The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-09-21

FLINT, Michigan. This city
4 spraw1s over the countryside,
mushroom which spread out over
night with the phenomenal growth
of the automobile industry, and is
now sickening and dying with the
collapse of the automobile industry.
Here is the main center of the
enormous General Motors Corpora
ton, where are located the plants
of its chief subsidiaries, Chevrolet,
Buick, Fisher Body, A-C Spark
Plug, and a dozen lesser shops. But
all the shops are closed. In one
industry town handful of the
workers still find employment.
Two years ago there were l6O,-
900 people in Flint; today there
are 100000 Some of those who
have gone have drifted back to rel
atives and friends who still have
some food to share with them,
others have. gone to other cities
hunting for work and have been
stranded. But a large part of that
10000 were Negroes and Mexicans,
who came to Michigan in the
northward trek of wartime and the
early twenties. The Community
Fund crew got the bright idea of
relieving the relief problem by
shipping the Negroes and MexicanS
back to the South. Few of these,
of course, had any place to return
to. Whole families had come north,
leaving no ties behind. But all
that the charitable souls of Flint
could lay their hands on were "vol-
unfairly" transported back to the
South and Mexico. That was one
means Of solving" Flint's unem-
ployment problem.
HUNGER
AND SUFFERING.
Those who still remain in Flint
are little better off, unless you
think it is better to starve amid
familiar scenes. BY the city's own
count, 5000 families are now sup
posed to be receiving miserable city
poor relief. The Community Fund
and other private agencies record
another 1900 families. Add to
these the untold number of fami-
lies who have been refused any
kind of relief; add those who,
knowing the ruthless policy of the
city poor relief and the Community
Fund, are still trying to scrape
along on the last of their savings,
borrowing, pawning, or who, though
already starving, cannot bear to go
through the humiliating procedure
of standing in lines and being herd
ed like cattle for day after day I'M
til they shall be put on poor relief;
add to these the single men,
widows, widowers, and childless
couples, who are not even permit
ted to register-and you begin to
get an idea of what hunger and
suffering means in Flint. BY the
city's own murderous standards,
one in every five persons in Flint
is starving. BY any humane stand
ard, three quarters of Flint's work
ers need substantial unemployment
relief.
IN the dreary, abandoned high
school building which serves
as poor relief headquarters thou
sands of men, women and children
are pressed together in long lines,
waiting for the weekly dole"
Three dollars for family of five.
Sixty cents a week to feed each
person. To a tall, CRAVING Scotch
man, a pioneer mechanic in the
automobile industry, whose reward
for a lifetime of work was place
on the poor relief line, 1 expressed
my horror at the inadequacy Of the
relief. He smiled bitterly. "If you
think this is bad, come back after
election This is just some taffy to
make us vote right. After the vot-
ing's over they'll just let us starve
to death altogether"
CHARITY SCENES.
Hour after hour these workers
and their wives and children,
crushed together in the long lines
land it was a scene repeated every
day-had to wait for the miserable
pittance allotted them by the bos-
ses and politicians. Hungry chill
dren tugged at their parents arms,
begging to be taken home and fed.