Washington and the Nation
Pollack, Sylvan A.
Washington and the Nation living Conditions, Profiteering, in Southwest By Sylvan A. Pollack THROUGHOUT the western and southern states, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers are in training,...
...Utilising his Harlem contacts with the Democratic district leaders Marcantonio is now planning for 1945—to capture the Mayoralty, if La Guardia doesn't run...
...The time-honored and time-tested Tammany method of patronage, favors, and outright vote-buying, prevail here more distinctly than any other section of the city...
...When they arrive, often without previous arrangements made for their living quarters, they have to sleep in the parks or railway stations all night...
...In the Harlem districts A. Clayton Powell is seeking the seat...
...And even these are difficult to get...
...Bell stated: "East Harlem does not go in for political ideology or political principle...
...Some of them come from as far Kast as New York and bring with them children, many of them very young...
...The Democrats nominated Judge Joseph Byrnes, Magistrate Aurelio, and Congressman Gavagan for the three vacancies...
...Last year (1943) Marcantonio ran for Congress in the Republican, Democratic and ALP primaries, and it was no secret that the Democrats, although they had named an opponent against Marcantonio, as had the Republicans, were working undercover for his election...
...It made a deal with the Republicans and gave the GOP one out of the three lucrative plums...
...Washington and the Nation living Conditions, Profiteering, in Southwest By Sylvan A. Pollack THROUGHOUT the western and southern states, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers are in training, and waiting to leave for the war fronts, diet resentment is felt against the profiteering of local business men...
...If there are more in the family, the reals will be correspondingly higher...
...They then start going from door to door to beg householders to take them in...
...The OPA and other government agencies have been lax and should be prodded into taking decisive action...
...The hotel refuses to give weekly rstes, although eeier OPA regulations that same room would not °Mt more than $15 weekly...
...It is much better to attempt to clear it up now, instead of waiting until after the war, when the resentment of the service men, when they will return to civil life, will be even more bitter than it is today...
...At the ALP judicial convention Marcantonio sought to go ahead with his Tammany deal, and nominated Aurelio...
...In that city, which is typical of many in California and other sections of the West and South, pitiful sights take place daily when the wives of soldiers who are stationed in nearby camps arrive from all over the country to be with their husbands...
...in the southern end of the district Marcantonio would hava to fight Martin J. Kennedy, strong among the Irish and Germans...
...N Fresno, Calif., recently, they were talking of put-ting up tents in the public parks...
...They felt that if the ALP would nominate these three the total vote on two lines would -beat the GOP...
...In addition, thousands of war workers, many from other sections of the country, have moved in, to take jobs in war plants...
...Sometimes it takes a long time before they can find any accommodations, and often, when they do, the rates are excessive...
...The regular ALP defeated the nomination...
...Alfange, who received more than 400,000 votes as the ALP's Gubernatorial candidate in 1942, stated that "a victory for Vito Marcantonio, who heads Sidney Hillman's Committeee for a United Ijilmr Party in Manhattan, will pave the way for the capture in 1946 of the New York City Mayoralty by a combine of machine politicians, Communists and underworld elements...
...There is no draught beer available...
...And with the covert support of the Democratic leadership, Marcantonio won in the Democratic primaries...
...The OPA should also check up on restaurant prices...
...In California bars, one soon gets out of the habit of asking for a particular well-known brand, for seldom will he get what he asks for...
...Clarence Neal, one of the district leaders involved in the Aurelio affair and leader of the 20th district . . . gave orders to his captains to work for Marcantonio, ". . . The answer to this situation could be seen in the actions of the 'left-wing' controlled ALP judicial convention that nominated Democrat Lloyd Church for the Supreme Court bench after he had resigned the year before to run against McGoldrick for comptroller...
...Before leaving some, he is promised that his new employer will help tin) find a place to live...
...When he goes out to look for a place to live, he finds that there just are no vacancies...
...In any issue of the Los Angeles Timet, or the San Francisco CkronieU, there are 200 to 260 advertisements of persons seeking apartments, furnished or unfurnished...
