The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-01
BY NAT ROSS.

s7trr7 Cbicaqo CITY elections are taking place at
| time when the economic crisis is getting
worse and when the hunger effects OF the Crisis
are spreading among more thousands OF workers
every day. In every big factory OF Chlcago the
effects of the crisis are hitting the workers WIN
ever heavier blows. Wage cuts from III per
cent to so per cent have taken place IN the past
few months in Western Elections, Stockyards'
Harvester. Crane, etc In most OF the plants
thn stacger system is enforced. The hours OF
vor, are being heightened; for example in Sell
1ar,s MFG. Co from an to 11-hour day. Lay
offs are taking place in practically every plant
In the Harvester plant, as an outstanding eX-
annie about two thousand are working now,
compared with about 10000 year ago.
Tie situation among the unemployed is be-
co,Y,i,,r more desperate. Charity officials speak
of the city being on a disaster basis over
100000 are out of work. One hundred nifty
thousand directly depend on the dwlndhng
CRUMBS of charity for their means OF subsistence.
Fvictions increase. Thirty thousand hones'
MANY of them belonging to unemployed work.
ers have been sold for unpaid taxes Thirteen
thousand four hundred twenty-eight meals were
given out daily in the Chicago soup lines in the
month of February The whole picture is one
of wage cuts, hunger police brutality and murder
of workers behind which are the Developments
of fascism and imperialist war preparations.
The big bankers are laying the basis for tas-
ciszing the city apparatus, in order 10 nave d
more deficient" method of suppressing the rev.
dictionary movement and slashing the living
standard of the workers The city government
is in @ financial crisis The city debt is $685.
100000 The tax rate is 20 per cent higher than
last year The taxes to be collected this year
total over S5OO0O0O0O which is almost double
last wears collection. However, this situation
does not prevent the Thompson administration
from wasting" S156000,000 last year, acord-
ing to the Herald Examiner and spending money
like a drunken sailor" letting out contracts
on which the profit is 200 to 500 per cent. The
THOMPSON administration is one of unity with
insult, owner of 1000 utility companies, valued
at thre, billion dollars which exploit 1890 work
ers: with the fascist leaders of the Chicago
Federation of Labor, notably Fitzpatrick and
Nelson who are the most vicious enemies OF the
working class bitterly opposed to immediate re-
lief and unemployment insurance; as well as =
unity with the Capone gang.
If is en admitted fact that Capone scent two
million dollars weekly out of the six million dol
lar weekly income for graft, for keeping 6.o0O
government officials on his pay roll, for brib-
ing the entire police force, over 5000 OF whom,
out of the SIX thousand on the force, do one
or two things on the job (when they are not
-eithe- they sleep or hey get drunk, as adj
mitted by one of the City Citizens Committee.
The real chief of police is Capone himself.
Lo.sch, head Of the Chicago crime commission,
recently reported how Capone told him on pri-
mary day he would keep his thugs off the north
side, but volunteered his aid CD on the west
side Capcne further said Il will have the cops
send over the squad cars the night before cleo
ton and lug all the hoodiums and keep them
in the cooler until the the polls close" Such is
a brief picture of the Thompson city admin
istration
This does not prevent Thompson from appeal
irg to the Negro and white workers as their
friend, getting the treacherous support of the
faecist labor leaders and Negro miseaders Ode
Priest Anderson etc., ''There never was a
strike under my administration which did not
result in increase of pay for labor" Thompson
has the nerve to say this despite the fact that
he is the open tool of the wage cutting, open
shops strike breaking Chicago capitalists.
But tic Outstanding social demagogue in the
pr sent campaign is Tony Cermak, democratic
-'Tammany" politician, who has overwhelm-
ing support of finance capital. He is supported
by the mead of the Chamber of Commerce; by
Colone Sprague who says as "a business man
I an interested" in electing Cer1nak; by Traylor
of the First National Bank, who openly came
out for wage cuts, as a way to solve" the crisis;
by Mccormick of the Harvester Co., and the
war ~rying Chicago Tribune; by Sargent, pres
fdent If the NWFIR, where 40 per cent c: the
workers in the yards awaiting permanent
lay off ON April !. Cermak also has the sup
port of about 100 scab-gangster officials in
the Chicago Federation, headed by Martin
Durkin who came out last March 9th for the