The Daily Worker

'Mass Protest, Mass Aid Will
Save Gaston Prisoners': Melvin

"When workers left their looms.
and rushed to volunteer their aid
to defend us, when they heard of
the fascist
raids last
Monday night,
we knew the
days of Man-
v ille - Jenckes
starvation rule
in
Gastonia
were
num-
bered."

So
Sophie
Melvin,
nine-
teen years old,
looking so
young
one
can't imagine
she is held on
charges of
SOPHIE MELVIN
first degree
murder, made
this statement upon her arrival in
New York last night.
Bosses See Workers' Victory
"Every conceivable form of terror
is being used against the National
Textile Workers Union, the Interna-
tional Labor Defense and the Work-
ers'
International Relief, but the
bosses see defeat staring them in the
face," she said.
Must Recognize Union.
"The bosses use every conceivable
form of hypocrisy to becloud the
issue of organizing the workers into
a militant union - and these
charges show they are desperate in
face of the growth of the National
Textile Workers Union."
Although Sophie Melvin is out on
$5,000 bail, together with Vera
Bush and Amy Schechter, and the
mill bosses' attorneys have declared
they will not press for "electrocu-
tion" for the women, the charges
of first degree murder against them
stand unchanged.
Murder Charge Not Changed.
"They have not changed the
charges against us," Melvin said,
"and, believe me, we have little
faith in 'Southern chivalry.'
"The many resolutions and peti-
(Continued on Page Three)
PROTEST VITAL FOR GASTONIA (Continued from Page One)

itions of protest pouring into the office of the Gastonia Joint Defense and Relief Campaign Committee show the tremendous solidarity among the workers of the world.

When we get these reports from the mines, steel industries, from California; from New York. from Europe, South Africa and all other countries, we know that the working class of the world is firmly with us in this fight."

Melvin to Tour Before Trial

Sophie declared that she will tour the country, visiting Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, New Bedford and other cities before she returns to stand trial, Sept. 30. "The campaign of the Gastonia Joint Defense and Relief Committee. its mass collection' days,' Sept. 21 and 22, throughout the country, must mobilize millions of workers to aid us financially, as well as morally," she said.

Speak in New York Sept. 20.

She will speak at the Central Opera House, in New York, next Friday night, Sept. 20, when Bill Dunne, Ben Wells and other organizers and strikers in the South will address the New.York workers.