It Happened Last Week
MAURER, MYRON E.
It Happened Last Week Philadelphia's Jim Crow Mystery By MYRON E. MAURER PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Philadelphia's Jim (row demonstration is ended—at least for the time being. Transportation...
...At these ' . aaeut PTC, the city officials and the TWU have l come public property, the suspicion has grown up that the atrike was not what it seemed...
...At the next meeting held on July 25th, Fitxsimmona was present in person...
...Separate groups, they are linked together by a common program of action, and more specifically by a continual interchange of letters, literature and speakers among the leaders...
...City Hall alienated nobody...
...Lillian Parks...
...Knowlee attacks...
...Though the tie-up meart a revenue loss to his company of (by ha figures) $150,000 per day, he did not call the company's executive committee into session to lay plans to prevent the strike...
...We, the Mothers, Mobilise for America...
...Mitten's and the PTCs conduct after' the men went out was that no appeal was ever issued asking the workers to come back, and no request was made, to the city's officials for guards for the many Workers who did not want to freeze industrial production in the nation's second m ist important arsenal...
...They alto man blood donor centers, help the Red Cross . and the ISO, tell war bonds...
...The national chairman is Mrs...
...Typical example of this group's activities is the letter that ass sent to parents of the American boys who died when the destroyer, Reuben Jamrt, was sank by a submarine off Newfoundland in 1941...
...But today we cannot de that...
...American Mothers ia Detroit was formerly known as Mothers of the U.S.A...
...Indeed, when TWU managed to scratch together a few crews to operate the high-speed lines, one of the reasons the crewa gave for quitting after several runs was that there was no police around to keep the Jim Crow committees away from them...
...These groups do excellent work providing- canteens, camp services and programs of recreation for the awn in service boepitals...
...Those Subversive 'Mothers' MONG the groups engaged in spreading Nasi doctrines in America there are a number of so-called "Mothers" groups' about which the public should be more fully informed...
...It hi now established that they knew Jim Crew meetings were being held at which rssslttlana were adopted calling for workers to get sick if colored motor ami were pat . in training...
...Jamea J. Fitaeimmone, international vice-president, admitted that higher union officials learned of a atrike vote taken' at a meeting called by TWU shop steward, learned of it about a week afterwards...
...knowing that It waa gaiity or clearest mendscitv Mr beaming them far the strike...
...Then there is the record of Mr...
...The Mothers of Sons vorum was founded in Cin-rmnatj in 1939 by Mrs...
...Moreover, the doctor sounded a confirming note by suggesting that the government j ermit pxc to continue with its color discrimination...
...la admlitlie pots a hoiaehahr shin aa TWIT...
...With tha arrival of Federal Troop* read...
...This flame thrower nudged TWU officials out of their holes...
...American Mothers...
...PTC made its barns available for these meetinga...
...The conclusiOi which can be fairly drrwn from this failure to appeal to the men to return js that the PTC's officials were In sympathy with the avowed purpose of the strike...
...Merely from the viewpoint of the Pits welfare, this non-action on his part had a peculiar aspect...
...Among her favorite projects are: H'omen'e Voice, an eight-page monthly publication for 20,000 subscriber*, and an impeach-the-President movement...
...Mothers sad Daughters of Pennsylvania is a Philadelphiaorganisation functioning mainly through a news letter edited by Irene Thome Murphy, former Coughlinite and secretary of America First...
...H becemsa iiaeonabla to iueulre what did TWU A, knowiag af the nasty scandal hi the brewing, do l. prevent the atgiheT Why dad it not ask the help of rosponoibls governmental agwncise...
...That meeting was held on July 18th...
...and thst the strike was called at what seemed to be a propitious time, politically...
...that agitation waa carried on among PTC workers on Jim Crew lines for political purposes...
...God forbid that I should bring politics into this investigation, but we wsnt you to find out what certain men did and why they did it...
...According to his story he opposed the adoption of a resolution in which the transit workers were urged to get spontaneously sick the minute colored motor men were put in training...
...Quills TWO...
...Nov those who have had the privilege of watching Philadelphia's police force, the flower of half a century of Republican discipline, go to work on pickets, can do naught but marvel at how the virus of liberalism and tolerance of the new G.O.P...
...Most of them are isolationist, anti-British, anti-Russian, anti-Semitic, often anti-labor...
...Loyal American Mothers...
...It becomes reasonable to hsemire why did TWU libel Ma rival aoioas...
...A. A. Mitten, the Philadelphia Transit Company official charged with the responsibility of labor relations, admittedly knew that a atrike vote had been taken, passed and knew slso the time fixed for work cessation...
...It Happened Last Week Philadelphia's Jim Crow Mystery By MYRON E. MAURER PHILADELPHIA, Pa...
...Beatrice Knowlee, whose home serves as aa office for the distribution of mimeographed hate leaflets, among them the pamphlets of Gerald L. K. Smith, to a mailing list which, she claims, includes, between 35,000 and 54,000 names...
...Women who seek tashatJen wMh mothers organizations ah said he urged to Investigate them thoroughly, leet they be eaniatted by ero-foat ions I dealers hi hatred who grind their owe political aaea and amy the enemy's aewpegaada fame wMh the help »f the unwary...
...This smesr was pretty odorous and was soon changed to the vague and nebulous charge that subversive agents were responsible...
...Federal Judge Welsh, a Republican, in charging the Federal Grand Jury, indicated that testimony presented to it might bear out the foregoing inference...
...His public explanation of his silence was that his electro-colloidal system registered the men as "too sullen...
...Mothers of Worts' War II...
