PP continues fight to get on Illinois ballot
Anti-labor law
ruled out by
Michigan Court
DETROIT — (FP) — Labor!
lawyers in Detroit hailed the
Michigan supreme court decision
last week in Lansing, declaring
the Bonine-Tripp (little Taft
Hartley) Act unconstitutional, as
the greatest judicial labor vic
tory in the state in years.
The act was killed in its en
tirety because it had been so
loosely drawn by the Republican
legislators that no “saving
clause" which would save the
rest of the law even if one or
more clauses were knocked out
was included.
300,000 renters
Continued from Page 1
1. Landlords may evict ten
ants if they desire the property
for their own use or for the use
of their immediate family.
2. Tenants may be evicted if
the landlord desires to remodel
or convert property into a great
er number of dwelling units.
3. A landlord can withdraw
his property from the rental
market.
It also means that rents can
not be increased during the first
three months of 1949. since rents
were frozen by the rent-increase
leases until termination of the
1948 Rent Act.
Rents are frozen, that is. unless
Chicago landlords, banded to
gether in the so - called Cook
County Fair Rent Advisory Com
mittee. succeed in obtaining the
blanket 15 per cent rent increase
they have been petitioning the
government - controlled Chicago
Rent Advisory Board to grant
landlords.
That's the picture for the more
than 300.000 Chicago tenants
whose leases expire in December.
According to Sidney Ordower,
chairman. Cook County Progres
sive Party Housing and Kent
Committee, they face this situ
ation since "Chicago landlords,
a minority group, have organized
themselves more effectively than
tenants, obviously the majority.”
Because of this,” Ordower.
continued. "Chicago's housing
pinch is the nation's worst. . . .
Here, more tenants were intimi
dated into signing 15 per cent
rent increase leases than were
signed anywhere in the country.
"Rents are higher here than in
any other big city. . . . Less pri
vate and public housing is under
construction ... 80 per cent of
all rent increase applications
by landlords are being granted
almost automatically by the Chi
DOROTHEA ALLEN, left, PP candidate for state representative
from the 29th Senatorial district. Shirley Graham, center, noted
writer, and Dorothy Bushnell Cole, right, PP candidate for Con
gress from the 9th district, discuss the ballot fight.
T-H deprives Wilson Iced
of II elected officers
The vicious anti-labor effects
of the Taft-Hartley Act were
brought home to packin'ghouse
workers eleven-fold last week.
Eleven veterans of the United
Packinghouse Workers of Amer
ica (CIO) were forced to resign
their posts as officers of Wilson
Local 25. The eleven had re-,
SAM PARKS
cago Office of Housing and Rent
Control.”
Ordower urged tenants to or- !
ganize with Progressives (see
story in box below listing neigh- 1
borhood tenant centers) "to fight!
for strong federal and state leg
islation ... to invoke a morato
rium on evictions ... to obtain j
a hearing before the Chicago
Rent Advisory Board to prove 1
that tenants need a rent decrease \
not an increase.”
Tenants’ centers, func
tioning in nine key com
munities of the Greater
Chicago area, are provid
ing tenants with expert le
gal means to fight evictions
and rent increases, Sidney
Ordower, chairman, Cook
County Progressive Party
Rent and Housing Commit
tee, announced this week.
These are the centers:
2nd Congresisonal Dis
trict: 5644 S. Harper, MU
seum 4-0153, Wednesdays
between 8 and 10 p.m.
1st Ward: 1601 W.
Roosevelt. TAyior 9-6149,
Tuesdays between 8 and 10
pm.
24th Ward: 3358 W.
Roosevelt, Rm. 206. Wed
nesdays between 7:30 and
9 30 p.m.
29th Ward: 4259 W Van
Buren, 2nd floor. KEdzie
3-1436, Mondays and Wed
nesdays between 7:30 and
9:30 p.m.
32nd Ward: 1941 N
Western, Rm. 204, ARmi
tage 6-0890, Tuesdays be
tween 7 and 9 p.m.
42nd Ward: 113 W. Elm,
WHitehall 4-8203. Wednes
days between 7:30 and
9:30.
44th Ward: 2610 N. Hal
sted, 2nd floor, Mondays
between 8 and 10 p.m.
48th Ward: 4348 N.
Broadway, Wednesdays be
tween 8 and 10 p m.
