The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-11
.JOBLESS LEADER
MAY BE- LYNCHED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE oNEl

police station, The kidnappers sat
in the police station while they
waited for the comrades to be re-
leased, George Clifton Edwards, the
attorney hired by the International
Labor Defense to defend the COM
Fades, has already served day in
jail and paid a fine of $35, imposed
by a boss court for defending these
comrades in court. Other fines
amounting to sos were RENTED.
The bosses resent the speeches of
Coder and Hurst exposing the OPP
preston of the Negroes and adVo-
eating full equality for the Negro
masses.
The Trade Union Unity League
has sent a telegram to Governor
Ross Sterling sharply protesting this
latest outrage at the hands of the
police of Dallas, The League, in a
statement to the workers, calls for
mobilization of the entire working
class of Texas, Negro and white,
against this new wave of terrorism,
against the attempt to frame up the
leaders of the unemployed demon
stration on Feb. IS.
Arrested At Demonstration.
Coder and Hurst were arrested in
the unemployment demonstration
here on International Unemployment
Day, Feb. 25. The demonstration
was attacked at the very beginning
and smashed by the police. Twenty
were arrested, including Negro and
Mexican workers. Five were given
suspended sentences; Hurst, Cooler
and another, William Grove, were
held on Vagrancy charges.
During the trial the two militants
made vigorous speeches, denouncing
| the starvation Of the unemployed
and the discrimination against the
Negro and Mexican workers. e: k.
The judge threw every obstacle in
the way of the defendants, and when
their lawyer, Edwards, repeatedly OBJ.
jeeted to the way the defense was
interfered with, he was sentenced to
one fine after another, and also to
day in Jail for contempt of court"
Beaten In Jail
Then Coder and Hurst were fined
$50 and released on an appeal bond.
The police soon re-arrested Coder
and threw him in jail. Here the
jailor's hangers-on among the pris-
oners worked the old kangaroo
court" game, and sentenced Cooler
to a severe beating to be admins
tered by prize fighter who was in
Jail with them. The prize fighter
beat his face to a pulp and blinded
hi min both eyes.
Hurst was once more arrested
shortly after this, was accused of
! distributing Communist literature
and speaking at a protest meeting
against police brutality during the
unemployment demonstration. He
was thrown in Jail, where the same
group of the sheriff's lick-spittals as
saulted him in body, gave him
terrible beating and broke his nose
and perhaps other bones.
Handed to Lynchers.
The eatin bgup of the two workers
in Jail took place on Thursday.
Thursday night Coder and Hurst,
barely able to walk, were released"
with their attorney, Edwards, right
into the hands of lynch gang that
had assembled in the office of the
Jail, and which loaded them into cars
and took them into the country.
The case Of kidnapping, and prob
able murder, is SO fragrant that
group Of attorneys here, and the ex-
eeutiVe committee of the local bar
association has had to denounce it,
and has made a formal petition to
Governor Sterling to offer reward
for the finding of Coder and Hurst
and apprehension of the lynchers.
This terror against the leaders of
the unemployed is not new, but is a
special and aggravated case. The
working class as a whole, employed
and unemployed, must rally to the
demand for immediate relief for the
jebless, for organization of the I'M
employed into councils and of the
exploited workers into the militant
unions of the Trade Union Unity
League. The fight must go on
against wage-cuts, against race per-
seeution. against unemployment.
That is the fight for which Cooler
and Hurst we're tortured and for
| which they have probably died.