...Infectec* the city fathers...
...These sseetiags were heM on PTC property...
...Workers rushed to sign in before the deadline...
...If they offered to protect anybody who wanted to work, it is not in the public records thun far available...
...Anti-British, anti-Russian, anti-Semitic, the members hold small, restricted meetings which rail agaii.st the Preaident, the United Nations, and rationing...
...It is highly probable that he knew about the proposal to strike sooner...
...Transportation facilities are again normal...
...The learned doctor did not communicate any notice of the impending labor trouble to any of the federal agencies interested in maintaining war production and in the prevention'of strikes...
...Indeed, the committee was not convened during the six days of the strike...
...and Mothers of Men ia Service (MOMS) of America...
...K. Smith at his rallies in SL«Louis and Baltimore...
...it pretended to be aa surprised as the defense workers who waited and waited that first morning for a car to come by...
...Their neutrality la the crucial transit situation waa aa amaiing aa the forgotten subways under the city's streets for which several generations will still he paying interest...
...The letter, addressed to each parent, urged ¦ that "the real murderers" of their boy, "the men who violated the Constitution of the United Stales by sending him into the war ¦one," be called to account...
...Mitten and the city fathers, Ms earning and goings in the walk-out don't make too much sense...
...Bat it brr.me ebvieeH that TWIT coakla't be mach of a eaion if it didn't knew abeat the strike meetings held ia the PTC car barns and, moreover, roelda't be mach af bargaiaing agent if the employees ignored it and went eat oa strike without eoasultiag it...
...The walk-out started a 4 a. m, Tuesday, August 1. The day before, Dr...
...You have got to be cognisant of the fact that a national election ia impending...
...He said, "Ordinarily we can avoid reference to certain things like racial prejudice...
...And as a specially convened Federal Grand Jury met to take evidence, while soldiers in full battle dress fode in every ca as a reminder to the white supremacy bund that this was now the Army's show, Philadelphia na began taking aback of Many curious facta wobbling out of the racial cauldron and wondering what the mysterjr was behind them, and whether there wasn't a lot more than a manifestation of color prejudice behind the transit tie-up...
...to operate the transit system, the arrest under the Smith Connelly Act of four men who were smoked oat as the commits* directing the stoppage, and the fixing of a deadline after which transit workers would lose their jobs and be unable to get clears aca certificates for the duration, mas* malaise ended as sadden ly as it had begun...
...But even on July Illst, he was as inert as a smoked herring and, apparentlj, no more concerned...
...The most significant thing about Dr...
...Lucmda Benge, rabidly isolationist...
...The conduct ef the Philadelphia Transit Company off rial* bath before and daring the steppage is something t* think sheet...
...Brown and Mia...
...The present leader is Mrs...
...Why did it net pabHrly smesr the one-fen minda whe planned and in»tiseted the serine before the men went oat, aa H did the Assalg maud awl the Brotherhood after they went on...
...These clubs were investigated recently by the Woman'* Home Companion, and six were found to be the most influential: the Mothers of Sons Forum...
...All of them make political capital of the natural anxiety which evrry mother with children in the service feels...
...LyrI C. Van Hyning...
...And if the fathers were against the strikers, it was in such a daisy chain way—well, the white and...
...Names like "American," "patriotic,"' "Christian," used by most subversive movements to conceal the true nature of their activities, are prominently featured by dozena of "Mothers" clubs that have sprung up in American cities...
...ThERE is no way of computing the actual membership of these racketeering groups but they have a sizable number of supporter* throughout the country, many perhaps unaware of their true purpose...
...Rationing, price ceilings, and the teaching of tolerance in the schools are policies which Mrs...
...At first it professed it had no advance knowledge of the Jim Crew strike...
...It,Warned the ?FL'» Amalgamated Street Car Worker s Union and the Brotherhood of Railyway Trainment as the parties in delicto...
...By June, 1940, she had 65.000 names on petitions against the Selective Service Act...
...Thousands of women, on the other hand, are enrolled in the bona fide "mothers" organizations, such as the Blue Star Mothers of America...
...Nor is it on the record that Mayor Samuels, a typical up-from-the-ranks dunderhead, or the three councilman, all of whom represent the city's interests on the PTC board of directors, .nade any attempt to convene that board to do something about the walk-out...
...In a front-page editorial the Philadelphia Record asked "Why were Transport Workers Union officials completely in the dark about this 'spontaneous' decision of their members to tie up the Philadelphia transit system...
...These mothers are aiding the war effort, doing all they can to hr'nf the war to a speedy hot victorious ami...
...Josephine Mahler, to keep America out of the war...
...The National Blue Star Mothers of America, in Philadelphia (not to be confused with the Blue Star Mothers of America), is led* by Mrs...
...black hooligans who were picked up for assault and battery, malicious mischief and other indictable vffenses, were sternly lectured, publicly fined $10, and if any went to the hoosegow, the public prints missed the event...
...Catherine Brown, the secretary to Mrs...
...America* WAC Mothers, Navy Mothers...
...We, the Mothers, Mobilise fcr America, Inc...
...Like Dr...
...What the city officials did to end the strike is also a mystery...
...And there is no doubt that many men were swayed by -such an inference...
...Parks were teen with Gerald I...
...National Blue Star Mothers of America (formerly Crusading Mothers of Philadelphia), and Mothers and Daughters of Pennsylvania...
...However, it is on record that he rose with the roosters the morning of the strike, circulated among 'he men at the barns, but said nary a word to them...
...of Chicago, one of the largest of these grcups, is led by Mrs...
...Both Mrs...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 33
