The Daily Worker

Fish Steps Out of White House Gaiety
to Hear of Fight Against Hunger

(This is the first of a series of
articles on the Fish Committee
meeting in the Capitol of the
United States when they quizzed
William Z. Foster and Israel Amter,
members of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party, on ac-
tivities in the United States.
Foster was on the stand for over
three hours. Besides reading the
challenging statement, which ap-
peared in the Daily Worker on
Dec. 6, he was questioned on a
wide range of topics of the class
struggle. These will be dealt with
in this series of articles.-Ed.)

a*
By HARRY GANNES

The night before. the White House
dazzled with a riotous display of
jewels and fine gowns. Hoover and
the top gang who rule for the "59"
rich bosses that run the United
States gathered for a reception with
a "touch of royal atmosphere." Rich
foods were served. The fat wives of
the parasite rulers were decked out
in gowns and gems that cost many
of the 9.000,000 unemployed miserable
days of toil and sweat and health.

Only two Congressmen were given
the privileges of hobnobbing with
this mighty outfit. And Hamilton
Fish was one of them. To get a
better grasp of Fish's feelings when
he heard William Z. Foster read the
devastating indictments of capitalism
that he fiung before the Fish Com-
mittee in Washington meeting in the
Capitol of the United States on Dec
5. we must get a slant at the gala
night that the red-baiting Congress-
man spent on the eve of the in-
quisition.

Here is how the Washington Eve-
ning Star describes the setting.

"The state suite of drawing
rooms was aglow with lights and
a few late Autumn flowers placed
to advantage in each room, the
splendid brilliancy of the 'scene
given by the court uniforms of the
diplomats, the rich gowns and
jewels worn by the ladies accom-
panying them, the White House
aides and other officers of Army
and Navy in their full dress uni-
forms and the gowns and jewels of
the hundreds of women from of-
ficial and resident society present."

"Rich gowns and jewels." bellies
filled with 'the richest foods.

On the following day Fish and the
other members of the Committee
walk into the hearing room. Some
of the flowers from the reception are
still there on the table in the ante-
room. They call Foster to the stand
After a few preliminary skirmishes-
the committee is uneasy all the time
-Foster read the atement of the
Central Committee cf the Communist
Party..

"In the streets of every
large
(Continued on Page Three)

Foster -Tells of Mass
Starvation of :
: Workers :
FISH STEPS OUT OF WHITE HOUSE
GAETY TO HEAR OF HUNGER FIGHT

(Continued from Page One)

city, workers are dropping, dying and dead from starvation and exposure! Every newspaper of the country constantly reports suicides of these workers, driven to desperation by unemployment and starvation."

Every member of the committee has a copy of the statement. Their eyes are riveted on it. Many statements have been read to them before. Little attention was paid to them. But there is a tomb-like silence while Foster in biting words etches a picture of growing misery, starvation, brutality against the American working-class. Every line is picked with facts. Every line cuts like a knife.

There is nothing abstract in this nunciation of capitalism and exposure of the bankruptcy of the system of exploitation. It picks out the committee members by name. The "supporters of Messrs. Bachman, Eslick and Hall are lynching the disfranchised Negroes." And Messrs. Bachman Eslick and Hall wince. This touches a sore spot. Bachman looks up as Foster in a clear and emphatic voice reads on: "The Communists are organizing defense corps of white and black workers to fight against all lynching mobs."

On and on goes the reading. You can see the workers shivering on the breadlines, hear the sickening whack of the cops clubs as the workers fight for bread. The statement rips into the bitter exploitation in the South. It openly tells the program of the Communist Party in mobilizing the workers for unemployment insurance; against wage cuts, against lynching, against discrimination of foreign-born; against the rapid war preparations—and for the abolition of the rotten, decaying system.

From the atmosphere of "rich gowns and jewels" to the realities of the class struggle. From tables loaded with food and flowers to breadlines and 9,000,000 starving men and women and their families fighting the police. From diplomatic corps to war preparations.

The reading of the statement ends. For a little while there is quiet. Then the Congressmen fidget in their seats. Bachman is the first to question.

"Where did you get your information about discrimination of Negroes in West Virginia, my state?" (Bachman has confidence in the boss newspapers' skill in hiding these discriminations.)

"In Logan County, where I know the facts from personal experience" replies Foster, "both Negro and white workers are terrorized by mine gangsters. Jim Crowism is rampant."

"But we have no Jim Crow ordinances in West Virginia," says Bachman in a tone of finality.

"You may not have ordinances but you have the system of Jim Crowing." Foster said. "You have the 14th and 15th amendment supposedly guaranteeing Constitutional rights to negroes in the South. But even you won't argue that they have these rights."

Bachman veers from this and tries another line. The Fish Committee

UO1 CAIEDAR FRDE!

Historical data on big events of the class struggle in the first annual Daily Worker Calendar. Free with six months sub or renewal.

doesn't like figures, especially when they get near the sore point of unemployment. "How do you get the figure of 9,000,000 unemployed?" they ask.

Foster reads pages of facts and figures. He quotes Steuart of the Census Bureau who admitted between 7,000,000 and 9,000,000 several months ago. He uses the 23 per cent unemployed of the A. F. of L. applying it to the entire workingclass. He quotes the Department of Labor faked figures. He trips up Hoover's lying figures. He quotes MacDonald, henchman of British imperialism, who said if the unemployed in the U. S. were registered on the English system the figures would be at least 12,000,000.

"In New York the Communist Party declared there were 800,000 unemployed. Recently Rybicki of the Municipal Employment Bureau was forced to admit this figure was correct."

Again Bachman quits. What he tried to ridicule has been strengthened and buttressed with more proof.