The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-20
lContinued from Yesterdayl

l.
" no more than sixteen bushels.
Some of the flour distributed to the
choppers, by Grab, was charged up
against them by the planters and
merchants. Yes, Of all the green's
a family didn't get no more than
two cabbages and six carrots. Then
they was having tough time in
Oklahoma. They heard of the do
ings here. Tarr, a barber, talked to
the poor. They marched into
Henrietta. Some days after their
march, the Red Cross came into the
yard here with their truck. They
didn't have to ask. We had potatoes
and cans of fruit. paid out of their
own money. The woman wrapped
them up pretty and we wrote a let
ter asking the folks out there to
write back. 1 went down to town,
thinking could get on truck
and go to Henrietta. They wouldn't
have me. There was the Mayor
strutting around. On the floor the
stuff scattered and the letter torn.
I got so mad the Mayor walked of
to arrest me. I cussed that lickall
and Dicklick till the whole town
heard. All tn stuff they sent to
Henrietta was mostly given by poor
sharecroppers and renters. But the
merchants and town got all the
glory. The people of Henrietta
opened the town to the takers. Give
them the theatre free and the best
rooms in the hotel. Give them a
five-gallon key of whiskey. Next
day they got another key of whiskey
which they lugged back to En-
gland and must a sold"
rONEY spits Into the yellowish
" weeds. He comes to the most
important part of his story, about
the food raid in England, Ark. cit
was back in January 1881. Red
Cross relief stopped. Men and wo-
men went down again and again
and was turned away with bellies
empty" He was doing little truck
ing then and cropping. He stops
on the road one day. An anxious
crowd. Men not knowing what to
do. One of the women crying, "Are
you men going TO squat still and
see us starving?" says Coney,
That was like dynamite exploded
in my head. One thing ! can't
see and I'm no warhorse, I can't
see women, and children trampled
in the road. 1t makes the tears
come TO my eyes and the blood to
my face. I says to the men, Are
you game to go down to England
and do what you have to? You
got to make up your minds what
you're after. Once you got your
minds made up, no turning back,
and spill the last drop of blood if
you got to! Twenty-seven got on
the truck. Two of them negroes.
We didn't have no guns, no pitch
forks. The woman went with us.
And if anyone dares call her liar,
I'll kill him."
THE STORY
OF THE RAID
His wife mods her head.
Il don't believe I had jack
nife on me. There was one rifle.
1t was broke. We was bringing to
town to mend it. The chief of po-
lice halls us in the street. We
tell him what we're after. He
beats it for the Mayor. We walk
into the bank. The lawyer tells
us there's no money for relief. We
come here for something, by God,
we're not turning back till we get
it. He looks over our twenty-seYen
He laughs, oh, they can take care
of you. Sure, they'll take care of
lis. They tried to get the home
guard to gun us. The homeguord
said, Give them something to eat,
I been hungered too
pY that time there was hundreds
- of poor troopers and one-horse
tenents joined us. They called the
militia. The militia got halfway
to Lonoak and never went no fur
Their. The Mayor run round and
the chief of Npolics. They was
scared out of their Wits. Duncan
one of the richest merchants faint
ed dead away. All of England town
was rushing round like rats flooded
out. We loaded the truck with
more than she could carry. We
got what we was after"
Coney puts his big hands like
guards on his knees. He leans
forward and splits. 1t is almost
midnight. He lirnps off the porch
to help lift the Ford out of the
ditch. We say goodbye, sorry we
cannot stay over.
PARTY WORK
IN ARKANSAS
On the road Harry Minimum talks
OF the problems of Party work in
Arkansas. How thousands of nat
ives here\ and the rest of us Amer
leans have been educated into be-
leans have been educated into be-
ing dumb. He wonders whether
he'll ever get a job again as switch
man, remembering how he bossed
a crew, running nights with Ian
tern, bleeding the air off a car
kicking it back, and the round
house. Well, work in the Party is
taking up all his time now. He'll
he wishes there were more mer
like Coney.
In Little Rock we sit in the
Dutch Mill opposite the State
Capitol and talk to Gus Zini ovel
his excellent barbecue. Zini, the
Party's candidate for Mayor in the
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