The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-02
BY a Worker Correspondent


TAYLOR SPRINGS, Ill,-For the
benefit of your readers we would
like to tell them how the Commu-
mist Village Board in Taylor Springs
III. carries on its work under capt.
talism.
The population of Taylor Springs
before the temporary depression
was around 1900; now it is about
700, mostly unemployed. About so
are working in mines in nearby
towns, making only enough to get
by on. A coal mine and q zinc
smelter kept the town booming
before the crisis. Now the mine has
been shut down for over II years
and the smelter has been down on
and off for about seven years. Now
it Is completely down and slowly
decaying. The big lumber yard has
been torn down and taken away,
the same with the railroad station,
the theatre has closed Many build
ings in the business district are
vacant, slowly falling apart. Like
thousands Of other small towns,
Taylor Springs can never boom
again under capitalism.
Elect Communists
The workers here have elected
four Communists to Offices, giving
Communists full control of the VII
lage Board. We have been in Office
now about eight months. We have
raised the wages to so cents an hour
and shortened the work day to five
hours. We have the highest wage
scale and the shortest work day of
any village Or town in Montgomery
County. Although the taxes are
as low or lower than in other towns,
we are not in debt, furthermore, we
have good improved cinder roads all
over town.
Three of the Hillsboro fourteen
arrested in Montgomery County last
summer on fTamed-up charges, were
members of our Village Board. In
mediately after the arrests Vigil
lantes, American Legion, Anti Horse
Thief and others, started a cam
paign Of terror against the workers
in this county. Mass meetings,
demonstrations, etc, were prohib-
tied, An American Legion post in
this county passed a resolution at
that time stating that no Comnu-
mist would be allowed to make
speech in Montgomery County. We
invited and welcomed workers into
Taylor Springs to hold their meet
ings, OF which numerous were held
under police protection to the work
ers.
Police Protect Workers
Bob Minor, Communist leader.
who was making tour of the coal
fields at that time, was invited by
the Village Board to speak here.
Leaflets were issued and distributed
throughout the county inviting
workers to attend and hear Minor
speak on The Communist Way Out
of the Crisis" The sheriff and vigil
lantes tried intimidation to keep
the workers from attending the
meeting. The afternoon when Minor
was to speak the sheriff also ap-
peared in town, but when he saw
so many of the comrades with DO
lice stars on them he left immedi-
ately. No doubt he had business
elsewhere. Bob Minor spoke before
a large audience. The meeting was
peaceful. Numerous such meetings
were held in Taylor Springs. This
helped to break up the terror. The
workers rallied and were responsible
for the final release OF the Hills
boro A.
In the entire county Taylor
Springs is the only place where
there is no work relief. All other
towns have been on work relief for
several months. When the question
Of work relief was brought here by
the Relief officials we called
meeting of the unemployed and
thoroughly discussed the question of
working for relief. A vote was
taken. Only one voted for work re-
lief. That settled it. We told the
relief officials that there would be
no work relief in Taylor Springs
because the workers didn't want to
work for just their beans" How
ever, if the relief officials were will
ing to give the workers 80 hours a
week at union wage we would
accept. This, they said, was impos-
sible.
Since the unemployed in other
parts Of the county were working
for their beans the relief officials
were determined to put work relief
in our town by other means. They
began to threaten to cut people
OF relief If they refused to work.
This got about twenty Of the weaker
worherx They work out Of the city