The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-28
CAROLINA WRITES
BILL FOR BOSSES
IN TRIAL OF IS
Would Punish Striking
With Electrocution
Continued from Page One)


point, the electric chair must be al
lowed to embrace sixteen working
men and women only by due process
of law, the law that is written for
the protection of property, especially
for the protection of such important
private property as the profits of
the Manville-Jenckes Company.
The majesty of this law is a mar
velous thing. 1t brings to the de-
Tense of Northern corporation in
a state where anyone born outside
its boundary lines is called "a for
eigner," the most eminent counsel
in North Carolina. Lawyers who
sheer at the Northern counsel on the
defense staff have pockets bulging
with fat fees paid them by a North
ern company. Their bank accounts
are swelled by the dollars wrung
from the bodies of pellagra-ridden
mill workers.
1t is quite clear that professional
Southern chauvinists capitulate very
readily to damn Yankee" cash.
The prosecution has drawn another
bill of particulars. This one alleges
that the defendants entered into a
conspiracy to put the Manville-
Jenckes Co. out OF business"
Try as it will, therefore, the state
legal staff cannot get away from
the class struggle issues in this case.
1t is the union and union organizers
that the prosecution is after, not
certain individuals. 1t is the right
to organize that is on trial, the right
to self defense, the right of workers
to resist are armed attacks OF Man
yille-Jenckes mercenaries, and in this
trial Manville-Jenckes represents the
whole capitalist class of America.
The local press is unable to dis
guise the fundamental class issues,
even though the electric chair has
been showed temporarily into the
darker shadows of the quiet court
room. The Charlotte Observer acts
as advisor to the prosecution, the
Judge and the prosecutive jurors. 1t
says editorially: "Opinion may have
been arrived at by readers of papers
in this part of the country that
general condition of unrest exists in
labor circles. The public has over
looked the fact that while agitation
still exists TO some extent, it is
created by the struggling remnants
who are yet making noise; the
strikes in South Carolina have been
over so long a time as to have be-
come but a memory. The field has
been deserted by agitators, and all
other fields have been abandoned
with the exception of Gastonia,
where camp of Communists is yet
maintained. Nevertheless, the mills
are operating, the strikes are over
and labor at peace, or at least so
much peace as the Communists can
not prevent"
The Observer leaves little doubt
as to its meaning. Bring forward
the electric chair, eliminate the Com
munists, and North Carolina labor
will revert to the "cheap and docile"
status which lured Manville-Jenckes
and other capitalists to the Piedmont.
The formula is simple. Prosperity
for the employers for the price of
enough of Andy MELONS electric
current to execute 10 active members
of the National Textile Workers
Union, among whom are two Com
munists
The Charlotte News takes diff
ferent tactical line. It's advice to
the court, the jury and the prosecu-
ton is to the effect that convic-
ton and death sentences would sim
ply rid the state of some undesir-
ables whose elimination would be
for the best. The News says, like
wise, editorially: "The trial begin
ming today of the defendants charg-
ed with the Staying of Chief Alder
holt of Gastonia is nothing more or
less than the trial of men and wo-
men accused of killing a citizen. 1t
is only incidental that the citizen
was policeman. 1t is only inciden-
tai that the defendants are regarded
generally as mischief makers, the
purveyors of an insidious and sinis-
ter philosophy of life and the pro-
motors of social and industrial rev.
ol,'+'Nn
The jury is drawn from the ranks
of the readers of the two cotton
mill papers. "a fair trial? Sure,
give them fair trial, and then cleo
trocute them" This is the essence
of the editorial expressions of the
local press.
This prosecution is in deadly ear
nest. 1t wants only to secure the
end sought the death of thirteen
union organizers in a way best
calculated to avoid the criticism of
"soft-headed sentimentalists" and
Of workers = who cannot under
stand that the Communist challenge
to Manville-Jenckes must be wiped
out in blood boiled in the blue heat
of an electric arc.
Take the last word of the state,
made public on the eve of the trial.
Make every worker in America I'M
derstand that death for 10 of the
best and bravest of our class turks
only half concealed in the soft shad-
ows of the Charlotte court room!
The Charlotte Observer starts its
eto,.,, with Tho folIoxu;ro.