The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-04-17
THE SOCIALIST PARTY ACTIVE
Held Enthusiastic Meeting Last Night at B Spen-
 Cer Avenue
PRAISE FOR THOMAS

At a meeting of the Waterbury
 Socialist party last night, public
 ownership of utilities, reduction of interest on first mortga- ges, reduction of bus and trolley fares and municipal gardens for the unemployed were discussed.
 The city platform committee re- ported progress, in formulating new blanks following the lines of socialist principles and action. The
 chairman announced that already
 results have been attained in re-
 gard to first mortgage interest
 rates; that tho Citizens and Man
 ufacturers' Bank, he was pleased
 to announce, Is the pioneer among
 our local banks to see the justice
 of the peoples claim for lower
 interest rate on mortgages, and cx-
 pected that the other local banks
 will quickly follow suit. The speak
 CT also expressed his apprecia-
 ton of the adoption of the muni-
 cipal garden plan, for unemployed
 workers in industry, by MT. Harris
 of the mutual aid, in his call for
 q plot of ground of fifty acres. A general discussion on this matter brought forth much information; that the city of Detroit, Michigan, the auto city, has over ten thou
 sand plots of ground, large and
 small, upon which many thousands of unemployed worked last year, and will again work upon this year. The procedure followed in Detroit, embraces two forms, first where Ia r,uytInlIU n nJnVaI
 or has some means he Is given the
 use of q small patch of ground, the
 produce from which becomes his;
 1t is plowed for him, seeds and in- structions given him, and garden | to the city at the end of the sea-
 son. Under the second plan, large groups of workers are put upon
 acreage plots of various sizes, paid a daily living wage, the produce
 raised sold to the unemployed at
 the cost of production, thus flnan- cling this project. and all the sur plus stored for the winter keep of the unemployed.
 It was tho general belief, OK pressed by members present, that | tho Connecticut Co.,, owner of our
 local trolley systems and most Of our bus lines, also the owners or | the other local bus lines. can well afford to reduce the trolley and bus | fares to five cents and six tickets | for a quarter; as one member sta ted that "all other prices of labor and commodities have about re- turned 10 the pre-war levels, why should these utilities be still charg- ing war prices for transportation?' ?' The sentiment expressed by the en- tire membership present was, that
 1t had come in contact with voiced opinions of thousands of Water bury citizens, who are In accord with the stand taken by the social list party in this matter-that while tho party will fight for the public ownership of these and other util- ities, yet, while they are still pri- vately owned, the public is entit- led to better deal from these corporations. who have made their millions from this service of trans .. portation of passengers, which should never have been allowed
 to be performed by privately own
 en. proht-taking corporations.
 Under good and welfare. gratifi- cation was generally expressed over the great success of the Norman
 Thomas meeting at the Second Church, last Sunday night as evl- denced by the great outpouring of the people. the edfhcc being packed to the doors. and hundreds being
 turned away. showing the great interest of the Waterbury public. not only in Norman Thomas. the American socialist party standard
 bearer for president fin the recent
 national election. but in the mes
 sage of greater, and finally. com pletc public ownership. or the means Of production. transporta- ton and distribution of the means
 of life to the people. without any
 profits thereon. It was voted 10 s"-
 cure Doctor Norman Thomas for
 lecture fin one of our large halls in the near future.