The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-07-09

employed in Atlanta, were receiv-
ing miserable pittance through
the Community Chest fund. When
this relief closed down, il doomed
these workers to quick starvation
with the rest of the unemployed.
In spite of the fact that only few
months ago the Community Chest
takers collected over eight hundred
thousand dollars from the work
ers OF this city, they now claim
to be without funds and unable to
continue the miserable relief they
have been giving.
They came to the meeting of the
County Commissioners with propo-
sails to add to the already heavy
tax burden of the poor workers
and home owners in order to main
tain their high-salaried Jobs.
Mr.. Frank Nicely, executive
director of the local Community
Chest and a sixty-five hundred
dollar a year faker, shed crocodile
tears over the plight of all the
starving workers and said that
though he was hard boiled, his
heart bled for those poor families
that came to his office for relief"
Urge Back to Ruined Farms Plan.
But it remained for Mr.. Walter
S. McNeal, Jr., a big banker and
real estate man of Atlanta, to
make the proposal, that was hailed
by the press and the County Com
nlisSioners as the most concrete
proposal of the evening. He pointed
out that there are hundreds of
farms in the, state that had beeen
taken over for taxes and were now
lying idle. He stated that the city
and county authorities should
round up all the idle" in the city,
together with their families, and
ship them out to these farms and
make them work for their board.
He cynically remarked that, "a lit
tie elbow grease won't hurt them"
Commissioner Hendrix stated at the
meeting that he did not believe
that there were any starving peo-
pie in Atlanta, and if there were
any he had not seen them.
The local unemployed committee,
although small committee con-
sisting of about dozen members,
Immediately issued ten thousand
leaflets, exposing the fakery of the
Community Chest and the slavery
scheme of the local politicians,
calling on the workers, Negro and
white, to demonstrate at the County
Court House Thursday morning at
10 o'clock. The leaflets called on
the workers to bring their families
to THE office of Commissioner Hen
bricks in the County building and
show him that there are starving
people in the city of Atlanta, and
to demand the reopening of the
relief stations and immediate re-
lief.
1000 Demand Immediate Relief.
On Thursday morning, June 80,
the workers of Atlanta showed the
bosses that they would not tolerate
any forced labor program and that
they would fight against starva-
ton. About a thousand working
men, women and Children, Negroes
and white, almost equal in num-
bers, went down to the court house,
walked up to the Commissioner
office on the fourth floor and de-
manded relief. This was the first
time any demonstration of work
ers had ever occurred in the city
Of Atlanta. Although the police
were there in numbers, they did
not dare interfere with them. The
police of this section are noted for
their brutal treatment of Negro
workers, but this time they were
unusually polite. When one copper
told a Negro worker in the corridor
that they were going to send them
all back to the farm and make