The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-21
White Pleads With
Congress for Curb
OnAnti-LynCh Fight
Continued from Page y

q
Ford Scores Statement Of N. A. A.
c. P. Leader
The statement and others made by
Mr.. White Immediately we're branded
as Contemplate" and lying" by
James w. Ford. representative of the
League of Struggle for Negro Rights
Ford, who came to testify at the
hearing on the Wagner-Costigan bill
and was held off the stand until
tomorrow, told the Daily Worker:
"Today's session was character
lied By the pns2eakabis speech Of
Walter White. who. in order to
head off the rising movement for
liberation among the Negro people.
attempted TO warn the Committee
Of the danger of radical propa-
ganda.
White lyingly declared that rad
ical propaganda is characterized by
'ineptitudc,' and lack of wisdom
and honesty And he had the bold
ness to say that 100000 Negroes
are looking to this Committee and
to Congress for passage Of this bill
l shall show tomorrow that this is
a ContemDtibIe lie, that the fact is
Nero and white workers have dem
OnStTated that the revolutionary
struggle is the only means of build
ing real fight against lynching
and oppression.
'The Waenar- Costigau bill itself
is part OF the whole system of
Jim CrOwism and oppression. The
fight against lynching is the fight
for cOmnlete freedom Of the Negro
people. The l.. S. N. r.. in the his
toric Scottsboro March, presented
bill against lynching and for civil
rights for the Negro people as a
focal point in the nation wide
mass firht against the fascist lynch
terror. 1 call upon the masses, both
white and Negro. to protest against
Whites contemplate attitude
Bill Silent On Legal Lynchings
With full fanfare of publicity, Sen
atorS Wagner Democrat, New York;
and Costigan Democrat, Colorado)
opened the hearing today by utter
ing sentimental blurbs against lynch
ing. Their speeches and others were
broadcast over national radio
hookup, the nicrophone being super
yised by radio men. After them
came White, and then Arthur Car
field Hayes, the Civil Liberties Union
lawyer who went to Germany to de-
fend the Reichstag prisoners and
falsely declared, afterward, that the
not-guilty verdict showed that the
Nazi Court was fair.
The whole line Of argument OF
every speaker was that Of the bill
that mere legal setting Of PEN
atty upon states in which lynching
occurs would stop lynching.
No one mentioned, naturally, that the
bill would not touch the evil of court
room lynchings. Nor did anyone, OF
course, point out the bills provision
for federal prosecution of persons en-
gaging in "a mob"-defined as three
or more persons"-will be used by
ruling class courts as q weapon
against Negro and white workers
demonstrating against lynching,
against strikers who picket and fight
against the age-old violence Of their
industrial masters.
A Negro press representative COW
ering the Costigan Wagner "anti-
lynching" hearing was elected from
the restaurant in the Senate Office
Building today and seven other Ne
gro reporters were subjected to re-
peated efforts to Jim-Crow them in
the hearing room.
James Ford, League for Struggle
for Negro Rights spokesman against
the bill under consideration, issued
statement declaring these events
during the very consideration Of the
bill show "that at the Capitol itself
the Government supports jim Crowisn
and segregation, which are 1nsep-
arabic from the whole institution o!
lynching, and the national oppres.
sion of the Negro people"