The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-18
CONTINUED FROM PAGE oNE)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE
as to what plan should be adopted
for subway financing. Either plan, Of
course. led to the 10-cent fare, and
even State Controller Tremaine let
out the fact that sit was just a fam
lily quarrel" But Tammanys family
quarrel has been settled, with the rep
resentatiyes of the two groups of
bankers, Berry and Mckee, in full
control of the situation,
The silence of the Tammany bloc
during the public hearings on the
1888 budget on Thursday and Friday
had indicated that McKee's program
of slashing cuts in education, wages
and unemployment relief had been
accepted by the whole Tammany
gang This became a certainty when
Controller Charles w. Berry released
to the Sunday papers the "ultimatum
letter" sent to him by the bankers.
]. p. Morgan Behind Move.
j. P. Morgan & Co., the National
City Bank and the Chase National
Bank were revealed as the forces be-
hind the Tammany program. Their
threat that no more funds would be
advanced to the City Administration
unless the budget was cut, was merely
a subterfuge to give Tammany an
alibi What the letter really proved
was that already, behind the scenes
Tammany had agreed to the full pro-
gram of the bankers for Gripping the
schools, cutting the wages of city
employees and slashing the already
muderously inadequate unemploy-
ment relief.
The short-lived disagreement in
the Tammany camp was the differ
ence. of opinion between those respon
Sible for corralling the votes and
those directly responsible for carry
ing out the dictates of the bankers.
The vote-getters, Curry, McCooey,
Aldermanic President Mahon, Hoster-
berg, etc., were fearful of the carry
ing out of the budget deductions be-
fore elections. The revolt of the po-
licsmen, firemen and teachers against
the voluntary" wage cuts had
warned them of an impending revolt
against Tammany, and they accord
ingly pleaded that the economy pro-
gram be delayed until after cleo
ton when, regardless of the budget,
wholesale dismissals and reductions
could be made, similar to the dis
missal Of 1000 workers from the De-
partment of Sanitation last January.
The bankers and their representa-
tiveS, Mckee and Controller Berry,
however, refused to wait. 1t was
Tammany's job to get the votes, how
ever it could. Meanwhile the mar
ket value Of city bonds in the hands
of the bankers was decreasing. and
the only way to raise their value was
immediate budget cuts. Tammany
was provided an alibi by the "ulti-
matum letter" and by the fact that
the spokesman for the budget cuts,
Acting Mayor Mckee, is not candi-
/ date for election.
To the first proposed cut Of 10 per
cent in the wages Of all non-civil
service employees, Mckee has now
added the demand that the other en-
ployees clerks. police, firemen,
teachers, etc.-accept a voluntary
cut of 6la per cent. Both groups of
employees. especially the latter cate
CORY. have already suffered wage
cuts through voluntary" contribu-
tons TO the work relief fund" which
| Tammany has turned into a pork
barrel for its own use The whole
burden of school relief the feeding
of starving school children for which
the city administration takes credit,
Is on the shoulders CT the rank and
file teachers. Since in most cases
! city employees support their unem-
ployed families, further wage-cuts
will reduce them to the starvation
| level.
Hit At School System.
The drastic cuts contemplated in
the appropriations for education will
make tragic absurdity of the whole
school system. At Fridays public
hearing on the budget, number OF
school teachers pleaded tearfully that
the already inefficient school system
would collapse altogether if classes
were permitted to grow any larger
and teachers we're further overbur-
dened One teacher pointed out that
/ in the existing classes of fiftv pupils