The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-22


months ago after serving more than
two yesrs,-Editor.l
THE trial OF the Imperial Valley
i prisoners, which eliminated in
lengthy prison sentences, began in
FL Centre, Imperial Valley on May
Is, 1880. Each evening, as the court
sessions we're over and the prison.
ers were taken to their stuffy cells
in the County Jail, news-flashes
went out to inform the workers
throughout the country Of the days
new developments in the frame-up
through which eight workers were
to be railroaded to prison because
Of their militant fight to organize
the 10000 bitterly exploited agricul-
tural workers Of the Valley. Who
was it that printed this news? The
only working class English daily
paper in the United States-the
Daily Worker,
The conditions OF the Imperial
Valley workers were hardly known,
and would still be little known,
were it not for the Daily Worker,
AS we lay in our cells in the jail,
which is located right in the cen
ter Of what used to be desert 200
feet below sea-leYel and is today,
thanks TO the sweat and blood Of
the Mexican, Filipino, Negro, Amer
lean and other workers, one Of the
70 a.
hot-beds of the United States, we
looked towards the Daily Worker
to rally the masses of American
Workers for our defense.
CTRIKES had taken place in the
y Imperial Valley practically every
year. But the despotic sway of the
Fruit Growers Association re-
manned mistaken. Organizers came
to the Valley at times, were made
victims of the vicious police terror
at the orders of the fruit and vege-
table baronS, were sent to prison
or we're made victims of direct
lynch terror, were driven out many
miles into the barren desert and
left to perish in the Scorching sun.
Mexican, Filipino, Negro and
Japanese workers labored in the
sun, drinking filthy water from the
irrigation bitches, water which first
had to be strainged through cloth.
Many OF these workers collapsed
and died from the combined effect
of the heat, lack of fresh water
ana the exhaustion of long hours
and speed-up while grinding out
enormous profits for the wealthy
exploiters of the Fruit Growers As
ISOLATION.
Still, the exploitation, the terrible
working conditions and the unre-
strained deSpotic terror of the cap
italiSts and their hired agents re-
manned hidden from the eyes of
the masses in this country, just
as the Georgia chain-g gang horrors
remained hidden and concealed
until the Daily Worker exposed
them, and similarly, the Daily"
Worker entered the struggle of
these workers and made the cause
of the Imperial Valley workers
fighting under the leadership of the
Agricultural Workers Industrial
Union the cause of the masses
nationally and internationally.
WHILE in the clutches of the
w California exploiterS, it became
clearer than ever before to us that
without such a weapon, without a
militant daily paper of the working
class, there could be no question of
developing a unified struggle of the
employed and unemployed workers,
of the native and foreign born,
white and black, against the em~
ployerS' wage cutting, Share-the-
work starvation program, against
the deportation terror and against
the general drive of the capitalists
against the economic and political
rights Of the workers.
Without the Daily Worker we
could hardly have expected to win
our release from the prisons of San
Quentin and Folsom within the
period of two or three years. But
with the powerful voice Of the
Daily Worker rsllying the workers,
added to the efforts of the Inter
national Labor Defense, the con-
spiracy to hold us in prison on
terms ranging up to AZ years was
smashed.
The question of maintaining the
Daily Worker is a question Of life
and death to the militant workers
in this country. 1t is question
which is inseparably connected
with the final outcome Of the fight
to save the Scottsboro boys, to win
freedom for Tom Mooney, the
everyday struggles of the workers
and poor farmers of this country,
and the organization Of all the toll
ers, regardless of race, color or
nationality, for final victory over
capitalist exploitation i'd tn e
establishment of a workers and
and farmers rule in this country.
Forward in the fight to save the
Daily Workerl Forward in the eff
fort to rally every bit OF support
to raise the S35, 900 for our fighting
organ and TO build the Daily Work
eE into a stronger weapon Of the
oppressed masses, Forward towards
the victory Of the exploited workers
and poor farmers Of this countryl
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES