SENATORS HEAR REVOLT THREAT
SENATORS HEAR REVOLT THREAT Fear Grips Capital As Jobless Protest Labor Leaders, Clergymen, Social Workers and Veterans Demand Immediate Federal Relief in Hearing Before Committee OFFICIAL...
...The corruption of these two parties la really nothing more than their "commission" for serving their masters Only the Socialist Party Is organised to aerve the working people of the nation...
...A Myth for the Hungry "Let it not be said that the collective powers of the nation are t© always be available to upper groups in society while they are to be denied to the destitute and the hungry in the name of a questionable tradition...
...He added some details of the growing distress and said that Inaction is often excused on the ground that government Intervention is in conflict with American traditions of individualism and self-help...
...Graft and corruption were rampant...
...On our march the unemployed numbered 6,500,000 and now the Jobless number 10,000,000...
...It was an excellent piece Of organization work...
...Banks declare that New York's credit is worthless, and refuse to lend it money...
...A housing program would do three things: It would rid the cities of slumsbreeding spots of disease and delinquency...
...City Stops Borrowing One of the important steps taken by the Socialist* administration was to stop borrowing...
...In fact, Jimmy Walker Is far more Influential at the convention than Senbury...
...Already, Milwaukee Is paying only 21 cents out of every tax dollar to retire bonds and meet Interest charges, compared to 42 centa paid by New York...
...But the Socialists set up a bureau of research and bravely faced the problem of digging the city's affairs out of ruin...
...Even our Southern States were generous in voting public funds to plank-road, canal, and railroad companies and in the Northern States these private enterprises had equal access to the state treasuries...
...Forty pleaded guilty or were convicted...
...The Workers Bole Milwaukee has been able to do all this because the working people of that city organised under the Socialist banner to run the city for their own benefit...
...The result has been that the city has developed a surplus In the treasury...
...One city in the United States stands out in naarked contrast to the hundreds of cities that are verging on bankruptcy...
...No government can sow •"Justice without reaping a revolution...
...For two years, the old party coalition tried to break down the constructive work that the Socialists had done...
...The city was so burdened with debts that it had to pay contractors with tax anticipation notes, paying interest on the money to the banks...
...As a matter of fact", about 20 years ago Milwaukee was one of the most mismanaged cities in the ¦ nation...
...Had a vote been taken the audience would have voted a big majority to condemn it...
...Even a revolutionary note is being sounded in condemnation of the whole Capitalist system...
...They succeeded...
...BIG MEN IN SMALL HOLES' SAMUEL 8EARURY, the investigator who has demanded of Governor Roosevelt that he remove Mayor Walker must rub elbows at the Democratic convention at Chicago with said Jimmy Walker and with the Tammany cohorts...
...BANKRUPTCY faces hundreds of cities in the United States...
...Despair leads quickly to s state of desperation, and outbreak and explosion is nearer than oui leaders seem to realize...
...McGrady was loudly applauded as he sat down...
...This address served as a keynote for others that followed...
...Start at Wrong End "Congress dare not adjourn without meeting this national cat•ftrwphe in an adequate and "ttaiman-llke manner...
...Hunger cannot be appeased by a myth...
...He said he had "marched up this hill many months" pleading for relief and little or nothing had been done...
...The city was placed on a pay-as-you-go basis...
...The United States Chamber of Commerce in a nation-wide competition in 1930 chose Milwaukee as the healthiest city In the nation, despite the fact that the city is predominantly industrial...
...Moreover, the city rendered practically no service to its citizens...
...But the Socialists had already inaugurated new policies that were improving the city's affairs...
...This tragic drama of fear, impatience and bolder demands for relief was made vivid in Room 212 Of the Senate Office Building last Monday when representatives of various organisations related the stark conditions that face the starving masses In their communities...
...The hearing was arranged by the Joint Committee on Unemployment, representing about 20 organizations...
...and It has a cash balance of $3,000,000 in the bank as well as an additional total of $2,000,000 unspent In the different city departments...
...We remind the admlnlstratior •ad the leaders of both parties that the outstanding question thii year is not the election of a Pres ident and members of Congress but the salvation of the people oi America from Impending disaster No attempt on the part of politicians and their Cabinet of Industrialists and financiers to feature prohibition will deceive the people who are out of work...
...Milwaukee Is giving parttime jobs to 16,000 unemployed...
...Hoo** "id his associates start al *• wrong end...
...The flood of misery due to unemployment is so overwhelming that we must now demand action...
...For two years, the Socialists labored...
...Plan Municipal Bank Nor are the Socialists resting satisfied with what they have done in Milwaukee...
...In**** <* credit power In the handi E .V...
...In addition, the city spared itself the cost of paying interest on loans from banks...
...are determined not to leave Washington till some measure »f satisfactory relief has been enacted...
...They readily admit that most of their job Is still to be done...
...The new note that is being sounded confirms the Socialist view that a marked change In the economic basis of society will register on the brains «f millions...
...Mr, Hoovm- and .the Republican and Democratic Parties seem to forget that the primary function of government Is to protect our citizens ia time of danger...
...Democrats and Republicans are organised to run municipalities, states and the nation In behalf of the business and employing Interests...
...Now, the ambition of the Socialist administration of Milwaukee Is to wipe out the city's bonded indebtedness of $40,000,000...
...They voted large grants of land and often exempted such enterprises from taxation...
...It will not provide bread for a starving child...
...See story, Page I.) A WORKER'S CITY NO GRAFT THERE...
...Because contractors were able to get cash immediately upon completion of their work, their prices dropped from ten to fifteen per cent...
...They want public ownership of the public utilities and a municipal bank...
...Then came another election, and the Democrats and Republicans united to beat the Socialists...
...Even during this year of depression, when alt cities are frantically slashing payrolls and curtailing social services, Mil* ap usual" without borrowing any money from the banks...
...SENATORS HEAR REVOLT THREAT Fear Grips Capital As Jobless Protest Labor Leaders, Clergymen, Social Workers and Veterans Demand Immediate Federal Relief in Hearing Before Committee OFFICIAL Washington is living in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty...
...See editorial on Page 2.) FIRMER Attorney General Daugherty, one of the leadera of the corrupt Ohio political ring which seeks to bar Socialist* from ballot In Ohio...
...Becoming vehement McGrady cried, "If nothing Is done by Congress it will not be a cry to save the hungry next winter but a cry to save the government...
...That city is Milwaukee, the city that is governed by a Socialist administration...
...Anxious men and .women listened and applause Interrupted the proceedings time after time with no objection by the chair...
...We are in a state of war against poverty and hunger* We have a conservative policy of do nothing while conditions become worse...
...Running side by side with this traditional theory," said Oneal, "there has been a practical negation of it in legislative policy and this negation goes back even to our colonial assemblies and town councils...
...The resources of private relief agencies and of local governments are rapidly being exhausted...
...Rabbi Goldstein opened the session with a vigorous speech...
...Moreover, organized workers In Milwaukee have been protected In their right to strike and picket...
...Surely we have not forgotten the era of railroad building and the Federal grants of land and money voted by Congress and the similar gifts bestowed by States, counties and towns upon these corporate enterprises...
...They are working on a program for the elimination of slums, and have already succeeded in eliminating-nearly 500 antiquated tenement bouses...
...EDWARD YOUNG CLARKE, once King of the Kluxers, who made millions of dollars In preying- on the prejudices .and bigotry of the times, Is reported having suffered a brain Kollapae and now is an inmate of a Nut Kollege...
...The committee mom was packed to the doors and it was noticeable that the most forceful remarks were applauded by desperate ex-soldiers who...
...A special fund has been created for this purpose and it is the plan of Socialist Mayor, Daniel W. Hoan, to wipe out this debt completely by 1957...
...During the great steel strike In 1919 Milwaukee waa the only city where the striken were protected while in all other steel centers they were brutally treated by sheriffs and police departments...
...Today, Milwaukee has the lowest fire Insurance rates of any large olty in the nation, due to the unusual efficiency of Its fire department...
...These colonial bodies frequently voted funds in support of private enterprises...
...In the committee room three troubled Senators listened gravely as speaker after speaker reported from America's starving fronts...
...Federal aid Is necessary If we are not to drift to a perilous abyss...
...we demand for tbi ^xng-clM** immediate relief ¦* ^Ptoyntout...
...But It was too late...
...In 1910, the Socialist Party obtained control of the olty government for the first time...
...The time for steading is over," he said...
...Chicago cannot pay its school teachers, and the .taxpayers, incensed at the mismanagement of their city, are refusing to pay taxes...
...The police and fire department pension funds were bankrupt to the extent of $2,000,000...
...Edward T. McGrady of ths A. F.' of L. spoke with indignation...
...A grand jury investigation at that time resulted in 200 indictments for graft, Involving eighty officials and contractors...
...it is paying Its 12,000 regular city employes, including school teachers, on time in cash...
...it would provide employment for a larger number of men than any other project thus far conceived...
...Now, all this did not happen In Milwaukee by magic...
...Capitalism was on trial before a Senate Committee...
...The affairs of the city were in a hopeless jumble...
...What Is needed ¦ not an Increase in the credil T of financial agencies thai *»rt0't »w> oppress the people...
...Credit for the able manner in which this hearing waa arranged is due to Benjamin Marsh of the Peoples Lobby...
...For nearly three years we have pleaded with Congress...
...There the formerly respectful pleas for Federal aid are merging into harsh and impatient demands (hat Federal action must come without further delay...
...Tho*< •f us who are nearer to the working-classes, know that their temper U changing and that they wil *>t suffer much longer wlthoul ••dress...
...James Oneal said that on the "starving front" in New York City families are breaking up and homes are being destroyed...
...With thousands of Jobless soldiers' camped in the city and more on the way to join them, with the news from many starving fronts more alarming each day, fear broods over the eapltol and the White House...
...it would build homes for a great mass of workingclasses that could be rented at a rate within their reach...
...It Is a tragic emergency we are facing...
...Roads need t« P»ullt, public buildings need tc '----------be constructed, but most of all the cities of America need a housing program subsidized by the Federal Government...
...Due to the work of the Socialists, Milwaukee today la regarded by George W. Wlckersham, of Hoover's commission on law enforcement, as the model city In the nation for lack of lawlessness...
...Fully 10,000,900 men and women are out of work and both they and their dependents are at the point of despair...
...The occasion was a hearing before Senators LaFollette, Costigin and Wagner...
...The Socialists had demonstrated to the people what could be done, and the people demanded that Socialist municipal reforms be continued...
Vol. 13 • June 1932 • No. 26
