The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-11
Cab Drivers Hit the
Socialist Move to
Split Unity Of Men
Continued from Page y

delegations of drivers from the ga
RACES came to the Manhattan head
quarters of the union and pledged
their support of the Taxi Drivers
Union.
'If anyone tries TO put Orner
and Gilbert out of our union they
will have to deal with the rank
and file hackmen," said a driver
from the 23d st. Parmelee garage.
At midnight Monday Samuel Or
ner, president of the Manhattan To-
cal and Joseph Gilbert, the organ
izer, made a tour of the downtown
cab stands, All along the streets the
militant leaders of the recent two
strikes we're hailed by the hackmen.
At Fourth Ave. and Goth St. 4
large number Of hackmen stopped
their cabs and jammed the traffic
for several minutes when they spied
their leaders.
Tt was revealed yesterday morning
by Anxious Most, organizer of the
Bronx local of the union, that the
Socialist newspaper, the Jewish
Daily Forward. put up the $3.50 rent
money required for the Hunts Point
Palace.
When Matthew Levy. Socialist
leader, got up to speak the applause
that he received from his henchmen
was mingled with boos from a sec
ton Of the hackmen.
He Immediately blamed this on
the Communists and said, of Com
munists want to speak, let them
come up here" Wflereupon, Sam
uel Silver, taxi driver, asked for
the floor. He was Immediately
pounced upon, beaten and turned
over to the police, who took him to
the station, where he was charged
by Frankel, one Of the leaders of
the Bronx local, with melting to
riot. The case was later thrown out
of court
At the Bronx meeting about
three -fourths of the people present,
a large number not taxi driv-
ers, voted for aff1liation with the
A. F. of L.
Considerable discomfort was
shown by the hackmen present
when told by Samuel Smith that
the dues in the A. F. of L. would
be 2 a month. The dues rate in the
Taxi Drivers Union is so cents a
month.
There we're only about $50 people
present at the Brooklyn meeting
that was held yesterday morning at
the Amalgamated Temple. This
meeting was addressed by Norman
Thomas and Herman Goldstein, the
president of the local. This group,
that was also packed with hench-
men of Norman Thomas who we're
neither hackmen or members of the
union, also voted for af1liation with
the A. F. of L.
Denouncing the lies of the So
cialist leaders, who stated that no
gains were made during the course
of the past two strikes and who have
launched into a vicious SANDER cam
paign against the Manhattan lead
ership and the Communists, Sam
uel Orner pointed out that Ger
tain achievements were made dur
ing the strike"
We showed the city that we
could not be tricked as has already
been done in the case of the Fifth
Ave, Bus Co. drivers and the Weir
ton Steel workers" said Orner. 1--WE
refused to take plebiscite that
would send us back to work and
leave us defenseless in face of in
timidation of the fleet owners.
we showed a fighting spirit as
has never been seen in any strike
in the city We have taken the first
step in consolidating and strength
ening our union with the purpose of
improving our conditions and ward
ing off the threat that the fleet own
ers hold over our heads to impose
the company union plan
Orner then pointed out that the
strikers did not have unity in their
ranks during the course of the strike.
There we're the Bronx and Brook
Ign leaders who did not help the
situation by failing to bring the
membership into the mass demon
strations," said Orner. Their con-
tinued attacks on the Manhattan
leaders created confusion and de-
moralization among the men. In
stead of unified organizations they
chose to work as separate bodies,
making separate decisions and car
rying through separate actions"
we must fight with all our energy
the attempts to force our union into
the A. F. Of L., whose leadership is
responsible for the recent auto strike