The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-18
It's A Crime to Be
7ObLess IN America

I He Discovers the Communist Party
Here it is January 7, 1880, and
we're at the gates of the Maryland
House of Correction. I am feeling
like Red, and damning this system
of government that puts man in
Jail just because he is looking for
work. 1t was not until the Hunger
March on Albany, New York, this
winter that I knew there was such
a party fighting this damned sysUeM
of government, the Communist Par
ty. the party of the workers.
Well, getting back to the MIC,
we are taken inside the jail and the
Chief gets his receipt of 4 prisoners
$4,000 and leaves with a smile.
There's little smiling we do, We have
our supper, one hot dog, few pota,-
toes, bread and black coffee. Then
we have our clothing taken away
from us, prison clothes issued, and
then assigned to our cells.
I was assigned to D-2-4 and my
friend to D-2-3, the Indian to D-2-2,
and the drunken driver to D-2-12.
It's quite Jail; there are wings
to it, and there must be 1000 or
1,400 prisoners all told. The colored
are kept apart from the whites as
much as possible, the colored eat by
themselves, and the whites by them
selves. The same pertains to the
cells.
Each wing has a name, such as the
long timers side, the short timers
side and the buns side for 8 and
month men We four were put on
the buns side. The place was so full
of men that nearly everybody had to
double up, two men sleeping and liv~
ing In a cell built for one. Theirs
was an iron bunk riveted to the wall.
My cell mate had that. and was
given mattress Of straw and a
BANKED pillow slip and sheet, and
had to sleep on the floor under nl1
cellmate's bunk.
The WorkingmarS Disease
The worst part of sleeping under
his bunk was when he would move
around at night, he would send
clouds of dust down on me from his
straw mattress. 1t wouldn't take
much of that to give a man T.B.
And that was not all, the place was
so full of bed bugs. down there they
called them c11inces, that we had to
stay awake many nights putting soap
in the cracks of the walls to hold
them in. Nothing holy about those
bed bugs, only their bite.
Well now we are getting to this
prison labor that Fish is hollering
about in Soviet Russia. He doesn't
only have to go 80 miles from Wash
ingfon to the Maryland House of Cor
rection, and there he will see plenty.
Forced Labor.
There they have a shirt shop and a
pants shop which must employ about
300 men, both included. And how
they work the men in them! Only
the men with most time to do get
work in them. My cell mate worked
in the shirt shop, where you are giveg
O. task to do. His task was to sew e.
dozen collars together each day, 70.
which he received Is cents. ID
u,orIed from, = y 81 r. 80 ,Yd f-o
/ p. m, to p. III. five days a week.
and half a day on Saturday. If he
could not do his task, he was sent
to his cell and man who could re-
placed him.
You have to work as q learner for
a few weeks before you can try for
a task with pay. There's times they
hold work back on you and through
that you lose your Is cents. Each
man has different task, one man
has collars, another cuffs, another
pockets, shirt fronts, and so on.
In the pants shop it is the same,
only they get a little more for their
task. They also put the men to work
on the roads at so cents day. Sons
one is making q. pile of dough! This
people that get contracts from the
state to exploit prison labor, closed
their shops in Baltimore, throwing
all their help on the street, and move
all their machinery to the prison
shops. Pretty affair, eh9
Workers, Awake.
It's time the workers Of Baltimore
and the country woke UP. or pretty
soon you will have to go to jail to
get q job. Well. here it is March 2s.
1881. have paid my debt to society
for the terrible crime of looking for
work. GIG days of for good tirne>.
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IT. W. J
=5ernNT 81
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