The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-09-12
MCKEE TURNS
DOWN JOBLESS
Refuses to Endorse
Bonus Payment
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city does not carry out the demands
fthe unemployed? Winter replied
that the unemployed workers of the
city would take action in their own
interest. Direct action?" asked Nc
Kee? Any action required to keep
them from starving to death on the
streets.
Emanuel Levin, leader of the Work
ers Ex-Servicemen'S League, 90 per
cent Of whose members are veterans
of the World War, then presented the
demands of the unemployed veterans
They were: Increased relief, instead
of the cut in veterans relief which
was clearly foreshadowed by McKee's
refusal on Friday to appropriate more
than enough for the month Of Sept;
an end to graft and discrimination
in the handing out of relief to the
veterans; the endorsement by the city
government Of the demand that the
federal government pay the bonus to
the veterans; and the condemnation
by the city government of the Hoo
yer governments murderous attack
on the bonus army. After trying to
evade the entire question of veterans
relief by diSmissing it with the state
ment that the graft would be Sin
vestigated" again, Mckee was sharp
ly told by Levin that the matter had
been investigated repeatedly and no
improvement had taken place. Nc
Kee shifted his defense by asking
how many Of the delegation were
World War veterans. The question
was clearly irrevelant because the
delegation was not delegation OF
servicemen men, but six out of the
80 in the delegation raised tehir
hands. The question was a boom
erang for Mckee because 20 per cent
of the delegation which included sew
era1 women, thus proved themselves
to be veterans of the last war. Check
ed at every turn, Mckee was forced
to give his true position. He said
without hesitation: 81 shall not ask
the Board of Aldermen to endorse the
payment of the bonus, and 1 shall
not ask it to condemn the attack on
the veterans" The other veterans,
Sol Harper, Negro worker, and Nc
Tigue, were stopped short by Mckee
when they started to make state
ment.
Henry Sheppard, Negro worker who
is Communist candidate for Lieuten-
ant Governor of New York, then took
the floor to demand that Mckee put
an end to the discrimination against
Negroes and foreign-born workers
which is now practiced against them
in the Home Relief Bureaus, and that
the city tear down the fire traps in
Harlem and build new tenements in
that section of the city. Mckee
listened to Sheppard as if the Negro
worker were made of wood and then
further insulted him by refusing even
to answer.
I'VE M AXE Demands Because Our
Requests Are Ignored"
Following McTigue, Queen, a mem
Der of the Marine Workers Industrial
Union, came forward with the state
ment that he wanted to present the
demands of the unemployed seamen
and longshoremen. Mckee wise
cracked: Don't you ever make re-
quests. Do you always demand2"
Qpeen replied: 1--WE are demanding
because our requests have been ig-
nored so long"
Mckee refused also OF comment on
the demands of the marine workers.
The last member of the delegation
to speak was Hortense Danaher, an
investigator in the Board of Child
Welfare who had been discharged be-
cause she had uncovered graft in the
department. Mckee interrupted her
repeatedly and finally told her to re-
port her case to the Commissioner
Of Accounts. When she answered that
the Commissioner of Accounts had
not only refused to see her but her
lawyer as well, Mckee said: "He will
see you now. That's all" When Da
naher said she had something else
to say, Mckee replied: ooh, no you
haven't. The interview is over"
Accompanied by bodygusrd of
six members Of the Bomb Squad
Mckee left the reception room for an
expensive dunch in a nearby restau-
rant. The policemen cleared a path
for him to the restaurant through the
thousands of starving workers WHO
were listening to Winter, Levin and
others Of the delegation telling of
McKee's refusal not only to provide
adequate relief, but Of his arrogance
in intimating that cut in relief next
month might be necessary if the
bankers demanded one.
The new Mayor, the "friend" of
New York's more than million un-
employed workers, had fatfootedIy
denied every demand for immediate
relief which he had answered, and
had refused to answer those which he
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