The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-06-14
IS CHARGED
WITH MURDER
IN GASTONIA
Masses BeingMobiliz
for Defense

GfOontinued from Page One)
an office in Gastonia. Walter Trum-
bull, local 1. L. D. representative, is
in Gastonia, taking active charge of
organization of the local defense
committee.
The National Textile Workers
Union has a district office in Char
lotte now, and its organizers report
that the mill strikers are re-organ-
izing, and hundreds of new members
joining the union.
Half Join Union.
Paul Crouch spoke to a union
meeting attended by 800 workers in
Bessemer City last night. Of the
1900 in Bessemer mills, 600 now
belong to the n. T. w.
In the Loray district company
agents are making a systematic
canvass of workers in their homes
and trying to force them to quit the
union. Evictions continue; the
Tetheroe family was evicted yester-
day, giving the lie to the Manville-
Jenckes propaganda that no such
measures are being taken against
the strikers.
The International Labor Defense
is demanding that all these cases be
taken to Charlotte for trial. In the
boss-ridden county of CASTOR, where
the courts as well as the city gov
eminent are controlled by the tex
tile mill owners, there is likely to be
a very savage frame-up, with the
strikers railroaded to the electric
chair
The international Labor Defense
has already started its nationwide
campaign for freeing the prisoners
by smashing the frame-up.
A mass meeting of coal miners in
Wilkes-Barre yesterday voted full
support to Fred Beal, one of those
charged with murder, and Southern
organizer for the National Textile
Workers Union, and all others ar
rested in the mill owners frame up
in Gastonia. The coal miners reso-
luton followed an address by J.
Louis Engdahl of the Daily Worker,
who told of the Southern textile
strike and linked it up with the pre-
parations for an imperialist war and
the attack on the Soviet Union.
Poyntz announced today that the
international Labor Defense is is
suing half million leaflets, telling
the story Of the Gastonia frame-up
and calling on all workers to con-
tribute Immediately. These leaflets
will be distributed in shops, work
ing class organizations, at meetings
and at other places where workers
gather.
The I. l.. d. is arranging confer
ences of working class organizations
to be held all over the country which
will make the drive to save the Gas
tonia strikers a real united front
campaign of the American working
class. Mass meetings have already
been started in various parts of the
country. Two meetings were held
In New Bedford, Mass, scene of the
great textile strike last year, at
which Karl Reeve was the principal
speaker. Several thousand workers
attended these meetings and pledged
their, utmost support. A meeting
was also held in Boston, at which
Reeve and Robert Zelms, New Eng
land secretary of the 1. L. D., spoke.
The I. L. D. will also tour we'll
known speakers turnout the coun-
trga j. Louis Engdahl, acting editor
of the Daily Worker, has already
left on a speaking tour. Engdahl
wili speak in Chicago Saturday at
mass demonstration and parade
under the auspices Of the Interna-
tional Labor Defense and the Com
munist Party, and at the annual
picnic Of the Chicago 1. L. D. Sun
day. r
On Monday night Engdahl will
speak in Detroit at a membership
mobilization meeting of the l. L. D.
in preparation for a mass meeting
to be held Tuesday.
Tuesday night Engdahl speaks at
an /. L. D. mass meeting in Cleve-
land at Insurance Center Hall, 1888
E.. 18th St, at p. m.
The /. L. D. will also tour severa
Gastonia strikers who will help
raise funds and build the l. l.. D.
in various sections of the country.
Plans also call for the holding of
monday shop meetings in shops
and factories all over the country
to reach thousands of workers di-
rectly in this great mass campaign.
The defense work in Gastonia is
at present seriously hampered be-
cause of lack of funds, the l. L. D.
states. Cash bonds are needed to
SECURE the release of the prisoners
since all property bonds have been
refused. Thousands of dollars are
needed to pay for the legal expenses.
All workers and sympathizers are