The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-03-07
PATRIOT HART
EXPOSED AS TOOL
OF VICE CROOKS
Wilkes-Barre Rowdies
Won't Stop w. p.

WILKES BARRE, Pa, March g.
mo one in Wilkes Barre has any
doubt that Vice Commander Healey
was playing American Legion politics
when he led the deputized mob that
broke up the Workers Party meeting
here two weeks ago." said o. D..
Coughlin, prominent attorney of
this city in comforting with a Civil
Liberties Union representative on the
recent events in this section Of the
coal districts.
Other lawyers consulted by the
Civil Liberties Union have voiced the
same opinion. One Of them said,
"These hoodlums lead by Mayor Hart
represent the bootlegging and vice
business in Wilkes Barre. Everyone of
them is mixed up in dirty politics that
is quite as scandalous in its way as
anything happening at Washington"
Every Judge Rotten.
Another attorney who has at times
represented large corporate interests
here stated that "every police Judge
and county judge in the neighborhood
is tarred with the same stick. A
SNOWFALL in hell is safe compared with
your chances Of winning free speech
decision in the local courts" The
same attorney commended that many
of the rowdies who were deputized by
the Mayor to break up the Lenin
Memorial meeting were "slackers of
the worst sort. Most of them saw
their war service this side of the
Atlantic"
The Workers Party plans to hold
a meeting on the Teapot Dome scan
DIAL in Wilkes Barre, within the fort
night. AS the pressure of the Legion
and local patriotic societies has barred
the Workers Party from Concordia
+, Hall, where, according to the Chair
man of the Hall Committee, "they
have been meeting in a quiet and or
Derby manner for over two years, -
the meeting is planned for the hall
OF the local Brewery Workers Union
whose Business Agent Charles Kron-
belbein, also the district organizer for
the American Federation of Labor.
says nc will rent the hall to any one,
no matter who they are, what thew
have to say, or what their political af-
filiations.
This attitude Of Krombelbein's is
IN sharp contrast to that Of the Cen
tai Labor Council which is apparently
under the thumb Of the Hart political
machine and refused BENJAMIN. Work.
ers Party representative a hearing on
the free speech issue when he APP
peared at its meeting on Feb. 90
Whether the Central Labor Union
would have taken the same actor
against the representative of the
American Civil Liberties Union ha,
not yet been ascertained.
Preachers Against Mayor.
The local Protestant ministers hap.
pen, in this case. to be more tolerant
than the majority of the local labor
office-holders for the Ministeriun
voted unanimously against a bill re.
Gently proposed to the City Commits
sioner giving the Mayor the legal
right, which he assumed in breaking
up the Lenin meeting, to issue per.
mits for all meetings. The Wilkes
Barre ministers lead by Whitman
Jones and Williams of the Methodist
church were able to secure majority
of the City Commissioners against
this bill.
Should the Mayor or the Legion
take steps to prevent any future
meetings of the Workers Party, the
Civil Liberties Union will assist the
liberal labor elements and the min.
listers in instituting legal action
against the local bootleg-patriotic
combination.