefs, Mr...
...George W. Nicely of the local Lutheran church backing up Shields in vigilante activities, but the Citizens' Committee apparently made a mistake when it enrolled Abraham Gfanowitz, a Johnstown rabbi...
...the wages arrived at by collective labor agreements...
...S?s^1Stcafl3r npS the Catholic hierarchy to urge General Franco to cease bombing noncombatants in Spanish cities...
...Sweatshops Unite Then there is the Committee of 10,000, whose publicity agent is Charlie Paddock, the one-time sprinter who now owns the Long Beach Press-Telegram, a vicious anti-labor sheet...
...The vigilante gangs arc supported by all the financial and propaganda facilities of men like Harry Chandler, open shop publisher of the notoriously antilabor Los Angeles Times...
...Chandler is she spokesman for most of the industrialists and real estate interests in California...
...This is worked by a Mrs...
...will wage its campaign late this year are the Child Labor Amend - I men t, which was crushed by ^n united Democrat and Republican front...
...We have faith in the political instincts of our people and they do not need any mechanical device to maintain and protect our present form at government...
...of strikers, especially sitdowners, where it sows alarm...
...Special to The New Leader...
...M^iMWe$ for Larger Representation at Albany Spurred by the refusal of even the liberal cliques of the old parties to cooperate with its legislators in Albany, the American Labor Party announced this week that it will carry its fight for additional representatives to the legislature into every corner of the state...
...i Alex Rose, State Executive Secretary of the American Labor Party, reaffirmed his faith in the political instincts of the American people, and denied the need for any ¦ mechanical device to control thought...
...The A.L.P...
...while Cardinal Hayes in New Tort, like Cardinal O'Connell...
...rn its first enrollment since becoming a legal political party enrolled 205.358 members in New York City and 11,554 in the rest of the state...
...She controls the Neutral Thousands (or TNT) which under the guise of neutrality during industrial strife whips up back-to-work propaganda...
...They defied Shields and his vigilantes, however, and stayed in Johnstown with the strikers...
...against legislation exempting the government and government contractors from the payment of either the minimum wages fixed by the Official Wage Board ore...
...Active Propaganda of the National Association of Manufacturers is fed to the people here in the subtle forms described in previous • exposes of The New Leader, including all of the newest wrinkles, the latest of which is "The Women of the Pacific.' Under the guidance of a Mrs...
...The Labor forces have been the target for attacks by reactionaries on the ground that - the Farmer-Labor movement is "communistic," and the movement has consistently met the issue by not giving any encouragement to this unwelcome element...
...AH these groups and others whose identity hasn't yet been revealed use the criminal underworld for spy and frame-up-work against the unions...
...While tanks and planes •rained shells on the garrison, the Loyalists fought back with whatever resources were at hand...
...apprvyfi Franco and'even declared that he was "prayingfor Franco's ricSeryH The terrible toll of death and injured taken by the Spanish fascist forces has shocked millions of people in this and other nations and defense of this slaughter by Mrs church prelates has been fast s* shocking...
...One involves the corporation's Connemaugh & Black Lick Railroad, and is being pressed by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen...
...According to Mark, Shields even threw into jail a lawyer who tried to protect the legal rights of the labor leaders...
...The trick that caused intense resentment in Labor circles was the distribution of leaflets and pamphlets urging voters to support the Labor-Progressive ticket and one Communist for the City Council...
...This impeachment of the press of toe world which has carried the newt of Franco's repeated bombing of Barcelona astonished reporters te whom he made the statement...
...It revealed that the entire "law and order" movement in Johnstown was financed by Bethlehem to the tune of $42,937, and that at least $31,078 of this money was paid to Shields...
...MONTREAL.—National Catholic unions of Quebec Province have lined up with the international unions in the fight against legislation vesting dictatorial powers in the hands of the provincial cabinet...
...In the face of machine-gun fire from the German and Italian planes that form the spearhead of the Spanish rebel onslaught, village women, aided by their children, keep on filling sandbags and piling them up as barricades to be used against the Fascists...
...It will subject many people who manifest an intellectual curimfc$?mMm> mm jmnwthwwx school of thought to condemnatior and removal as subversive influences...
...Forming a united front for political action, in Three Rivers, Premier Duplessis' home city, the members of international and Catholic unions put up a candidate for mayor and elected him against a man Duplessis backed personally...
...GenfrancoPralMt By High Catholics As Loyal'Christian' Endow—Ml of Eomoer of Noncombatant...
...Aragon Women and Children Go Out to Malt Fascist March BARCELONA.—Peasant women, old men, and children of Aragon are working to hold up the Franco steamroller" as the rebefoffensive continues on toward the Mediterranean...
...Before long it would affect not only those against whom it is apparently directed, but also many socially minded persons who stand for reform and progressive changes for the benefit of tile people...
...On his arrival in Amsterdam on the invitation of Dutch Socialists, Kautsky declared that despite all that he had observed in recent years, his confidence in democratic Socialist ideals is as strong as ever...
...Special to The New Leader ST...
...Pulls Usual Pre-Electkm Trick of Trying to Plaster Labor Group With Fake-Support...
...Quebec Catholic Unions Join Fight On Cabinet Power Turn on Dictatorship Drive of Duplessis in Surprise Move—Join A. F. of L.C.I.O...
...Windfall for Shields The evidence also proved that immediately after the steel workers' strike was ' broken, Shields paid off $23,465 mortgages and other debts which had long been in default...
...Cardinal O'Connell even declared that "it is a lie" that Generis Franco was bombing Spanish cities and denounced the Valencia government as "nothing but piracy sad Communism gone rank...
...An Aragon town was taken by the rebels last week, but only after the sternest resistance had proved unavailing against almost one hundred tanks and as many or move planes...
...The testimony this week showed why...
...Rabbi's Eyes Opened Granowitz told the Senators he resigned from the committee "when it became obvious to me that its stated objects were not its real objects...
...warned the old parties that tiie day of endorsements was practically over and that it would fight energetically further sabotage of the basic welfare of the people of the state...
...Edwin Selvin of Seattle who has cooperated with the reactionaries and crackpot Christian Social Party of Washington, the "Women" agitate among the housewives warning them that homes, churches and schools will be destroyed, unless the unions in the state are incorporated, and strikes are outlawed...
...At a labor board hearing in the Firestone case, TNT's tie-up with the League of Independent Unions (stooge company unions) was revealed...
...He and his wife managed to escape one day before the gangsters arrived in the Austrian capital...
...to make a speech in Johntown, and deputized the commander of the Johnstown American Legion past and other legionnaires as strikebreaking special officers...
...and Haves Shocks Advocates of LV rnocracy...
...bv C*rdL rials O'Conn el...
...At last, however, the insurgents changed their tactics and surrounded the town...
...VigilantesGangUpQnLdBor As Unions' Strength Grows A. F. of L.-C.I.0...
...ers that you saw," said LaFollette...
...Mayor Shields and his vigilante "Citizens' Committee" acted with equal violence against both groups...
...With overwhelming power in the hands of the opposition, the remaining 700 Loyalist troops, part of bomb^wrowers to break a Pfjfcj throujfc, the enemy, battled their Vigilantes1 Backing By CompaniesExposed Senate Probe Reveals Tie-up Between Bethlehem Steel and 'Law and Order' Movement in Johnstown Strike...
Vol. 21 • March 1938 • No. 13
