The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-24
WIDOW OF killed
Bull DING WORKER
LEFT DESTITUTE
Lives in SQualidHarlem
Tenement House
Continued from Pane One)

Continued from Page One)
three weeks when the negligence and
vicious speed-up of the contractors
had sent him to his untimely death
at the age of 81. Before he had got
ten that job lie had been sick for
three months, broken down as re-
suit of the terrific strain under
which he had worked on his previ-
GUS job in order to exc out living
wage for his small family.
"Yes," said Joseph Coiro, brother
of the dead worker, "Antonio and
Lucrezia have lived here for, let me
see, since 1922, when they came to
America. Not all the time in the
same house, but always on the same
block. No, Antonio first came to
America in 1911, a young boy, but
could get no work, couldn't live, SC
he had to go back to Italy"
Industrial Depression.
Just after one of the biggest in
dustrial depression in the United
States in twentieth century, 1911
and Immediately before the panic
that was due to break on the coun-
try when the World War put new
weapon, the manufacture of arma-
ments and war supplies in the hands
of big business, did Antonio Coirc
first come to the United States. M
wonder he starved, no wonder he,
foreigner" too, searched in vain
fo- work through the streets, no
wonder he was forced to return to a
country, which, although just as
vicious and reactionary, was at least
familiar!
when he came back to Italy,"
his brother continued, "the war
broke out, and Antonio was drafted
into the Italian army" He served
throughout the war, returning to
America in 1922 with his wife and
child.
Deaths Frequent.
Another brother of the dead
worker, Arsenic Coiro, listened care
fully as he spoke, interrupting now
and then with fuller details. Mrs.
Coiro, who speaks little English, sat
quietly next to US, seemingly re-
signed to the calamity, one which is
a periodical visitor at the homes of
workers in this age of speed-up and
naturalization all over the world.
Now and then she asked that what
her brother-in-law was saying be
translated for her.
She seemed uneasy most of the
time, in spite of the presence of her
relatives and the neighbors, all
Italian working class housewives.
Later she told me, when I had con-
WINGED them of the sincerity of my
visit, that all the time she had been
vaguely disturbed by the thought
that | might be one of the agents of
the company, sent there to Settle
the death of the family bread-winner
with a few dollars in exchange for
the life of her husband. And vaguely,
too, she understood that these COM
pany agents meant no good to her.
Many Others Hurt.
Only once did she show any
marked sign of emotion, when Jo-
seph Coiro gave me the picture of
the dead worker. Mrs. Coiro turned
around suddenly when confronted
with it, and clasped and reclapsed
her fingers nervously. One of the
women in the room, understanding,
put a consoling arm around her
shoulders. "You see his face" said
one of the brothers, "a fine man,
handsome. But when they brought
him home. :"
And the pain on his face and the
gesture of his hands told more than
if he had finished the sentence.
Shown a copy of the Daily
Worker, one of the neighbors in
the room noticed the al injured"
"Only eleven!" he almost shouted.
"There were more than that, at least
six others, crippled! The papers,
they don't know what is what, they
print only what the foreman tells
them is so. At least six others,
know, crippled. o.. ;"
Through the dark dirty hall again,
In the darkness I almost stumbled
on child, the orphan of the dead
man, playing on the floor with bits
of broken plaster from the wall.