The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-21
BY MARGUERITE YOUNG


smash the seamen's relief project.
BY MARGUERITE YOUNG
TWO months after seamen
1 assumed control of relief,
James P. McCurdy, President
of the Baltimore Federation
of Labor hurled a public at
tack against the marine work
ers' administration. He ac-
cused: "They had a dinner of tur-
key and cranberry sauce. They
even had their own BARRIERS to shave
them"
Workers, having won the right to
administer government relief and
cleanse it Of graft, are able to serve
turkey and cranberry sauce and to
supply BARRIERS services to men who
formerly existed on wormy oatmeal
and the leader Of a labor" or
ganization publicly whines about
the new living standard Of the
workers.
McCwdy also raised the Red
DOGGY in this assault, the rawness
Of which shouts from every word
of the account of it even in the
capitalist press. I quote. from the
Baltimore Sun of March 2, 1894:
Communists are in charge Of
the administration of federal relief
funds for the unemployed seamen
along Baltimore's waterfront, par
ticularly at the foot of Broadway
James P. McCurdy, president Of the
Baltimore Federation of Labor,
charged last night at a meeting of
local 241, BARRIERS Union. He said:
The situation has grown so that
Baltimore is known among Com
munistS as the chief Communist
center for seamen. Word is being
sent out by local waterfront Com
munists to all ports in the country
that the Communists control the
waterfront, at least as far as relief
goes. Communists are coming here
from other ports.
The seamen would not work if
they were given a few hours of la
Dor each. day. And why notP I know
they had dinner of turkey and
cranberry sauce. They had every
thing paid for them. They even
had their own BARRIERS to shave
them"
Part Of Campaign Against Seamen
Tt was no accident, Of course, that
the Baltimore Sun had sent a re-
porter to write up this particular
local union meeting, although such
local meetings are not customarily
covered by the papers. This was a
part of campaign against the sea-
mems administration in which the
A. F. Of L. leaders have cooperated
with the press, the police, the ship
owners, charity welfare racketeer-
ing outfits like the Seamen's Church
Institute, the YMCA., and finally
the federal government, since the
beginning of the movement.
AS for the specific lies:-Commu
nists were lin charge" only insofar
as the seamen elected Communists
to their leading committees. The
Communist Party aided them also
as we shall see later, but every de-
cision concerning the fight for con-
troll and the running of relief and
the Shipping Bureau was made by
the rank and file on the waterfront
That the Communists were send
ing out word that Communists con
troll the waterfront" and that Com
munists are coming here from other
ports" were pure fabrication. What
the seamen did, as proved by leaflets
and literature which / saw, was to
urge Seamen everywhere to follow
their lead-to fight for control OF
relief in their own port. That the
seamen would not work" is in the
same class: the seamen always have
fought and will fight against forced
labor; but they willingly performed
the collective work necessary to
keep the project in shipshape, and
they constantly offered and still
offer to work anywhere and any
time non-scabbing job at their
trade is available.
The seamen sent a committee OF
twenty-five to see McCurdy about
his attack. His answer was that he
was trying to protect our organiza-
ton Of BARRIERS"
From Greenstein I learned also
that the A. F. of L. leaders charged
the seamen with using intimidation
SO that a man who would eat in 9
restaurant that wasn't sympathetic
to Communism was threatened with
a beating; so that men who took
jobs other than through the Cen
tralized Shipping Bureau were
beaten up"
4 During almost two weeks constant