The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-09
BENJAMIN SHOWS
UP RELIEF BILL
Demands 81, 200, 1000,
Winter Aid in Capital
CONTINUED FROM PAGE oNEo

workers representatives were sched-
uled to appear, and remained until
Benjamin concluded. These workers
were able to see the strong contrast
between the attitude of the capital
list social service and welfare rep
resentatives and that Of the militant
unemployed.
Fake Ohio Bill.
1. M. Rubinow spoke for the Ohio
Unemployment Insurance Commits
sion for an hour on the miserable
relief which the organization he is
associated with, doled out to the I'M
employed, admitting that this relief
was about l per cent of what the
workers were getting in wages. He
concluded by urging the adoption Of
the State Insurance Plan, to which
the workers viii be forced to con-
tribute / per cent of their wages.
This plan, he argued, if it had been
adopted in 1922, would now make it
possible for workers to get back 10
per cent of their wages in insurance.
But he was in favor of increasing the
AO1lbl lOQblO1l Va OA1C WOIhCA w q RN1
cent and the contribution Of employ
ers to per cent.
Another Speaker, Edith Abbott, de-
scribed the misery Of children in
Chicago and the schemes for cut
ting relief by means of issuing rations
from a commissary instead of cash,
tricks used in order to avoid paying
rent for the jobless. But she EN-
phasized not the suffering which re-
suits from unemployment, but rather
the fact that landlords were not get
ting square deal.
Cites Wholesale Misery.
Benjamin referred to the appalling
conditions described by those who
preceded him, pointing out that these
descriptions had become the means
for those who share the responsibility
to relieve themselves of that respon-
sibility. The fact to which these
people so smugly confessed should
properly be brought out in the form
of an indictment of their murderous
hunger program before workers
courts and workers prosecutors. He
cited numerous cases Of death from
starvation, eviction, terror, forced
labor and other abuses suffered by
the workers in all parts Of the coun-
try and reported by Worker Cor
respondents in the Daily Worker,
Liberator and other workers press.
He then exposed the various relief
schemes that have been sponsored by
demagogy since the Hunger March
of 1881. He told of the American
Legion and the A. F. of L. job find
ing campaign of the Block-aid
scheme of Morgan and Thomas and
Swope, Groves, Ohio, Roosevelt, six
Governors and other fake unem-
ployment insurance and relief
schemes. In dealing with the plans
sponsored by General Glassford he
said that this intends to imprison
homeless youth in convict camps
where they will be militarized in pre-
paration for the imperialist war
which is now being planned.
S12.05 a Year Relief
He then proceeded to expose the
LaFollette- Costigan bill itself. While
thse two progressive agents of cap
italism squirmed in their seats he
said that their bill would provide at
most $1205 a year for the 16 million
jobleSs. From newspaper clippings
he displayed headlines that an
nounced that this bill was sure to
pass and then showed that these
stories as well as the bill were pub
Hshed for the purpose of deceiving
the masses to make them feel that
it is not necessary for them to unite
in military struggle as the only
means of securing relief.
D.. He concluded with the demand OF
the unemployed for appropriation Of
$1,200,000,00o to provide winter re-
lief of $50 plus SO as supplement
to local relief, for immediate enact
ment of the workers Unemployment
Insurance bill, payment Of the vet
Grams bonus, stopping of million dol
lar subsidies to bankers and trusts
and against the sales tax and the
new measures of Roosevelt for in
creasing the tax on small incomes.
These relief measures he stated,
Congress has no intention of passing.
We by our organized struggle will,
however, safeguard our right to live
by eventually forcing Congress to
grant these demands in spite of OPP
position