The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-03-03
CONTINUED FROM FACE ONHl

lieve in overthrowing the govern
ment?"
The Gentlemen Are Surprised
The chairman Of the governmental
committee was the worried Samuel
Dickstein, a representative from New
York. Beside him was his frequent
spokesman, MIR. johnson of wash
ington, harsh and manufactured,
grown old in Congress. At the other
end of the table was the fat and
genial Mr.. Willard of New York and
next to him the fat and kindly Mr..
Gable of Ohio. Along the side Of
the table, and across from where the
defenders Of the foreign born sat,
was the young and pompous Mr..
Dies Of Texas. The other two rep
resentatives, Mr.. Houston of Del
aware and an unidentified Mr.. Moon,
sat alphabetically in their chairs.
their expressions gradually changing
from dullness to blank surprise.
opposed to the Representatives
were ]. Louis Engdahl, from the In
ternational Labor Defense; James w.
Ford, from the national office Of the
Trade Union Unity League; Charles
Oberkirch, from the New York dis
trict of the Trade Union Unity
League; oakley johnson, from the
John Reed Club and the Workers
Cultural Federation; and Max Levin,
attorney of the League for the Pro-
lection of the Foreign Born
What Is Behind the Drive Against
Foreign Born
Engdahl, despite barrage of
Questions and objections,-"That's
irrelevant, Mr.. Chairman! object
to that statement about the police
casing their Committee last year,
that can't go in the record! That
stuff about strikes and unempioy-
ment has nothing to do with this
bilI!"--despite these interruptions,
to which he replied, Engdahl went
on with the reading of his state
ment. He presented the unweIcome
facts of nationwide misery, of wage
cuts and unemployment, of the
struggle of the workers against all
this; and exposed, then, the drive
against aliens as a means to divide
The workers, to terrorize the for
eign born, to harass trade unions.
He cited the fact that there are
100000 foreign born workers in
the United States, that they form
So per cent of the steel workers and
SO per cent of the clothing workers,
that Secretary Of Labor Deak
threatens to deport 10000 during
1882; he gave the further facts
that thousands of people are
rounded up in raids, on suspicion
only arrested without warrants,
held illegally, frequently denied
counsel, and generally terrorized
in the effort to break strikes and
break Up the organizations Of MILL
tant workers, Engdahl declared
himself a Communist, and there
fore opposed to all immigration
restriction.
COMMUNISTS Show the Way
Oakley johnson, member of the
teaching staff Of the College OF the
City of New York, in representing
cultural workers generally, offered
data from American school books as
evidence Of long established tradi-
ton of America as a refuge for
political exiles. He read passages
Characterization, school reader
published by Macmillan in 1920,
containing the Declaration OF indie
pendence, and articles, poems, and
speechs by Abraham Lincoln, Felicia
Hemans, Danieel Webster, Frank O.
Lowden, Bliss Perry, e. E. Slosson,
and scores of other prominent men
and women, covering the subjects of
political asylum, America as a home
for the oppressed, Americas friend
illness to immigrants, the rights OF
n1inorities, the danger OF tyrrany by
najorities, the rights of free speech
and assemblege, the right of all to
hold diverse political opinions. He
said that liberalism was not special
growth In America, but a natural
result of aur traditions, and that
liberals now, disi1lusioned by govern
mental acts destroying the tradition
OF liberty, disiliuisioned especially by
the cruel treatment accorded inn
migrants, we're turning to Commune
ISM. The Representatives we're cleo
trifieed by his statement that him
slf, along with thousands of other
college and university teachers and
students, would, at the coming pres
idential election. vote the Communist
Party program for the first time.
Admits Terror Against Native
Workers
The members of the Committee
we're disturbed by the repeated ac-
counts Of the nnistreatment Of
aliens.
Isn't 1t true" said Mr.. Gable of
Ohio, that in strikes the native
born are treated just as harshly as
the foreign born? Take this Ken
lucky strike, for instance, the ma
tive born mountain whites are
beaten up iust as bad as the foreign
born, aren't they?"
That's true" Oakley johnson re-
torted, land that's why native born
workers unite with foreign born
workers against the anti-alien bills.