The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-19
By ALEX VOROS WROUGHT
(Ohio Election Campaign Manager

BY ALEX NOkOS WROUGHT
(Ohio Election Campaign Manager)
The filing Of our petitions with
signatures from thirty-two coun-
ties and placing the Communist
Party on the ballot in nine counties
completed, we are entering the sec
ond and more difficult phase of our
campaign-the drive for having our
candidates elected,
We emphasize that it is drive
for election and not drive for votes
only This emphasis is necessary if
we want to break down the defeatiSt
attitude, even in our own ranks, to-
wards having our candidates
elected. This defeatist attitude is
widespread not only in our lower
cadres and among our candidates,
but is permeIting the ranks Of
many of our leading committees
also.
This defeatist attitude IS mainly
responsible for the manifest under
estimation of our election campaign
in great many of our units, sec
tons, and in many high leading
committees. The failure to realize
the possibility of electing some of
our candidates leads to the neglect
Of the election campaign activity
to treat it as special campaign, as
something additional to the tasks
we already have on hand with the
consequent ill results. This defeatiSt
attitude accounts in large measure
for the neglect of using the cleo
ton campaign as one of the most
important levers to reach our basic
objectives.
Some Recent Experiences
To illustrate how the election
campaign can help broaden out our
contacts and fulfill our control tasks
it will be worth while to recount
some of the experiences of our cleo
ton campaign in the City of Cleve-
land.
To broaden out our influence
among those strata of the working
class We were unable to reach till
now it was decided to build a broad
committee of non Party members
around each and every candidate,
making the candidates responsible
to build up this committee. Even
the first results were surprising.
These candidates who took this task
seriously found such ready re-
Spouse from the workers that in
stead of a committee of five or ten
as the plan called for, good pos
sibilities exist to have even COM
mittees of fifty, a hundred, or even
several hundred around them to
serve as their campaign machinery
To be specific, around Comrade
Yetta Land, candidate for Attorney
General committee of thirty-fve
was set up in the Mayfield territory,
a committee of twenty-five on the
South Side, committee of about
twenty-five in the Scoville area,
with more committees in the offing.
More than hundred active mem
beers were organized in her commit
tees already, and as Comrade Land
remarked, she is only beginning to
scratch the surface now. Similar
committees are now forming around
Comrades E. c. Greenfield. Edith
Mefnn, Alex VoroS Wrought Mary
Lindsey, N. D. Davis, candidate for
county prosecutor and others.
Comrade Meffin in organizing her
committee secured the support OF
the Star Social Club (Which, until
now has never participated in pol
itics). Comrade Lindsey received
the wholehearted endorsement of
the Yukon Cuban organization of
Negro youth, promising her active
support in every respect. Negro
preachers are being drawn in on
some of the committees organized
around our Negro candidates.
In the organization of these
committees great care is taken to
recruit only active and capable
workers, those who will be able to
draw others around them and
reach sections of the working class
we weren't able to reach before.
Some of these committees have
former Democratic, Republican
ward and precinct men on them.