The daily worker., 1931-03-14
A Spectre in
the Legislature
BY A NEWsPAPERNIAN.

THE following story is written
by a reporter for a New York daily
who accompanied the hunger
marchers to Albany and who was
present in the Legislature when
the state troopers attacked the un-
employed deiegation.)
TEN-THIRTY in the Capitol at AL
1 bany. A tenseness is felt in the
corridors. White-faced correspon-
dents stalk the red and gold ante
rooms, peering around corners, scru-
tinizing strange faces.
At doors and entrances stand gray
uniformed. flr-hatted state troopers
Cheap imitators of their northern
prototypes Canadian Northwest
Mounted Police. Jaunty manner.
Dashing outfit Full bellies. Colt
As automatics-basis of police
courage"
Suddenly waiting figures are gal
vanized Heels click. Orders are
whispered Jaws are Suffered. In
the hardness of police prec- ution a
fat, paunchy assemblyman moves
here and there.
''They are here!"
"Look at 'eml'
There they are!"
Up the wide marble stairs leading
to the visitors gallery three hundred
men and women march-silent, mea-
sTed steps on the wide, white marble
steps-men in gray clothes, shabby,
badly dressed" as one of the Al
bany morning papers said, ''in con-
trast to the well-dressed shoppers on
the main business street"
Yes, they are badly dressed. Some
faces are gray, some pale. Others
are hard, weather-beaten. Horny
hands - unemployed workers. The
hunger marchers!
Tramp, tramp, left, right, left,
right-up the white marble steps
they go-left, right, left, right-in
rows of four, in firm military forma-
ton. The hunger marchers!
Around corners, out of adjacent
offices, pailid, begoggled, frightened
faces of clerks and bureaucrats peer.
The hunger marchers! Left, right,
left, right; up the white, wide marble
stairs.
State troopers stand erect at doors,
entrances. Manicured assemblymen
dashed here and there with papers
IN their hands. casting sidelong
giances at the marchers as they file
into the doors leading to the visit
ors' galleries.
Orderly, with fine proletarian dis
cipline, they take their places looking
down on the buzzing and scurrying
on the floor of the assembly. They
sit immobile, quiet. ominous. The
hunger marchers! They are at the
end of their long trek northward
A long, spare, condor-like clergy
man blesses the meditations of the
legislators. He speaks in the wfin-
ing, singsong voice SO typical of the
clergy:
- and in Thine infinite mercy
give us wisdom in these delibera
tons. :. Amen
The clerk begins the roll-call.
Her e-present- t-here-here
--here-"
The names are droned scarcely
disturbing the tense silence of the
chamber.
From the rear a voice is heard. 1t
is sharp. loud, clear The speaker is
Jack Johnstone. secretary of the
Trade Union Unity Council The
speaker does not raise his head The
droning buzz of the foll-call goes
'A1r. Speaker-our wives and chill
dren are starving" :.
Two state troopers leap on john
stone and drag him towards the
door. Their fists beat into his face,
their clubs on his head and shoul-
derS.
At once the assembly is in an up
roar. In the galleries the hunger
Amarchers begin the rumbling, ON
inous chant:
N''We want work or wages-we want
work or wages-we want work or
wages.
The chanting grows louder, more
ominous-it swells, roars angrily
with menace, hatred:
'fWe want work or wages-we want
work or wages-we want work or
wages ="
State troopers leap in the packed