The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-18

fare throughout Greater New York
made by an official spokesman of La
Robert Minor, Communist candidate
Surpless, the speaker assigned by
Fusion campaign committee to
represent La Guardia at a sympo-
SUM at the Premier Palace, sos
Suffer- Ave, Brooklyn, made the
admission after Minor had charged
the Fusion Party of La Guardia
az well as the other parties, are
conspiring to prevent any mention
of the five cent fare as a campaign
issue.
After Minor had quoted the re-
cord to show La Guardia as COM
mitted to the raising of the fare,
Mr.. Surpless exclaimed whats
sacred about the five cent fare?
Surpless argued that the utilities
magnates were losing money"
Minor, quoted William ]. Schef-
feIin, the founder of the fusion
1noy ement "ho is chief ba:xnr IF
La Guard.a and a director of the
Atlantic Mutual Insurance Com
pany and connected with the Ma
tional City Bank, the Bank of New
York, and other financial institu-
tons, as saying as long ago as
January 16, 1927 that the ten cent
fare is "the only solution to the
transit problem"
At the same time, Schieffelin
indicated that he wanted the plan
to raise the transit fares kept out
of the election issues through a
"gentleman's agreement" among
the capitalist parties, saying "the
transit problem should not be al
lowed to become a political one"
"On May II, 1881, when Schef-
felin was seeking a fusion candi-
date" said Minor following the
public exposures of the Tammany
corruption, Scheffelin was sound
ing out Thomas as a fusion candi-
date and called Thomas, a man
excellently capable and fitted for
the office of mayor"
Later, said Minor, after General
Organ was selected and then re-
jected because of the storm against
him for his openly reactionary re-
cord, Scheffelin, through the COM
mittee of 1000 and the Citizens
Union, pushed La Guardia and he
was selected. On Sept. 81, 1888,
Minor continued, La Guardia
launched his campaign at a lun-
cheon before $50 financiers of the
New York University Alumnae. In
this luncheon, the financiers asked
him, what is your attitude toward
the five cent fare"
Minor then quoted La Guardia's
reply from the New York Times of
Sept. %, ia Guardia replied that
first he would restore the city's
credit, and that then unification of
the city's transit facilities would
follow"
Minor stated that this reply,
carefully staged to satisfy the fin
aneiers, was La Guardia's pledge
to carry out Schieffelin's policy
that that "only solution of the city's
financial problems is in raising the
fare,0 and the pledge to make no
issue of the five cent fare in the
campaign.
Surpless, representing La Guar
dia, defended the fusionists advo-
eacy of the raise in fare. He said:
ITO express my own senti-
ments, I viii say that it is ridicu-
ious to coatend that the transit
fare can only be five cents. The
cost of transporting passengers
through the tubes and all over
New York is more than five
cents. 1t costs seven cents to
transport passengers on the sub
way and why should /, as tax
payer, make up the other two
cents. What's sacred about the
five cent fare"?
In his rebuttal, Minor, the Com
munist mayorality candidate, said,
that the five cent fare is one of the
biggest problems affecting workers,
both employed and unemployed, and
a raise in fare would take from
their pay many dollars year. The
Communist Party is the only party
fighting against the increase in the
transportation fares.
''The cost of transporting pas
sengers was not the real cost DC
mechanical operation" Minor said,
"But also the amount paid to the
bankers who hold the city trans
pOrCdtlon system IN Cnelr grasp.
Minor said that there was no doubt
that at the time Scheffelin was
dickering with Norman Thomas to
become fusion candidate, the plan
included an understanding that as
4 Fusion candidate, Thomas would
not fight against the bankers move
for a higher fare.