The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-05-28
COMMUNISTS OF
FARMS, SLUMS
ATTEND FARLEY
Moving Stories of Human
Distress Are Heard at
National Convention.
BY RAY BLACK
United Press stan Correspondent


CHICAGO. May 2s.-Men and
women from factory and forest, farm
and slum. talked the creed Of Com
munism today in close packed Peo-
pies auditorium. at the national
convention OF the Communist party.
--he dingy hall on the ground floor
OF a three story building in the west
sides Little Poland" filed early
with some 300 Communists, and at
least three times as many more
malcontents without party designa-
ton.
It was a strange gathering, a med
ley Of races, Of tongues, Of beliefs
and Of detectives.
Can't Make a Living
Fiery party leaders stood in groups
made up Of shoe factory hands from
Massachusetts,, needle trade workers
from New York and Jersey, coal
miners from Pennsylvania, cotton
growers from the south, farmers
from the midwest, lumberjacks
from the north. mattresses, grocery
clerks, truck drivers and colleg
professors.
There was Fred Hise, 43, a gaunt
bald man with kindly blue eyes.
i used to be a plastering con-
tractor down in Florida" he said
The depression came and l lost
everything. I took my wife and boy
10 a twenty-acre farm just outside
Davie, Fla, and started raising COWS
and ducks. We can't make a living
I'm not Communist; I belong 70
the International Labor Defense.
Believes in Communism
But I believe in communism. I'm
ready for any change. I couldn't be
worse of than ! am II I'd lost my
money drinking or gambling,
wouldn't care But I've always
worked hard. I have voted Repub-
lican and Democratic in the past,
but not any more.
Claude Patterson IS. Negro steel
worker from Chattanooga, Tenn,
came 10 the convention because he
is the father Of Haywood Patterson,
one Of the youths under death SEN
tence in the Scottsboro (AlaD case.
My boy would have been exc
c ted before now if the Commu-
nists hadn't protected the weak
against the strong" he said. My
people realize that now. We know
who looks out for justice
Patterson works in steel mill.
He gets two days work week at
$3.50 a Gay. He hitch-hiked to Chi
cago.
Arrives in Truck
Julia Sherman, %, came TO the
United States from Finland when
she was IA. She has been working
part time as a waitress in Rock
Springs. Wyo. She rode to the
convention in an open truck II
which fourteen other delegates
came.
7 belong to the International La
Dor party" she said. We believe
the only way left for Us poor peo-
pie to get along is to support the
policies that the Communist party
suggests"
Bill Marquardt, 81. is a grocery
clerk in Oakland, Cal. He has a
wife and one child He came to
Chicago on freight trains.
1T took me a week to get here"
he related, because I was kicked
of once in California. twice in Ne
vada, and once in Iowa.
i've been q Communist seven
months. 1 used to be Republic
an. I changed because I do not
believe in the oppression to for
eigncrs an6 Negroes that the Re-
publican party tolerates.
Sometimes $50 a Day
James A. Murphy, 81, Seattle,
Wash, was a lumberjack in the
northwest forests. He used to make
as much as $50 a day. He has been
out OF work two years.
Wages up there are down to 81
day now" he said. There used
TO be 100000 OF us in the woods.
There are 10000 now. The old line
parties brought this on. The Com
munists can change the system"
From a 300-acre farm in Greeley
county. Oklahoma. came Charles j.
Mcdonald, 81, whose four grown
children live on the farm and help
him raise cotton and corn. He has
been a farmer in that state twenty
nine years.
For every 81 We get for our
produce now, the production cost
is So" he said. 4 lived better ard
worried less twenty-five years ago
when all I had was a span of mules
and a double shovel pillow.
I have voted the Democratic and
the Socialist tickets Now I'm for
the Communists. At least half the
farmers in my neighborhood believe
the same way. They sent me up
here and when money is as scarce