The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-04-04
By EARL BRowDER

IN the flood Of capitalist demagogy which is
l sweeping the country, there is noe more nau-
seatingly hypocritical than that OF the pro-
gressive" mayor Of Detroit, Murphy. The ex-
emple Of Murphy should be carefully studied for
the great light that it throws upon the whole
tribe of bourgeois demagogs who are working
night and day to prevent the workers from Or
ganizing and fighting for unemployment tnSur-
ance and relief When the joint police forces
of Murphy OF Detroit and Ford of Dearborn shot
and killed four young workers and wounded SO
others on March spotlight was thrown on the
Detroit system which is equally important
with the collapse Of the Ford myth"
Murphy poses as a Liberal" as "friend of
the workers" as friend Of the Nebroes"
After the massacre, in which the police partici-
pated, Murphy tried to throw all the onus on
Ford and Dearborn. But the participation Of
Murphys police was not an accidental matter,
it was an inetgral part of MurphyS whole policy,
in which liberalism" is merely mask for the y
same old program Of Hoover in Washington or
Cermak in Chicago. This was brightly revealed
when Murphy's police arrested five workers, in
the days after the massacre for the Crime" OF
making collections for the funeral expenses OF
their murdered comrades. Murphy's police
chained the wounded workers to their beds in
the hospitals, for three days. until the wave of
ened to break out in greater struggles. Tom
Jones, one Of the wounded, was left lying in his
own blood with two bullet holes through his
body, until ! o'clock the next day before re-
ceiving the slightest medical attention.
Only few days ago, on March %, Murphy's
police arrested five workers for demonstrating
before a Ford agency This violation Of civil
rights was so fragrant that even the anti-Con-
muniSt, Judge Jeffries, dismissing the charges,
took the occasion to rebuke the police for their
subserviency to Ford.
But not only at and since the massacre has
Murphy and his police showed their reactionary
reality behind the mask of liberalism" Elk
anime Muphy's much praised unemployment
relief" which made the Detroit system" ma
tionally known,
AS unemployment gets worse and worse, Muir
ply cuts down relief more and more. In 1881
the relief, which was only drop of water in an
ocean of need, was reduced to less that 40 per
cent of that of 1890. This year again the relief
budget is being cut more than so per cent. A
few weeks ago, at the orders of the Wall Street
bankers whose representative, Stone, is openly
admitted as "dictators of relief work" 1900
families we're cut off fro mall relief. The Or
ders said those least in need" mus the cut off,
but the meaning of this was expressed clearly
by bourgeois woman welfare workers, who eX-
When all are starving it is impossible to find
degrees of need; it would be just as sensible to
cut off all brown-eyed persons"
Wha tSuch measures mean is illustrated by
the case of Mrs. Schmidt, mother of five chill
dren, who, rather than see her babies starve be-
fore her eyes, shut herself in the kitchen with
them and turned on the gas. The attempted
suicide was discovered, and all were rescued but
one child, who was already dead. Murphy:s
police placed Mrs Schmidt on trial for murder.
In this case the judge, moved by the desperate
situation Of the case brought before him in per-
son, dismissed the charges ana declared that the
real murderer was the city administration which
had cut off this family from relief. But the
system continued, even If Mrs. Schmidt was re-
leased to continue her hopeless battle against
want, and now 1900 more families are cut off
in similar manner, The papers, evidently I'M
der instructions, have long ceased to publish
news of working claSs suicides.
What relief amounts to, when it is given, is
illustrated by the case Of Mary Grosman, one OF
the leaders OF the Ford Hunger March. Just
the day before the march, Mary, who had been
receiving 20 cents per day, had her relief al
lowance" cut down to Is cents per day. When
she publicly testified to this, welfare workers
'rusher to provide her with more adequate means,
but only because she was in the public eye, and
to hide the fact that for the masses of workers
the relief was being done away with altogether
Demagog Murphy boasts that "free speech"
exists in Detroit. He hides the fact that this
is true only to the degree that the Detroit work
ers WON THIS FREE SPEECH IN BATTLE
WITH MURPHYS POLICE On Nov. Is and
%, when Detroit workers were modifying for
the National Hunger March, Murphy tried to