The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-14

marched.
Thousands of workers were herded
together by their employers, who had
promised Whalen Cooperation"
Hour after hour they marched past
the reviewing stand where the gen
erals and johnson looked them over.
AS the radio group came up it
brought with it the unmistakable
stencil OF the slave market. 1t jim
Crowed the Negro workers who were
dragooned into the parade. The Ne
gro marchers were placed in sep
arate line. Under the bright Amer
lean flag the hideous Jim Grow OPP
preston appeared.
HoOt the Bankers
At first the best looking sections
came down Fifth AYenue-the banks,
the theatre groups, the movie in
dustry. These would look better,
Whalen thought, than the laundry
workers, the leather and shoe work
ers, the 'lower" groups.
When the bankers hove into view,
the crowds hanging out Of the big
office building windows, yelled their
derision and hatred. Here comes the
gang of forty thieves" they cried
The bankers didn't like it.
Not once was there any expression
Of enthusiasm for the MIRA. No one
shouted his joy. No one felt impelled
to mention those syllables. 1t was a
show.
Not once was there any expression
of enthusiasm for the NRA. No one
shouted for Joy. No one felt impelled
to shout these magic syllables-NRA
by which the Roosevelt government
hopes to hynotize the suffering
masses into rorgetfulness while he
and the exploiters, the employers,
grind the workers deeper into poverty.
There was little real emotion. They
could not express what they did not
feel. But it was very significant that
the real outburSts of emotion was Of
a character to make the blood rush
to the faces Of the Generals and
bankers.
Boo O'Brien.
At one point a most remarkable
thing happened. AS the clerks and
employees of the downtown Wall St
offices swung before the reviewing
stand, like a bombshell, tremen-
dous noise of catcalls and booes
smote the assembled Generals and
politicians in the stand.
Three cheers for O'Brien," some
one cries. BOO! Boob! was the
derisive answer.
But that was not all. One of the
workers broke ranks, and rushing UP
before Mayor O'Brien, shouted:
Mayor O'Brien, you're lousy. You
are taking my job away
1t was astonishing. The Generals
stiffened. OBrien lowered his huge
marble head, like an enraged bull
Whalen forgot to smile, and his
eyes suddenly went hard and cold
The columns moved swiftly on
carrying the young worker away
1t was the moment when the
voice of the exploited workers, who
feel the claws of the Blue Eagle
in their flesh, broke through all
the carefully elaborated pomp. II
was but a brief moment. But a
shiver went through the Generals
and government officials. Only the
presence of the mounted police
and the remembrance of the bayo.
nets treasured them.
Whalen gave them banners, music
marching chorus girls, the four Mar,
Brothers, and Al Jolson.
1t was a conscious, deliberate at
tempt to hypnotize these hundreds O.
thousands of workers into temporar.
forgetfulness of what the MIRA ha
already brought them--rising foot
prices that slowly tighten the bon,
grip of hunger as they rise steadil
upward, the hated speed-up, tn
crafty spreading of work with lowe
wages, and the brutal, military strike
breaking.
1t was an attempt to make Their
forget that the NRA has not brough
any Of the millions Of promised new
jobs
Behind one of the sections {