The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-15

What is the social and economic
background of the recent lynching
Of George Armwood, Negro farm la
borer, in Princess Anne, on the East
ern Shore of Maryland?
The Daily Worker and the League
of Struggle for Negro Rights sent an
investigator into the region, who o.
tanned vast amount of evidence in
regard to the lynching and it's back
ground, for presentation to the COM
mission of inquiry of the Baltimore
Anti-Lynch Conference, which will
sit on Saturday, the day before the
meeting of the delegated conference.
Report on Mass Misery
The first of these reports, dealing
with the general economic and social
situation of Negroes and poor whites,
is given below:
To the political bosses of Maryland,
the only Importance Of the Eastern
Shore is that 1t must be carried in
an election to carry the state. For
this purpose, the blacks and whites
are carefully divided by a consistent
campaign Of 1ynch-propaganda. Sops
are thrown to the poor whites tc
keep them "contented" with the mis-
cry and degradation, second only to
that of their Negro neighbors, into
which they are forced.
George Armwood, Matthew Will
liams and Fuel Lee were in effect
such "sops" thrown to them by the
political machine of Governor Albert
G. Richie.
Otherwise the region is neglected
and left to decay in its isolation. In
those nine counties, covering 3,400
square miles, with a population of
100000, there is no railroad and only
one main highway, running north
and south. A single road and four
slow and ponderous ferry services are
the sole connection with the main
land.
Lynch Belt Most Isolated
Most isolated of all Is the so-caIled
lynch-belt, where two years ago Mat
thew Williams was taken from hos
pital by a blood-thirsty, ruling class
mob. and lynched; where the legal
lynching of Fuel Lee was engineered;
where attempts were made to lynch
him and his attorneys; where George
| Armwood was stabbed, flogged,
hanged and burned.
The territory known as the lynch
belt lies south of the Choptank River,
four counties on the Furthermore tip
of the peninsula-Wicomic Somer-
set. Dorchester and Worcester. The
bourgeois writer, H. L. Mencken, re-
fers to this region as Trans Chop
tanEia," though, as a matter of fact,
the lynch feeling runs high through
out the entire peninsula.
Threaten heroes, Communists
About a year ago, one Of the ma
tives of Talbot County, in discussing
The EEel Lee case with a visitor, re-
marked: "All the nigrers and all the
Communists ought to be hum" TIE
visitor reHlied: Don't YOU want to
kill everybody else, too?"
Two hours later his informant
brought a gang Of twenty men to at
''ck the stranger and drive him out.
1t is perfectly true, of course, that
the lou" southern counties on the
Eastern Shore are the most completely
Isolated and ingrown. For Negroes
and poor whites, this isolation from
the main stream of modern industrial
civilization is complete. The So
called county families" however,
frequently come up to Baltimore for
medical care, to shop or to see the
races, and they send their children
away TO school.
"OId Families" in Control
Most Of the books that have been
written up to now about the Eastern
Shore stress the fine old southern
mansions with their mellow wood
work and romantic tradition. John
j. Raskob, Democratic National Com
mitteeman and hacker of Tammany.
is the proud possessor of one of these
mansions. Coal and steel barons.
especially from the Pittsburgh region.
have also acquired country estates
here IN recent years, where they en-
Joy the fishing and hunting
seasons in an atmosphere removed
from sharp industrial struggles.
Some Of the old families, who re-
ceived their Immigrants back as far
as 1862, have managed to maintain
themselves on their ancestral lands,
though many of them have been
obliged to sell. They still have all the
clannisilness of an isolated caste, with
ties made stronger by much inter
marriage. However poor they may
be, even ruined completely in num-
Der OF cases by the recent bank fail
ures, these old families continue to
have great prestige and to control
all the leading offices of the county.
There is great deal OF cracker box
politics in this region. which nrndilced