The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-11-03

elevant references to Booker T.
Washington, Simmons drew the atten-
ton of the convention away from con-
structive plans and centered it on
the history of the Negro at the time
Of the civil war. He turned every
meeting addressed into political
rally for his republican bosses.
Up to last spring, Simmons was on
the staff of the Chicago Defender.
Last spring he was fired, along with
three members of the business staff,
for common theft. An accountant go
ing over the books found that the
quartet had gotten away with some
thing over 100000.
This is the man who attacks the
hard working group of Negroes who
have started the American Negro La
Dor Congress. This is the man who
can see nothing in this congress but
"a smoke-filled room" few 'tritely
worded placards." This is the man
who can report nothing of the con-
gress but the gossip that goes on in
the back of the hall.
It is said that behind the Chicago
World is the money of Mrs. Rockefel-
Ter Mccormick, wife of the late Sena-
tor Mccormick, who belonged to the
party which has fooled and bam-
boozled and betrayed the Negroes for
over sixty years.
In the same edition in which it at.
lacks the A. N. L. c., the World runs
vicious attack on the New York
Pullman porters who have formed a
union for lettering their conditions
and raising their miserable wages.
Simmons, in his column, follows up
this attack with a word of advice"
to Pullman porters.
"Porters, a few of Them says Sim
mons, want to go into the union.
Others, old, wise, far-seeing, want to
let well-enough alone.
"Porters. Keep in mind, that you
have all to lose.
What shall we do? Ask the Pull
man porters. A good thing to do, the
best thing, is to get along with the
Pullman company, union or no union.
You have been told that your hours
are too long. Your hours can't be
too long when you control a job"
So much troubled are Simmons and
his co-editors by the organization of
the Pullman porters, that the Chicago
World devotes not less than four
separate articles to attacking the por.
ters' union. There is a story on the
front page, calling the union first, a
plot of the Reds second. a plot on
the part of the Filipinos to get the
Negroes's jobs. Then there is an edi.
torial, mentioning that the Pullman
company paid out last year a princely
sum in wages to sleeping car porters
the editorial does not say that this
sum, divided up by the number of
porters, comes to only starvation wag-
es for each man. Also, there is a spe-
cial article by a lawyer, attacking
the REDS who are behind this union"
and last, the article quoted above,
written by Simmons himself in his
column, The Week"
The American Negro Labor Con-
gress gave Simmons his answer to
his attacks upon the union when it
passed a resolution strongly urging all
Negro workers to get into the unions,
and there to fight for the abolition
of all industrial discrimination against
Negroes. Simmons is getting his an
swer to his attacks upon the con-
gress itself by the way in which this
congress is going ahead, thinking,
working, and laying plans for organ
ization.
Roscoe Conkling Simmons was
probably one of the men whom Rich
ard Moore, delegate to the American
Negro Labor Congress from the Ehti-
opian Students League in New York
had in mind when he told his audi
ence that 1.-THE American Negro La
Dor Congress repudiates forever the
policy Of slavish submission follow
ed by such misleaders OF the race as
Booker T. Washington and Others"