...When the question came to dropping one of the three Democrats, Costello and** Neal turned on the pressure and kept Aurelio on the ticket...
...Throughout the West, thousands of trailers are being used as homes, and they a>e found in all sections of the large cities as well as in the smaller towns...
...The situation was this...
...Many of these wives are hardly more than children just out of high school who have never before been away from home...
...The same can he said for the restaurants...
...The greatest violators of fair dealings are the owners of hotels, rooming houses, bars and restaurants...
...Soldiers will go into West Coast restaurants and pay 100 per cent more for food than they were paying in the eastern section of the United States...
...THE problem of living quarters for soldiers and civilians alike is difficult beyond description...
...Social service agencies should discourage soldiers' wives from following their husbands...
...Perhaps after looking around for a time, a family of three may secure a room in a third or fourth class betel, at M a night...
...The New Leader article pointed out that the Tammany Marcantonio alliance was so tight that in the 1943 elections for the State Supreme Court, the Democrats sought to freese out the Republicans and win the three vacant seats...
...The newcomers soon find out that the promises stsde by the employers were not made in good faith is many cases...
...In an article in The New Leader of September 11, 1943, Daniel Bell exposed Marcantonio's ties with Tammany...
...Even t decent hotel room is impossible to get, unless the war worker wants to spend $5 or $6 a night and up, far two persons...
...Byrnes was dropped and the ticket became Gavagan, Aurelio, and Peck, the Republican...
...Many western and southern business men are bereraing rich quickly, and it all started after Pearl Harbor...
...A ¦M and his family will come into a Californa city to accept a job that is waiting for him...
...Many complaints have been made about the unsanitary living conditions, and there seems no doubt that many of the complaints are justified...
...That comes to a total of $28 'eekly, and three persons have to sleep in one small room...
...Thus they made a deal with Marcantonio who accepted the three Tammanyites...
...Marcantonio's political influence In Manhattan, which he now seeks to spread to the other four boroughs, has been developed through a series of unsavory political deals with a number of discredited, though yet still powerful district leaders...
...New York delegation leaders proposed Marcantonio in the Democratic caucus, but the Southern bloc revolted and refused to swallow Marcantonio on the deal...
...The regular ALP denounced Church and quoted his anti-labor decisions, but the Jleft-wing' went ahead with the nomina'V>n...
...If they are lucky enough to And some eastern brewed beers, the price is higher...
...When the right-wing won the judicial primary, and refused to accept the three men, Tammany hurriedly revised its strategy...
...As an example, take the State of California...
...It is all done according te regulations, and the OPA ceiling rates may even »» pested in the room...
...Another Tammany pay-off to Marcantonio was his nomination to the key House Judiciary Committee...
...I have mentioned only some of the mess, as I saw it in recent months...
...And sometimes as many as half of the apartment seekers offer bonuses of $50 to $100...
...In spite of these inducements, no apartments are available...
...But when the hotel officials w» Mked to rent the room on the weekly basis, the *»Bte reply ig, sorry, but the OPA allows them to •wit e> certain number of rooms on a daily basis...
...Hotels should not be permitted to continue using the OPA as a screen for profiteering...
...Tbejs many persons, war workers and service men ••a families, live month after month, *often paying more than $125 a month for one small room...
...When the service men and others, go into the sversge bar in California and order a beer, they are given a bottle smaller than the standard site, throughout the rest of the country, and pay up to 35 cents for locally brewed beer, mostly of a poor quality...
...Marcantonio and Tammany "J*HK ch»rge..thi« week by Dean Alfange that Vito Marcantonio is in league with a group of discredited Tammany leaders confirms the charges msde last year by The New Leader, at the time of the Aurelio affair...
...And, to top it all, most of the food is inferior...
...If they insist on going, accommodations should be provided...
...Under reapportionment, Marcantonio's Congressional district has been wiped out...
...Whiskey in bottles is often kept under the bar, ¦nd unknown brands are sold at high prices...
...One #f the largest concentrations of service men is taking place in that state...
Vol. 27 • March 1944 • No. 12
