The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-20
Candidates
Flay Board
OF Elections
L e al 7 ricks, Terror
Used by Boss Parties
Against Workers
BY HERBERT NEWTON
Communist Candidate for Con-
gresham, First Illinois District)

CHICAGO, Ill, Oct. 10. - Sur
prised and terrified by the 1882
Communist vote of 1900 for Chi
cago alone, the bourgeoiSie went
scurrying to its State Assembly to
pass a law increasing the number
of required signatures from 2 per
cent to S per cent, thereby hoping
forever to bar the Communist Party
from the ballot.
No chances could be taken in a
city of 10000 stockyard workers,
and with tens Of thousands more
workers engaged in steel, metal,
railroad industries. No chances
could be taken in city Of thou
sands unemployed and when on
more than one occasion 10000 job
less workers marched past City
Hall laundering their demands in
the ears Of the mayor, and once
even Haunting the red flag under
the nose of Governor Horner who
was then visiting the city. The
bourgeoisie felt certain, however,
that this mass of discomfort would
find no political expression at the
polls.
But this false sense Of security
was shattered when the Communist
Party called united front confer
ences in the Spring Of this year.
These conferences, unanimously en-
dorsing the Communist candidates,
reflected the growing discomfort OF
the Chicago workers, and indicated
that at least the more advanced
elements were ready and willing to
use the ballot box as an additional
weapon against the bourgeoisie.
Terror Begins
The bankers, packers, steel mill
owners, railroad magnates then re-
sorted to terror to keep the Com
munist Party off the ballot. Street
corner meetings were smashed, cir
culators of Communist petitions
were arrested, unemployed signers
of the petitions were threatened
with having their relief cut of, etc.
When in spite Of all these fascist
deeds, the Communist Party sue
ceeded in securing enough sigma
lures to place its candidates on the
ballot, the bourgeoiSie was forced
to combine legal trickery with It's
open terrorism. The state tlcKet
was thrown off the ballot in a bonn
bast of legal phraseology. A writ
of mandamus presented to the Su-
ureme Court was ignored. And Just
to prove that an impartial" verdict
had been rendered, Governor Hor-
ner. "the great humanitarian" lald
aside all legal requirements to per-
NIT the working class to be repre-
sented by the Socialist Party!
The Communist state ticket hav-
ing been thus disposed of, the local
Communist candidates were then
challenged. The hearings on the
petitions took place at the COOK
County building on Oct. 8-lo'
Twenty reasons why the Party
should be struck of the ballot were
presented by bribed tools OF the
Democratic Party. Ev cry objection
the ruling class could think Of, was
cooked UP. Under the heavy bonn
bardment Of the LID. attorneys
Democratic Party. Every objection
sinmered down to four: % that
too many signatures were collected;
(2) that they were filed in the
wrong place; ~ that the word
Illinois was printed and abbreviated
instead of being written in long
hand and in full, and "a that most
of the signatures were forerles.
The legal aspects of the first
three objections were ably answered
by the I. l.. D. attorneys. Inc
fourth objection was answered by
the candidates who brought to the
hearings some Of the very people
whose signatures were supposed to
have been forgeries. The corrupt
politicians had committed the aw-
full blunder Of including in the Isl
of "forgeries" the names of Com
munist precinct captains, campaign
managers. and in one case the
name of the candidate himself!
Candidates F1ay Board
Having disposed of these lega.
objections the Communist candi-
dates. Armstrong, zwolinski, SpiegeI
and I exposed the role Of the hear
ings. and ripped the hypocritical
mask from the faces Of the I'm
partial" election commissioners.
These speeches so riled the Elec-
ton Commissioners that on the
last day of the hearings they
dropped their mask of impartiality
openly sided with the attorney of
the Democratic Party, refused to
allow SPECIAL to continue his speech
Of the previous day, and abruptly
closed the hearings.
Workers Protest
Hundreds of individuals and Or
carnations are now demanding
that the workers Party be allowed
on the ballot. BY the time this
article is printed the Election
Board will have made its decision
known.
But whichever is decided, it loses
If the Communist slate is on thu
ballot, we have another path tC
thousands of workers still under the
influence of the bourgeoisie. If only
some Communist candidates are al
lowed on the ballot, these can b
used to expose the motives of the
bourgeoisie in barring the others
If the whole Communist slate Il
barred, the carrying on of an en-
ergetic extra-legal election cam
paign will break the faith of the
workers in bourgeois democracy
and convince them that participa-
ton in election is only one of the
means of preparing the working
class for the seizure of power.