The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-09-21
Film Z,
MICHIGAN
HOOVER PROGRAM IN CHEVROT FIT rIry
Err PROGRAM IN CHEVROLET CITY
By GEORGE COOPER

Mothers dropped exhausted to SIT
hm1ched UP on the bare floor, still
holding their places in the lines.
Men stood, arms folded, faces set
and eyes staring ahead, trying to
control the impatient quivering of
their bodies. All for three dollars
to feed five persons for a week.
After a morning and most of an
afternoons wait on line, woman
with two children finally received
her grocery check and moved away:
then walked over to stand on an
other line. This was a clothing
line; some children's clothing had
been donated and was to be dis
tributed. The woman was pathet-
ically weary from her wait for the
grocery check, but there was al
ready a hint of cold in the air, and
her children were barefooted and
covered with single garments.
"WHATRE we waiting for now,
W mama, one of the children
asked.
"Im going to get you some
clothes, the mother replied.
The children burst into excited
comment: ''Mama's going to buy
us shoes and dresses, one cried,
old enough to remember the time
when he mother had actually been
able to buy the clothes for her
children. Her mother looked at a
bundle of the rags which were be-
ing handed out, and burst into
high, unrestrained weeping. At the
sound, a young man behind her
also lost control.
"Ill be damned if I'll wait any
longer to cover my kid with those
rags, he shouted, and shouldered
his way out of the building.
The chubby face, and round body
of one of the charity officials,
beaming good will", presented
contrast-to the peaked, gaunt
faces I had left behind in the cor
ridor. But it was not a pleasing
contrast. He pulrred and mewed
like fat, white kitten.
"It is too bad the poor have to
come here for their grocery checks
and then take them to the grocery
to exchange them for food. I have
an idea to change that. We will
open city commissary, and they
will just make one trip and get
their food directly. Besides, I've
figured out balanced diet which
the city commissary will be able
to supply for $1.80 instead of $500
a week per family"
BRAVE, FINE PATIENCE
What can one say to such a
man? AS turn to go, he says:
"And the most inspiring thing
about it all, is the brave, fine pa
tience of the poor" /
Patiencel Those working men
and women standing in the long
lines outside his door are not pa
tent. If he had eyes to see, he
would see the hatred in their eyes
as he passes. He would see the
fists of the workers clench as they
watch the officious clerks dilIy- {
dallying at their windows. He
would see how the women take
their children's hands and hurry I
away from the poor relief building
as from an unclean thing. He would I
see, as I have seen, the families
gathering about their table to eat
the meagre fare, and see the par
ents look at the food and then
look at each other in bitter unani-
nifty. He would see the look in
the eyes of hungry workers as they
look at fat politicians, big-paunched
cops, SNUG bosses and their sleek
women.
MO, it is not patience that keeps
~ these workers from hurting him
and his kind out of the places of /
power. 1t is only because they still
do not know how to do it. These
workers need no further incentive to
struggle against their oppressors.
What they need is to learn how
to struggle, to learn who are their
own leaders, and who their betray-
ers. This they are gradually learn
ing, as the growing strength of De-
troit's Unemployed Councils show.
Tomorrow: Fresh Air in South
Bend, Ind.w