The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-23
Pioneers Lead 400
Kids to City Hall;
PrOteStFMe-TrapS
Demand Razing of Fire
Traps, Replacement
by Safe Homes

NEW YORK.-Over 400 children
led by the Young Pioneers, demon
strated before City Hall shortly after
noon yesterday while delegation OF
six went inside to present its pro-
test and demands arising out Of the
deaths Of three grown-ups and five
children in the East Side tenement
disaster last Saturday.
While the children on the City
Hall Plaza held their banners and
placards aloft and shouted; 1--WE
Want Safe Homes the committee
composed Of Vera Saunders, secre-
tary Of the Young Pioneers, Pauline
Rogers, secretary of the Workers
international Relief, M. Kamenetsky
of the Jewish Children's Schools, and
three children, told Commissioner OF
.Tenements Langdon w. Post the
conditions under which they are
forced to live on New York's East
Side.
The committees statement, signed
by the Young Pioneers Of America
the United Council of Working Glass
Women, the Workers International
Relief, the. Jewish Children's Schools
and the Unemployed Councils of New
York, proposed that the following
,teps be taken:
y Immediate condemning Of all
ire trap tenements in the City OF
New York and shifting of all work
3r5' families to empty modern apart
ments.
- All fire trap tenements Should
be destroyed at once and settlements
Of model workers homes to be built
at low rentals which workers can
afford.
- All projects to rebuild fire trap
tenementS i'll such cases where they
can be rebuilt, to be started imme-
diately.
Commissioner Post suavely at
tempted to tell the committee that
the LaGuardia administration hac
not waited until the fire disaste,
before beginning work, but that il
had begun many weeks ago.
But the committee demanded Ia
be shown what had definitely been
done. Post, at loss for a genuine
reply (since no actual construction
work has been done, fell back on
the old Fusion standby remarks
- You can't do things overnight -
and We inherited this whole mess
from the previous administration,
Singly, members of the committee
pointed out that the fire on East 7th
st. last week was not an isolated
instance; that whole families of
Negroes and white workers had lost
their lives in similar tragedies within
the past month; and that immediate
action not words, was essential.
When one little girl member of the
delegation informed Post Of the
crowded conditions in her school
Post replied that this was not under
his jurisdiction and that the Fire OF
Educational Departments ought to
take care Of school crowding.
Leaving the reception room. little
Leonard Sirota, eight-year-old red
headed member of the Young Pho
neers, who had earlier demanded
that Post see to it that wooden
stairs were replaced by metal ones
and that fire escapes be built on
other old tenements, made q parting
remark: Remember what we told
you, Commissioner" he said.
ReJoining the others outside. Vera
saunders and the diminutive Leon
ard Sirota. raised on the shoulders
OF two adults, reported to the dem
onstrators what the Commissioner
had said and announced that: aWe
VIII be back here in couple OF
weeks to see that the city keeps its
promises" -'N
Earlier in the day a group Of per-
haps 200 Settlement House children
evidently carefully coached. staged q
meek and rehearsed demonstration
before the City Hall, bearing signs
we Don't Want to Burn" A com
mittee of two children, led bv Mis-,
Lydia Banning, director of the Stuv-
YeSant House, saw Commissioner Post
and left shortly afterward. the chill.
oren singing America Miss Ran
nlng mad previously rejected the Of
ters OF the Young Pioneers and otbe,
working class groups to unite in a bic
demonstration.