In emergency cases, ten
ants are urged to call Hen
ry Meihs, Progressive Par
ty’s Rent and Housing
Committee consultant, at
BUtterfield 8-9327.
fused to sign the infamous non
Communist affidavits. They re
signed in order that their local
could obtain the services of the
Taft-Hartley National Labor Re
lations Board.
Resigning officers headed by
Sam Parks, president. Local 25.
comprised a majority of the lo
cal’s executive board.
The eleven were: Parks;
Philip Henderson, second vice
president; Joseph Zabritski, sec
retary-treasurer; C'arl Nelson,
chief steward; Octavia Williams,
executive board member at
large; Ann Zilavy, executive
board member at large; Louis
Karlak. trustee. W'illiam Miller,
guide. Wilhelmina Berry, trustee.
Sidney Norwood, guard, and
Charles Haves, chairman of the
grievance committee.
In a letter to members of
Local 25, Sept. 9, the eleven
wrote:
"The Taft-Hartley affidavits
are a wedge whereby the em
ployers with the aid of this pro
vision seek to establish the
means whereby they can inter
fere in the internal affairs of
unions and dictate to the mem
bership as to whom they should
or should not have as leaders of
their union.
“(We) are both unable and
unwilling to sign any such affi
davits as required by the Taft
Hartley Law. . . .
“We look forward to the time
when all of labor will stand up
unitedly to make the Taft
Hartley Law ineffective and
wipe it off the books. In order
to achieve such united action, it
is essential that all workers re
ject the falsehoods and slanders
of redbaiting and present a
united front in the common
struggle.
“Although resigning, we will
not. however, relinquish our
fight for the betterment of the
working conditions of members
of Local 25. and for organized
labor as a whole.”
_
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Legal staff maps offensive:
wards plan mass demonstration
The U.S. District Court here will be asked to protect the
Progressive Party’s right to appear on the Illinois ballot, a
party spokesman indicated this week.
Before the end of the week, it was understood, Richard
Watt, Progressive attorney and former University of Chi
cago law professor, was to go
into the federal court to re
quest action against Illinois
election officials.
The Wallace party was barred
from the ballot recently by a
unanimous vole of the three-man
state electoral board, composed
of two Republicans and one
Democrat.
I What line of attack Watt's pe
tition would take was not dis
closed by Progressives. Nearly
a half dozen tactics may be open
to the new party.
It may seek an injunction for
bidding state election officials
from printing any ballots which
do not include the Progressive
ticket, for example.
The federal court may be
asked to rule on the constitution
ality of the state election law it
self. Progressives have assailed
the law as arbitrary and discrim
inatory.
Regardless of what day-to-day
tactics may be employed, the
Progressives intend to exhaust
! every legal avenue of appeal
from the slate electoral board’s
i ' undemocratic” decision, they
emphasized.
At the same time, they will
i continue to press their protest
| campaign on a mass scale
through the ward organizations,
stressing the fact that Illinois
voters "have been robbed” of
their right to vote for Henry
Wallace and Glen Taylor.
Whatever the outcome of their
battle for a place on the state
ballot, the Progressives already
are certain to have at least 37
candidates on the ballot in Cook
County Nov. 2.
The Illinois Supreme Court
has upheld their demand that
Progressive candidates running
for office within the county be
permitted to appear on the bal
lot on the basis of their voting
strength in last year’s Cook
County judicial election.
Such a county slate, however,
would not be headed by Wallace
and Taylor, unless they win a
place on the state ballot.
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The big steal
Approximately 80 per
cent of the voter: of Illi
nois have been partially
disfranchised by the state
electoral board’s refusal to
place the Progressive Party
on the state ballot.
The board —- and Demo
cratic and Republican po
liticos who objected to
; the Progressive petitions,
containing 75,000 signa
tures — admitted that the
Wallace party had quali
fied in 41 of the required
l 50 counties.
These 41 counties have a
total population of 6,381,
s 427. That’s 80 per cent of
• the state’s population.
Within those 41 counties
are 3,880.257 registered
voters. That's 80 per cent
l of all the registered voters
in the state.
Progressive s p o kesmen,
releasing these figures,
claimed that it proved their
argument about the undem
ocratic state election law.
They said the law is un
constitutional because it
permits 20 per cent of the
state's population to decide
for whom the remaining 30
per cent may vote.
Progressives could carry
the entire state if they
could carry the 41 counties
conceded to them by the
state electoral board s rul
ing on the petitions.
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