The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-01
DICK LOCKS
J BOYS in ICE
CAR 3 DAYS
Homeless Youth Tell
of Hardships on
\ the Road
NEGRO PEOPLE KIND"
Forced Labor, Beat
ings Is Only Relief

NEW Notwithstanding and
exhausted, three boys stag
gered out of a refrigerator box
car, as the trap door was OPP
Iened when the train pulled in
TO the New York freight yard Mon
DAY.
Asking that their last names should
not be printed, Frank, Joe and Vic
tor, all Of them IT, told about their
plight to the Daily Worker reporter
yesterday.
"A bull seen us in the refrigera-
tor and locked the top so we could
not get out, had to wait till we got
into town." And so, from Saturday
morning until late Monday night,
without water or food and shiyer-
Ing from the frigid temperature
within the rolling ice-box, these three
boys lived through one of those try
ing experiences which falls to the lot
OF hundreds Of thousands-boys, men
and women wandering homeless over
the roads and rails OF the richest
country in the world.
Driven BY Hunger
Beaten by rubber hose. threatened
and chased by "cops" and railroad
bulls" begging morsels of food at
door steps, they made their way to
the sunny" south, and then back
north again.
IoceYaI, ie Fro,v, poeto,, 1T;oto,. E,,o,,,
New York City and Frank from a
small town in West Va. When ask
ed why they went on the road, all
gave similar reasons.
Il started out huntin' for work, I"
explained Frank, whose father i'm
posed frequent beatings and threat
ened to send him to a reformatory.
mo money at home, SO I went to
N. j., from there to Exnore, West
Va, and there took freight to North
Carolina" said Victor, who was sec
onded by Joe, who also said that he
left home looking for work"
Meet On The Road
Frank met Joe in Philadelphia,
Then they lost each other, and In
the meantime Joe met Victor. To-
getller they went to the Salvation
Army flop house in Greensboro, N
c, and there again found Frank.
Not single instance of sympathetic
aid given to the boys, was to be found
in the long story of their experiences.
The Salvation Army compelled them
to work until after a. m. when they
applied for shelter around midnight.
In the morning, exhausted and
hungry, they were confronted with
the condition that they must work
before getting anything to eat. The
boys left and gathered morsels of
food from more sympathetic hands.
THE kindest people are the Ne
groes,' they said in this connection.
The Negro people are terribly mis-
treated, they are treated worse than
anybody, but they treated US best of
ALL" remarked one of the boys,
Treat All Alike
AS many as 200 boys and men were
TO be found on a single train, at var
ious times as the boys were making
their way into the South.
Eat In Jungles
In Valdosta, Ga, they pulled in
with about 200 other boys on the
train, and there, found cops who
said they would shoot if we got off,"
Frank related. And SO, for two days,
at times the boys would have nothing
TO eat.
A Jungle" is one of the places of
refuge in such cases. Here, hungry
boys and men cook anything they
can get hold of, eating out of old,
rusty cans.
Asked about their plans for the
future, the boys looked at their worn
shoes Drank had nothing but an
old pair of tennis slippers) and said
there was nothing to be done, but
to try and get along as they had been
doing.
All three, however, are making con-
tact with the Young Pioneers, and
there will find an answer as to the
future of the American youth.