The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-09
SHOPPERS
IN CONTROL. OF
ARKANSAS, OKLA.
Farmers and Workers
Misery Great
by a Worker Correspondent

LITTLE ROCK, Ark, (By MaiD.
In this state where the one party
system dictates the political life of
the state, where Negroes are denied
the semblance' of a right, we find
that the workers and farmers are
going deeper and deeper into misery
and debt. There are only remnants
of trade unions left in the state,
with the major ones long ago de-
feated by the treacherous policy of
the leaders of the railroad and min
ers' unions. The bosses will kill or
run out of the state the industrial
unionist and will only rest with the
open shop.
Bankers Control.
In Little Rock, the common Ia
borers receive seventeen cents an
hour and the skilled carpenters in
the building trades receive thirty
five cents an hour. The mortgage
has deprived most of the small
farmers of their land and homes
and in the cities the majority Of the
cottages are in the hands OF the
bankers.
In Oklahoma the workers condi-
tions are not any better with I'M
employment in both states grow
ing. The bumper crops are in the
hands of the bankers and exploiters
before they leave the freight cars.
In both Oklahoma and Arkansas
the Workers (Communist) Party is
fighting to obtain a place on The
ballot. The Oklahoma laws are
drastic and framed to keep the
party of class struggle off the bal
lot. The man the capitalist picked
to look after the election laws in
Oklahoma, McAllister, makes the
laws of the game and uses them eff
fectively against the workers, I'M
less the law can be used against the
capitalist. Then he refuses to rec
ognize his own law. The drastic
laws prevent US from entering our
ticket, so the Farmer-Labor Party
was used. A petition of hundred
names was filed in protest against
our electors in order to keep us off
the ballot. According to the laws of
their game, these protesters must
be registered voters of the Farmer
Labor Party. Fact proved they
were not such. A protest and bond
put up by our electors was ruled
out. A mandamus proceeding is
now pending.
State Action Illegal.
In Oklahoma as well as other
states all power is used to prevent
the Party of the class struggle, the
Workers (Communist) Party, from
entering the campaign.
Another typical example is the
state of Nebraska. The law pro-
vides that candidates can enter in
dependent by petition with one
thousand signatures. We are in
formed by the state officials that
no matter what the laws say, they
will throw our petition out when
we present it. They insist that we
use the other method, that is con-
vention of five hundred delegates,
a method that has kept the workers
off the ballot in this state for years
and enabled Norris to capitalize the
radical sentiment on the republican
ticket, in order to lead the opposi-
ton back into the swamp if it be-
comes too dangerous.
The exploited, suppressed work
ers and poor farmers of Oklahoma
and Arkansas and the subjected Ne
gro workers and poems are watch
ing the fight Of the Communist
Party to obtain a place on the bal
lot in these two states because they
realize that only through party of
the class struggle can they obtain
freedom. The majority at this stage
are only watching, fearing to ex-
press themselves. A minority, the
most class-conscious are lending
their support to the activity of the
Workers (Communist) Party in
their work in the south.
R. A.