The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-16
.STOKERS IN VESTRIS HOLD
TIED TOGETHER With ROPE:
LEFT TO DROWN LIKE RATS"
TerrOriZe Negro Crew
at Scab Institute
Seamen Enraged at
I Boss Press Lies

The members of the ship
wrecked crew of the Vestris,
who are for the most part
Negroes, are now corralled
in a hall of the Seamen's Church
Institute, 25 South ST., an institution
supported by subsidies from big
shipping companies as a strike
breaking agency. These men, who,
the latest reports show, played the
real part of heroism in the terrible
tragedy, are held as prisoners, not
allowed to leave the building. They
are closely guarded by agents at the
door who will allow no one in unless
he carries a special card of admis-
sion issued by the business office of
the Institute.
A Daily Worker reporter who
went to the docks to speak to mem
bers of the crew, could do no more
than look at them over the shoulder
of the guard. Later, however, the
reporter succeeded in speaking to
three Negro members of the crew.
Battered and Bewildered.
In the concert ha:i they sat about
on the chairs, in odd pieces of cloth
ing picked up from their fellow
workers on the rescue ship. They
ars battered, bewildered lot of men.
as yet unable to get over the night
mare of the sinking ship and the
fury of the waves.
Looking for anyone?" asked the
guard at the door. "You can't get
in here unless you are a member of
the crew or get special card"
And when the reporter insisted on
speaking with the men, the guardian
of the ship company's interests ex-
planned to him that they could allow
no one in because, "the men are all
excited, and argue with the white
men, and maybe they'll begin to
fight"
Downstairs in the main lobby, sea-
men stood about in groups, discuss
ing the wreck. Conversation was
heated and excited and the condem-
nation of the captain was general.
Spoilers"
"They won't talk to anyone now"
said one sailor. They're afraid.
Dicks everywhere. They haven't
been paid off yet, you know, and
they got to look out for their next
ship"
Two of the shipwrecked Negro
workers had just come down to the
bar in the lobby. One was dressed
in blue dungarees and a white Jersey
and the other wore pair of cor
duroy pants and blue shirt. They
spoke to no one and glanced furtively
about the room.
There, try and speak to them,
buddy, but l guess they won't talk"
said a seaman who had just got
through calling the captain all the
salty names of the briney ocean.
Cant Talk"
stopped them as they were leav-
ing the bar. They wouldn't talk. In
spite of all the efforts of the re-
porter to convince the men that he
was not a company agent. that he
was not a "dick" or a "spotter,v but
that he represented a real workers
paper, which is anxious to print the
story of the crew and the actual
situation, the Negro workers only re-
peated.
eve can't tell you anything, boy.
Can't talk"
They stood there stolidly, glancing
from side to side, and then with a
parting, Can't talk" they made for
the stairway and back to their pris-
on in the concert hall.
The crew has been terrorized com
pletely. They are slaves of the sea
and of the ship company, and, as
some seamen in the lobby remarked,
the company wanted to collect its
insurance and the men were not vet
paid.
Negroes Indignant. 4
The reporter had better u Sxu,3t I
side. He got into conversation with
a group of Negroes, yh6 have talked
with their felloY-workers on the |,
sunken Vestris. They were all very
excited and epfaged at the manner
in whlei. the bourgeois newspapers
had treated the wreck. They were
indignant at the race prejudice, at
the capitalist press treatment of the
Negro seamen. which speaks % Il
the Negro workers were rats who
are supposed to drown while the
white passengers % off safely N
the boats. They all agreed in con-
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