The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-19
IN MANY ATTACKS
ON WORKINGCLASS
Hit Compensation for
Injuries

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct. IL by
MaiD.-More than 200 workers
demonstrated here before the
American Consulate on Oct. 10
against the attempted legal lynch
ing by the American imperialist
bosses of the ScOttsborO boys.
Justice James Clark McReynolds,
70-year- old Southern reactionary, has
consistently shown his hatred of the
Negro masses in number of cases
coming before the U. S. Supreme
Court. McReynolds is one of the
nine members Of the Supreme Court
which has still TO render it's decision
on the appeal argued by International
Labor Defense attorneys on oct. 10
| against the murderous lynch verdicts
sentencing seven of the nine limo
cent Scottsboro Negro boys to burn
in the electric chair in Alabama.
Fer Legal Lynching of Choppers
| Ia the Moore VS.. Dempsey case,
McReynolds in a dissenting opinion
in which he was joined by Justice
George Sutherland, upheld the dig
nifty of the white boss lynchers Of
the South The case was an out
come of the brutal massacre of Ne
gro troopers by Arkansas landlords
The Arkansas Courts were engaged
in an attempt to carry through a
mass legal lynching of Negro crop
pers for the crime of daring to de-
fend themselves when a white land
lord gang fired on a meeting of
troopers. held in church in Elaine,
to organize with view Of marketing
their own crops and resisting land
lord robbery Of the troopers.
The attempt to legally lynch the
choppers was so fragrant that the
majority of the U. S. Supreme Court
upheld their appeal against the lynch
verdicts and ordered a new trial. Nc
Reynolds, however warned the court
against interfering with the decisions
of local judges acquainted with To-
cal conditions" In opposing the APP
peal against the Scottsboro lynch YER
diets, the Alabama Attorney General,
Knight, similarly suggested that the
court must not interfere with local
conditions and the Alabama lynch
verdicts against the Negro children.
The warning was repeated by Hoover
in his address to the Bar Associa-
ton. Knight broadly limited that the
Alabama courts have a better I'M
Outstanding of local conditions"
that is, of the growing resistance Of
the Negro masses against landlord
robbery, peonage and national OPP
preston and the need of the most
brutal repressive measures to sup
press these struggles of the toiling
Negro masses.
Anti-LabOr Record
The entire record of MGR eynolds is
one of vicious attacks on the rights
of the working class. He dissented
against the majority opinion which
upheld legislation enacted by the New
York State legislature, under pres
sure of public indignation, compelling
publicity for the New York organiza-
ton OF the Ku Klux Khan and it's
membership.
Writing the decision in the Jensen
~N1Ng 4NAC4bNJAl ulGQ bIldL oil III
jured stevedore could not recover
damages under the New Workmen's
Compensation Act, on the ground
that his work was of a maritime ma
ture and therefore under the juris-
diction of the Federal Government.
The hypocrisy Of this decision and
the anti-Working class role of the Su-
preme Court was glaringly exposed
short time later when mass in
dignation forced Congress to enact a
Statute making compensation laws
applicable to deck workers. Mercy
nolds then led the court in opposing
this statute.
Hits L0ngshoremen
He later wrote another notorious
decision in Pacific Coast case
which laid down the doctrine that
injured longshoremen could not Sc
cure damages in the absence of an
act Of Congress specifically applying
to them"-which act he had earlier
led the court in nullifying
Again in the 1881 80 term. McRey- |
nolds Joined in the Hughes opinion
which nullified the administrative
features Of the Longshoremen's and !
Harbor Workers Compensation Act, |
the act imperative and de- |
priving the workers in this dangerous
field Of any vestige of protection, de- |
nying them even the most meager
compensation for injuries, loss OF
limb or life as result of the fearful
speed-up and neglect of safety meas
ures by the bosses and contractors.
The working class can have no IL
fusion in the fairness and Sim
partially" of this highest court of
capitalism, this court of last ilIu-
sions. Only mass pressure, only
the thunderous protests of white
and Negro workers can effect the
release Of the nine innocent Scots
boro Negro boys, seven of whom
are under death sentences in Ala