The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-08-26

through the mass action organized
by the International Labor De-
Tense, which forced reversal Of the
convictions. Macdonald is now In
New York.-Editor's Note.
IN the Fourth of July, rs National
" Guardsmen were ordered from
the base at Tampa, Fla, to quell
what was reported in the press as
an uprising of the inmates of the
State Road Department prison camp
near Brooksville, Fla, where, about
40 miles north of Tampa, side
road is being constructed between
State Highway 5 and the Gulf of
Mexico.
mo cake for Fourth of July din
ner starts riot in prison camp said
the headline in the Tampa Tribune.
The paper explained that the con-
victs, as they seated themselves for
the special holiday dinner, exclaim-
ed: what! No cake?" and seeing
none, Immediately began to riot. IN
able to put down the uprising with
his own forces, so the story went, the
camp captain was compelled to call
upon the sheriff of Pasco County
and appeal to Governor Sholtz for
the National Guard
Over 100 Surround Camp
National Guardsmen, prison
guards and deputy sheriffs, totalling
in all more than one hundred men,
armed with gas bombs, machine
guns, rifles and shot-guns loaded
with buckshot, surrounded the camp.
The convicts were bottled up in the
mess hall and intermittent firing was
kept up to indicate what would hap
pen to any who attempted to emerge
from the building. At the end of the
six days, no water being available to
the convicts and the spilled dinners
having long since been mopped up
and consumed, they expressed them
selves as being agreeable to the loss
of cake from the menu and were
permitted to come out. Some 20 who
were considered ring leaders" were
loaded into the convict bus" and
taken away to the State Peniten-
tiary at Raiford, where even today
they remain shut up in solitary con-
finement in what is known as the
Flat Top a building so designed
as to give no direct light or ventila-
ton and to intensity the outside
temperatures. Others considered
more tractable were given dose of
the sweatbox in the BorrkSyille
Camp, and returned to their work.
I read the story in the Hillsboro
county jail.
What was this all about, this cake
business? had some notions about
it, and later / found out some more.
Here's the dope:
A Bit of History
About this time Henry Bonilla,
also one of the 1881 Seventh of No
venber frame-up victims, was re-
turned to the Hillsboro County jail
from the road camp located in the
Everglades near Indiantown, Fla.
Because of the mass pressure organ
lied by the International Labor De-
Tense, our case was reversed by the
Florida State Supreme Court on &C
count of the indictment not having
been founded on law, and all the
prisoners were returned to the coun-
ty Jail to await disposition of the
case.
IT was in the sweat-box when the
deputy sheriff came for me-" said
Bonnilla. 81 was boxed because I
didn't hear the guard when he told
me to move in closer to the squad.
was busy digging and the squad
moved away from me few steps,
then the guard shouted at me and
said he would give me dose that
this I was boxed for six days because
slipped off one of my chain gang
shoes that rubbed all the skin off
of my heel. The box over there is
hell! They strip you off naked when
they put you in; feed you one-six-
teenth of an ounce of corn bread
twice in "a hours; there is no room
to lie down; durin/ the daytime you
roast, and at nigh without a stitch
to keep you warm, you freeze. They
fed us nothing but grits and beans
on the gang, but sometimes we
caught a young alligator which we
would roast during noon hour. If
any one of us ever spoke back to a
guard or even muttered word of
discomfort, he would be ordered to
drop his tools and be taken aside
from the squad and beaten and
kicked, or taken out of the box at
night and beaten up"
Yes, that was the same chain gang
we others knew so well. The same
captains, the same food, the same
sweat bcx Additional TEXTURES, de-
pending upon the cruelty and in
genuity OF the captains, are often
added to those of the sweat box.
Torture Apparatus
Captain Coursen OF Sunbeam
Camp had devised an apparatus con-
sisting of an iron collar fastened to
the ceiling of the box with a short
chain. The collar was placed around
the victims neck to prevent him
from sitting down to rest, then at
the end of couple of weeks Of
starvation, fearful of collapsing and
! hanging himself, the victim would
..get his mind right" and beg him
self out. 1t was this cure that re-
suited in the death Of the Maulle-
| fert boy.
At one camp the sweat box vic
Tins were kept standing perfectly
still for weeks at time by simply
| sprinkling red pepper dust inside the
box. The slightest movement causes
| the dust TO arise to burn and choke