The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-02-10


rived by beating his way on freight
trains and after being three times ar
rested on the road.
Negro Delegate Elected.
Julius Washington, a Negro dele
gate from Albany and carpenter,
was elected vice-chairma1. Wagon
knecht was elected secretary.
The arrangements ommitte e
elected consists Of the head of each
territorial delegation, and is in charge
of technical arrangements.
Great applause greeted Wagon
knecht's statement of the purpose Of
the conferences: eve meet not as in
dividuals but as delegates represent
ing 100000 workers who have sent
and endorsed us. We actually repre-
sent the whole ten million jobless in
the United States, as we'll as the work
ers in the shops, who may be driven
cut of their jobs at any moment.
"OnIy We Can Win insurance."
Congress has so far taken no step
for insurance, but criminally fights
against it. Only the power of the
workers can win insurance. We rep
resent this power and appear here to
make this power felt.
"The workers have no representa-
tives in congress. Only the enemies
of the workers and the misleaders of
labor are there. We speak for all
workers.
This conference, the most important
ever gathered together so far in the
history of the country, demands the
floor of both houses of congress for
its speakers tomorrow to make its
statement and read the bill.
Statement TO Congress.
The statement to congress being
worked out by the national conference
now will point out that the work.
ers' demand for unemployment insur-
snce is demand for the right to live,
and that it is a fight against mass
starvation.
1t tells Of the millions Of children
in rich America who are growing up
stunted in body and brain from slow
starvation. 1t tells of their going
barefoot in the snow in the coal
regions. It tells of the starvation dis
ease, pellagra, which ravages the
South. 1t tells of the semi-starvation
of the breadlines in the wealthy
Northern cities. 1t tells of the hun
ger among the farmers.
Places Responsibility.
And 1t charges: 1.-THE responsibility
for organizing unemployment relief
rests squarely upon the government.
But nothing has ben done by its ma
tionaI, state and local branches. The
present so-called relief measures are
10th an insult and crime against
the workers. While giving no real re-
lief. they serve only to create the illu-
e'on that something is being done.
MEANWHILE, actual mass starvation
spreads among the ranks of the work
ers."
The statement charges that the &C
tual policy of the national and local
governments is to let the unemployed
workers starve. 1t has not appropri-
ated cent for unemployment relief,
although it has no difficulty in find
ing $162,00o,000 for tax rebates to al
ready over-rich corporations, two bill
lions for war purposes and hundreds
of millions for various pork barrel ap-
preparations.
Demands Insurance.
The statement will tear into and
expose the organized starvation of the
cities and the continued use Of the
unemployed in wage-cutting schemes,
and it exposes the fake nature Of the
Hoover building program.
1t will state: I'VE workers reject
with scorn, hatred and indignation
this whole contemplate capitalist
charity system and the treacherous
labor leaders who support it,"
The statement gives figures to show
that there is permanent mass unem-
ployment and ends by describing and
demanding the Workers Unemploy-
ment Insurance Bill.
Discuss the Bill.
The bill itself is under discussion
at the sessions now being held here
in Concord Hall. The main prin-
ciples of the bill, which calls for a
fund Of $4,000, 100000 to be set aside
by the national government for un-
employment insurance payments, that
this money be made up Of the cash
already appropriated for war pur-
poses by the Hoover government, by
appropriations Of other money in the
U s. treasury, and by a tax and cap
ital levy on the rich stockholders Of
the country, will stay in the bill. The
discussion centers around the amount
that should be paid weekly to the
unemployed workers. The original
form of the bill called for $25 a week
and x5 more for eacl dehpndent The