The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-05
LEGION THUGS
GUST SOCIALIST
MAYOR IN N. J.
Was Easy Mark; Had
No Organization
BY LUDWELL DENNY.
(stah Correspondent Of Federated Press

RAILWAY, N. j., April 4.--Mobs
Of hundred percenters in this New
York suburb threaten violence
against their defeated liberal OPP
ponents in the town election which
threw out the commission form of
government, forced the resignation
of the socialist mayor, and turned
Railway over to the dictatorship of
the American Legion and so-called
Loyal Citizens Association.
The mob, which unsuccessfully
attempted to victimize a progress
sive, Louis F. Budenz, on the night
Of the election, March IS, is plan
ming another demonstration. Bu-
denz, editor of The Labor Age, pub
lished in New York, tho not a
socialist, had campaigned for Mayor
James B. Furber. When the vote
of 1922 to 981 against the reform
administration was announced,
mob of more than thousand form
ed behind 60 automobiles, headed by
an empty coffin draped with an
American flag, and started for the
mayors house. Not finding Fur
Der, they paraded to Pudenz's
house.
Didn't Know His Color.
skill the red," the infamed pa
triots yelled hammering on the
doors. Three times the mob came
and went, demanding that Budenz
come out and take his medicine
Finally they gathered around the
coffin on the lawn, and with the au-
tomobile light playing on it, held
ceremony to the accompanying bugle
playing taps for the dead.
The police arrived eacn time after
the mob had departed. Mrs. Bu-
denz' sick sister Anna CHESS, was
in the house during the wild orgy
on the lawn.
The trouble goes back 20 years
when Furber, as a reform republi-
can mayor, fought the political ma
chine. Six years ago he led the
citizens crusade for a commission
form of government to supplant
the rotten ward system in Railway.
He was one of the first commits
sioners to be elected after the VIC
tory. Two years ago Furber was
chosen Mayo. Despite the two re-
publican commissioners he has insti-
tuted various reforms which gained
him the opposition Of bankers and.
business men. Two years ago, he
refused to march in an American
Legion memorial parade on the
grounds that the soldiers had been
duped into dying for a mistaken
ideal. This, coupled with his activi-
ties as a pacifst during the war,
made him a marked man by the
Legion.
Municipal Reforms Accomplished.
By instituting an efficient paid
fire department. he incurred the en-
nifty of the volunteer firemen,
social club and political machine of
shady reputation, whose members
has been getting tax exemption. He
fired the chief of police who refused
to stop gambling at an American
Legion carnival two years ago. He
appointed a former policeman, JOS
eph Gerlach, as chief after a long
struggle with the opposing commits
sioners.
the mayors school board appointee,
Mrs. Bernard Engleman, is a Jew
ess. That was too much for the
hundred percenters who organized
a secret society to defeat Furber.
The campaign was conducted with
intimidation and the issue stated as
Americanism versus Bolshevism
With commission government voted
down the mayor was made power
less. While his enemies were organ
ixing recall campaign he resigned,
March q. The mayors support
came from the Progressive club and
the railway unionists. There is no
socialist organization IN the town,
and scarcely 20 socialists.
The mayors successful reforms
which trod upon the toes Of local
bankers and business men are the
municipal camp site and swimming
pool, city milk stations and coal
stations selling at cost.