The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-02
JURY PROBES
VOTE THREATS
TO employees
Prison Terms Face City
Men Who Coerce Workers
in G. 0. P. Fear Drive.
SERVANTS 'CLUBBED'
Menaced With Job Loss If
They Refuse to Cast
Hoover Ballots.

With two additional manufacture
ing companies and a downtown de-
partment store reported as spread
ing the Republican campaign of
fear among their employees, Prose-
cutor Herbert Wilson today warned
employers that they are liable to
fines and Imprisonment for at
tempting to dictate votes of en-
ployes.
Word that the additional COM
panies had informed their en-
ployes that it would be advisable
to vote the G. o. P. ticket was toll
lowed by Wilson's statement, after
testimony of several employees had
been laid before the grand jury.
In addition, several prominent
indianapolis women informed The
Times that certain business men
were attempting to carry the cam
paign OF fear into their homes.
Servants Are Coerced
1t was said that servants of sew
eral business men had been in
formed:
IF you vote the Republican ticket
and then get into the breadline,
I'll help you. But if you vote for
Roosevelt and then end up in the
breadline, don't come to your former
employer for aid, because you won't
get it.
One of the women declared that
she thought the days of slavery
were over"
r. Earl Peters, chairman of the
Democratic state committee, also is
sued statement for state wide dis
tribution, in which employers we're
warned of their liability in forcing
employees to follow their political
dictates.
Wilson said he issued his warning
to employers in a friendly atti-
tude," believing many did not know
Of the Indiana statute.
Fine and Prison Penalty
Wilson said the law provides for
fine of not less than $500 and not
more than $1,000 and a years i'm
prisonment, or both, for employers
convicted of instructing their en-
ployes to vote for certain candidates
OF a certain party.
In many cases, employers have not
threatened openly to discharge en-
ployes, but have intimated this OUT
come to such degree that the work.
ers actually are afraid to follow
their own desires or beliefs.
The Indiana statute reads:
Every person who, being an en-
ployer, pays his employees the salary
or wages in pay envelopes on which
there is printed or in which there is
inclosed any political motto, device,
or argument containing threats, ex-
press or implied, intended or
calculated to influence the political
opinions or acions of such en-
ployes, or within ninety days of an
election or primary election puts, or
otherwise exhibits, in the establish
ment or place where his employees
are engaged in labor, any handful
or placard containing any threat,
notice or information that if any
particular candidate is elected or
defeated, work in his place will hf
closed up. or the wages of his en-
ployeS reduced, or other threats, e&
press or implied, intended u
calculated to inflame the political
opinions or actions of his employees,
shall be fined not less than $500 nor
more than $1,000, or be imprisoned
for not more than one year, or both,
and shall be ineligible to any pub
lie office or public employment for
the period of four years from and
after the time of the commission Of
such offense"