The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-02-18
Bv ROBERT MITCHELL.


unions than the fact that when on
Thursday evening a delegation of un-
employed workers appeared at the
Central Trades and Labor Council
hey were met by reception of uni
formed policemen and the industrial
squad.
Whose Unemployed Are They?
The chief theme about which the
liscussion centered when debate was
finally forced on the floor was
Whose Unemployed Are Theso
fen?" The preliminary attacks upon
he delegation by the ruling CLIQUE
in the labor body were made on the
basis that the unemployed are mot
really good union men because they
have not awaited themselves of the
opportunity to become organized"
The last word in betrayal was given
in the view expressed by William
Kohn, president of the Upholsterers'
International:
81 am not one to be frightened by
a delegation of men. If necessary I
will call a spade spade These peo-
pie are not union men at all but are
just trying to capitalize their suffer
ing. We don't have to get excited
about this. The problem is not so
serious and very few of our union
men are out of work These men are
unfit and inefficient"
20 Per Cent Jobless.
A few minutes later a number of
the Central Trades delegates testified
to conditions in their unions. Ryan
of the construction workers stated
that 40 per cent of his men were I'M
Employed; another delegate reported
so per cent; a third stated that in
his union fully 70 per cent were out
of work.
Order Attack.
1t was in the face of these admis
sions, in the knowledge that back in
the unions which they have so long
misrepresented, which they have fail
ed to organize and in which they have
attempted to snuff out every spark of
militancy, that these Tammany labor
bureaucrats raised the issue of
"Whose Unemployed" In the pres
ence of the apparent suffering of
more than two hundred starving
workers, witnesses to the need of
hundreds of thousands of others,
these labor betrayers, as the situation
on the floor began to pass from their
control, called upon the police and
their traditional con1nanions-in-in-
fanny, the industrial squad, to beat up
the protesting workers.
Practically the whole meeting was
occupied with the issue. When the
delegation first appeared and filed
into the gallery, motion was imme-
diatly passed approving of an unem-
nlovment "plan" which he'd been hur-
riedly drawn up that day. Debate
was silenced.
No Concern of Theirs.
Ten days earlier at the unemploy-
ment hearing, called by Industrial
Commissioner Hamilton at the in
stance of Al. Smith, the president of
the New York State Federation of
Labor, John Sullivan, had stated that
Gin our organized labor movement we
have not found it necessary to become
concerned about unemployment" But
only few days thereafter, the labor
officials had not only found it naces-
sary to become concerned" but had
even drawn up program"
The utter degeneracy of these labor
officials so completely revealed in
their raising of the issue, "Whose I'm
employed" was no less fully disclosed
by their unintentional revelation in
the course of the nervous debate:
"Whose Program"
81 want to say" one of the fat
boys on the committee to draw up an
unemployment resolution reported.
chat this plan is favored by the city.
I talked with Jimmie Walker this
afternoon and. this is the plan we
worked out"
Also Job Hunting.
The "plan" of relief was that of
setting up a sort of unemployment
bureau such as was in operation in
1921. "The great advantage of this
unemployment bureau" Chairman
Munholland argued in long talk, as
that we will centralize efforts to find
work. The unemployed will not hay.
to wear out shoe leather and pay car
fare looking for jobs" Incidentally
it was disclosed that Tammany Hal
would provide job for the "unem-
ployed" John Sullivan by placing him
at the head of the new bureau.
In the presence of the jeering hun
dreds of starving workers a resolu-