The daily worker., 1934-03-26
City Frames Up Tenant
Victims of Local
Fire-Traps

NEW YORK.-The attempts of
city authorities and the courts to
frame-up tenant victims Of fire.
trap tenements and thus absolve the
landlords Of responsibility for fires
which have taken scores Of lives of
tenants and their children within
the past weeks are denounced in
a statement issued yesterday by the
city committee Of the League of
Struggle for Negro Rights.
The statement exposes the frame
up Of Mrs, Nellie Marable, Negro
woman, as typical of the new role
adopted by the city in the flre-trap
situation. Mrs. Marable was
charged with arson, after the fire
at the tenement at As Prince ST.,
Brooklyn, on Feb. 1S, causing the
death of child and an adult. The
judge who heard the case, admitted
that there was no ground for hold
ing Mrs. Marable, but held her
nevertheless.
The City Committee calls for the
widest support Of the campaign
launched by the Boro Hall Branch
Of the L. s. ~ r., supported by the
international Labor Defense and
the Unemployed Council, to smash
this vicious frame-up and for the
abolition Of the hundreds Of Brook
lyn fire-trap tenements. A meeting
has been called for tonight at 1872
Myrtle Avenue, at which a delega-
ton will be elected to see Tenement
House Commissioner Post, who has
admitted that there is not one old
law tenement in the city which is
not a re-trap."
Six fires causing II deaths have
taken place In the last month in
Brooklyn. Many Of the Brooklyn
tenements, especially those to which
Negroes are restricted under jim
crow conditions. are not fit for dogs
to live in. Some have no toilets, the
tenants being forced to use un-
sanitary outhouses in the back
yards. Others do not even have
these outhouses. Many of the
houses have no janitors, and the
halls are in filthy condition. Many
have no electricity or gas, and are
lighted by kerosene lamps, a con-
slant fire menace. At 80 Prince ST.,
a kerosene lamp, with no chimney
and a small Pickering light, is the
entire lighting for the three floors
of the house. At any moment, it
may topple over, causing another
fire, and killing the children and
their parents in the house.
Many Of the houses have no plas-
ter on ceilings and walls-the bare
lathes being exposed. Many are
practically without light and venti-
lation-one four room apartment
having only 2 windows for the four
rooms. The tenants are often
without water. For these unspeak-
ably miserable dumps, Negro work.
ers are forced to pay from S15 to
$40 a month for three or four rail-
road rooms.
AS a result of the fight organized
and led by the Boro Hall branch
of the L. s. N. r., several tenants
have had increases in the relief
allowances for rent.
Petitions to Mayor La Guardia are
being circulated demanding that all
tenants living in f1re-trap buildings,
be removed at the expense OF the
city to safe and sanitary apart
ments, with no increase in rents,
and the right of Negro tenants to
choose where they wish to live, with
no discrimination against them.
Demands are also being made on
La Guardia that he carry out his
election promises to tear down the
slums and erect model f1re-proof
homes for workers, to rent at Sc
a room, the funds for this to be
made available by the City Admins
tration.