I'm nor sure what the bigger story is, that there were 12,000 Communists in a hall in Philadelphia or that the Courier-Post actually took a stand AGAINST Communism and Stalinism, which are one and the same. 

 HAVE FUN, and do e-mail me with comments, questions, corrections, and such! 

Phil Cohen
October 30, 2012

COMMUNISTS ASSAIL COURlER’S
EDITORIAL AT LENIN MEMORIAL 
12,000 in Phila. Hear Party's Answer
to Attack on Stalin Policy 
3 GERMANS ARRESTED

The Courier-Post Newspapers, the Philadelphia Record and the New York Post were assailed by Communist speakers at the Philadelphia Convention Hall Wednesday for their first-page editorial attacks on Joseph Stalin and the Communist movement Tuesday. 

The occasion was a Lenin memorial meeting, and 12,000 attended, according to Hall Manager Charles Christman. Pat Toohey, Philadelelphia's Communist organizer, estimated the crowd at 18,000. 

Three men, two of them German sailors unable to speak English, were arrested in the hall and charged with disorderly conduct for assertedly dropping stench bombs. 

They were slated at the police station at Thirty-second street and Woodland avenue as Werner Beyer, 25, and Richard Schreiber, 18, of Hamburg, Germany, and Joseph Schwartz, 27, of Moyamensing avenue near Reed street. Schwartz was, their interpreter. 

To avert disorder, traffic policemen held the prisoners for a while in a darkened freight elevator at the hall, then in the garage of Philadelphia General Hospital, nearby, until a patrol wagon arrived. 

Editor Leads Attack 

Principal attack on Publisher J. David' Stern, whose name was booed several times, was launched by Clarence Hathaway, editor of the Daily Worker, organ of the Communist party in this country. Hathaway said:

The Philadelphia Record carried the headline: 'Stalin Tells World Labor to Prepare for Revolution.' The story was reported by all other American newspapers, but it is significant that The Record, the New York Post, and Mr. Stern's Camden papers could write headlines into the story which could not be found there by any other newspaper; no matter how reactionary."

Hathaway interpreted Stalin's statement as meaning: 

"In this fight to bring about a better life we must be ready to help the people of other countries and to ask them to help us against Fascist countries determined to destroy us.' The Record editorial said: 'American workers must; accoraing to Stalin, be prepared to fight for Soviet Russia when he wants them." 

“David Stern deliberately, and consciously lied," said Hathaway. "I challenge David Stern to produce a single sentence in Stalin's letter to justify that headline.' 

Stern is joining hands with Homer Martin (head of the Auto Workers' Union) and others who are doing harm to the whole labor-movement by their splitting activities.

Says Americans Must Decide

“Socialism will rule America,” Hathaway said, "only when the majority of the American people are fed up with capitalism."

"Stern purports to believe in majority rule," he went on. "If the American people are fed up with capitalism, and choose the road to Socialism, will Stern stand in the way? If he does. It may not be healthy for Mr. Stern." 

Toohey endorsed the aspirations of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Kennedy for the Democratic nomination for Governor. Kennedy is secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers' Union, in which Toohey holds membership. 

Other speakers were "Mother" Ella Reeve Bloor, 75-year-old revolutionist, and Joseph Drill, of Philadelphia, who returned this week from Spain, where he fought in the International Brigade with the Loyalists.