The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-03-06

DIT lHe Otnof onQ or the street from
Gone With the Wind; and farther
down is "Dr Ehrlich's Magic Bullet. I"
|dramatizing the fight against syphilis.
[ have heard many comments to the
educate their conservative colleagues
to the fact that unemployment con-
stitutes this country's No. 1 problem
and that it's going TO take much
more than balancing the budget to
solve it.
A call issued last week for a con-
ference on unemployment brought out
a few conservatives. The conferences
decided to organize itself into more
or less permanent body, with commit
tees undertaking studies of various
phases of the problem.
1t is hoped (not an easy job that
the group will be able to do some
worthwhile missionary work-unless,
of course, the Dies committee mean
time brands it transmission belt
for dissemination of subversive prop
uganda"
Pennsylvania Republicans hosts to
the COP national convention-a are at
tempting to restore the poll tax in
behalf of the "underprivileged rich"
Sen. Norris, Nebraska, suggests an in
vestigation of the activities of the
FBI, which, he says, impress him as
rather abhorrent to one who believes
| in constitutional liberty Rep.
Stefan, Nebraska, in asking consider
alton of the problems of youth calls
attention to what happened in Ger
many when only Hitler paid attention
to that country's jobless young peo-
pie.
Some Poll Tax Observations
The eight poll-tax states represent.
| 1/6 of the number of states in this ma
ton. But these eight states have 2S
percent of the committee chairman
ships in the House and 33 1/3 percent
of the committee chairmanships in
the Senate. On major committees.
this discrepancy is even greater; u
of these committee chairmen come
from the poll-tax states.
THIS, OF COURSE, MEANS A
TRIUMPH FOR REACTION, SINCE
THE POLL TAX IS A MEANS OF
ELECTING TORIES TO OFFICE
AND DEFEATING LIBERALS,
In the matter of patronage, the
southern legislator is able to spread
patronage on thick over a small part
of the population which can vote.
rather than thin over a large part of
the population. He can thus give his
constituents more patronage than can
the legislator from the state which
has no poll tax. This, naturally, helps
maintain him in office.
Contrary to general conception, the
white "disfranchIsed' by virtue of the
poll tax number more than the entire
negro population. approximately so
percent of the whites are "disfran-
chised" and 95 percent of the negroes.
In the last presidential election, only
"a percent of the eligible voters went
to the polls in the poll-tax states,
where 70 percent of the eligible voters
cast ballots in the other states This
indicates how effectively the poll tax
keeps the low-income groups from go
ing to the polls.
The defeat of the Long machine in
Louisiana might not have been pos
sible had not that state abolished the
poll tax in 1884.
The civil liberties unit OF the de-
partment of justice is looking into
overlapping of union headquarters in
Tulsa, Okla, in connection with the |
year-old strike against the MidCon-
tinental Oil company. Jan Bata
of the Bata Shoe company is reported |
contracting Washington house contrac- |
tors to build dwellings for his factory
town at Belcamp, Maryland-on con-
dition that they build open shop +.
Telephone operators at the NYA are
having busy time since the Ameri-
can Youth Congress conference telling
phone callers that the National Youth
Administration and the American
Youth Congress are unrelated organi-
cations.
Guilty Conscience-or What?
For once Mr.. Martin Dies didn't get
his way He wanted his committee
to hold no more open (public) hear
ings for the remainder of the year to
avoid the. impression, he said, that
he is trying to influence the coming
elections. Other members of the COM
mittee couldn't see it that way.
The committees program includes
hearings on alleged communistic in
fluences in Hollywood and consumer
and cooperative organizations, in both
Of which cases he has announced his
findings in advance. Could it possibly
be that his change OF heart was
by a fear of being shown