The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-11
SACRAMENTO
JUDGE RULES
AGAINST IS
Rancher Accused in the
Murder of 2 Workers
Goes on Stand
BY Michael Quin
Especial to the Daily WORKER

SACRAMENTO. Calf, Feb. 10
With the introduction yesterday BY
the prosecution of ranch owners
and former deputies as witnesses,
the entire strike wave of the past
three years in the San joaquin
Valley is being reviewed as I'm
eliminating evidence" against the
eighteen defendants on trial here
under the California criminal SYM
dicalism law for strike activities.
Efforts of Leo Gallagher, In
ternational Labor Defense at
torney and the defendants to re-
veal the crisis of capitalism as the
real cause of the strike struggles
against starvation pay and rotten
conditions are being systemati-
cally blocked by the court and
prosecution. with Judge Dial M.
Lennon sustaining the objections
of the prosecution and ruling out
all reference to the crisis.
Blame "Agitators for Strikes"
Every effort is being made by the
prosecution and the big rancher wit
nesses to make it appear that the
farm workers are well satisfied and
that the strikes we're caused by
agitators. although bourgeois auth
critics themselves admit the follow
ing starvation wages: Prune pickers,
81 a day at the most IF they can
remain on their knees on plowed
ground for from ten to twelve hours
and fill twenty lug boxes. weighing
forty pounds, with the fruit. The
general price paid is five cents a
box"
For apricot workers, "62h cents
a day if they are fast and can halve,
peel and lay out five trays day.
These trays are four feet wide and
eight feet long :"
"Cannery workers are slightly
better paid, and the wages run
from 20 cents to 36 cents an hour"
The great cotton strike of 1898
was cited by Frank NJ. Peterson,
State witness and the grower who
signed the accusation to have Pat
Chambers arrested and tried on
criminal syndicalism charges in
1888. At that time Chambers was
acquitted as the result of mass pro-
test throughout the country, which
condemned the grower-vigilante
murder of two workers In Pixley
Chambers is one of the present
eighteen defendants, under a new
indictment.
All Ranchers Acquitted
Peterson is one Of the men whom
workers charged with the murder
of two of their comrades in Pixley,
but was never brought to trial. Sew
eral other growers tried on the
charge were acquitted.
Peterson now accuses workers Of
the killing and Chambers of MAX
ing speeches calling for CRAZY
violence and bloodshed." On the
witness stand he used conscious af-
fectation of plain home-folks char
acteristics and talks about his three
motherless children and his patriot
ism
Last year, California farm work
ers boycotted his ranch because of
his implication with the Huxley
murders. Peterson, testifying that
the great cotton strike twas no
strike, just agitation, declared that
the vigilante bands employed by
the growers were unarmed although
even boss papers reported armed &C.
tivities by these gangs. He claimed
he was not around when the two
workers were murdered but was
summoned" by the sheriff who told
him hell was popping"
Those defendants for whom bail
has not yet been obtained carried
out a one-day hunger strike in Jail
yesterday in protest against intoler-
able conditions, winning all de-
mands by noon.