The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-04
BY PHILIP STERLING


THOSE who know Ben Gold may
1 resent hearing him mentioned
in the same breath with Joseph v.
Mckee, former president OF the
Board of Aldermen, but the TACT tnat
Gold is a candidate for the office
which Mckee recently held and the
fact that Mckee is now being bally-
hooed for Mayor, brings certain
parallels to mind.
When Jimmy Walker was kicked
/ out of office to save the Tannmany
face, Mckee was highly touted Tor
the lob of restoring civic virtue
((Tammany style) to New York
City. He is honest, fearless, capable,
tWo-fisted, said the newspapers. NC
Kee proved these claims by taking
high-poWered Soft-snap of banking
lob at the very moment he realized
that Boss Curry had become tired OF
letting him play Horatius at the
Bridge.
What's all this got to do with Ben
Gold? Nothing, save that Ben Gold
is everything, as an individual, that
Mckee was supposed to be and
great deal more.
Is Years Ceaseless Struggle
Soft-spoken, lion-hearted an d
armed with the experience Of almost
IS years ceaseless struggle against
Iabor-racketeers, strikebreaking po-
lice and needle trades bosses, Ben
Gold lives as a reproach to pedants
and towards who declare that the
working class cannot govern itself,
Tfe story of his life may be offered
in evidence as conclusive proof that
the working class produces from its
own ranks men who are far more
capable of governing any commu-
nifty, than the professional politi-
clans who are doing the job now.
Ben Gold is one of those immi
grants who came to this country to
escape the persecution and poverty
which logged him in his native land. ]
But when he discovered that perse-
cution and poverty were the lot of
American workers, too, he found in
himself the kind of honesty which
Joseph v. Mckee could never pos
sess-the kind of honesty that makes
a man stick to the social class in
which he was born.
Gazing into his third cup of coffee
Gold sat in a restaurant and dis
cussed his early life with almost
bashful hesitation, which is charac-'
teristic of him when he is not dis 4
cussing unionism and politics.
Born In Bessarabia
Bessarabia in 1885," he finally admit
ted under questioning. ut was Rus
sian territory then, and by the time
l was seven years old, no one who
lived in the Cars domains could help
knowing something about politics,
even at the age of seven.
81 was exposed to political discus
Sions at an early age because my
father, a jeweler, was active in the |
local revolutionary organization and
was head of the Jewish self-defense |
corps which existed in many cities |
as a precaution against the armed |
attacks of the 'Soyuz Russky' or
the Black Hundred as they were
known the world over. My sister,
Sonia, who was student in Odessa,
died in 1905 of injuries she received
in a student demonstration which
was attacked by Cossacks.
81 learned some valuable lessons
then" Gold continued, with a soft
smile that would fool anyone who !
didn't notice his wrestler's shoulders.
For one thing, the Jewish self-de- /
Tense corps enlisted in their ranks |
Russian, non-Jewish workers. That
example of solidarity was not lost
on me in later years"
Came to New York in 1910
From 1905, during the first Rus
sian Revolution, to 1910, after its
failure, the Gold family, in which
Ben was one of nine children, con-
tinued to live under increasing poll
tical persecution and poverty. BY a |
supreme financial effort, the family
finally made its way to New York.
Then began period of job-hunt-
ing, work, dismissal and more job
hunting for young Ben and the rest
of the family.
"You know what it's like" Gold |
smiled. You're probably a worker
yourself. I worked in paper-box fac
tories, pocketbook factories, millinery
shops, earning two and three dollars
a week for so and 60 hours of work.
My worst job, though was job-hunt-
ing. 1 hated that more than all my
other jobs put together, but I had
to do it quite often because we were
then at. the beginning of the long
crisis which preceded the war.
Too Short for Cutters Table
AFTER a year Of this kind of
thing, my father had made some
friends and it was decided that one
of these friends was to get me ap-