FAMOUS PIANIST GETS UNION CARD. President Truman (center)
receives solid gold membership card from President James C.
Petrillo (r) of the American Federation of Musicians (AFL). Presi
dent William Green looks on.
No cop to help kids
across —mothers protest
By Bob Lucas
Death is the silent watch
man at the busy intersection
of 41st and South Parkway,
where hundreds of school
kids pass four times a day
between their homes and the
Felsenthal School.
For the past three weeks there
has been no Park District guard
at the corner to help grade
school .hildren across the boule
vard. With the announcement
this week by Coroner Brodie
that traffic death:, are up 46.6
percent over 1948, anxious
mothers report that it is a
miracle no child has been in
jured so far.
Their fears are well-founded
since city buses, surburban
buses, autos and “jitney" cabs
ply South Parkway in droves.
A delegation of mothers, led
by Mrs. Edmonia Swanson of
the 3rd Ward Progressive Party,
visited the Park District head
quarters in Washington Park to
protest the lack of a guard.
Capt. Peter Annen told the
group that the woman service
Ordower Speaks
Sidney Ordower opened his
new radio series, “Chicago
Speaks,” last Sunday with an
open letter to Go\ crnor Adlai
Stevenson and President Tru
man. Ordower's weekly com
mentary is heard Sundays at
1 p.m. over WJJD, 1160 on
the dial.
Radio program
offers potent
plea for FEPC
“Cry, Our Beloved City’’ is
the title of an unusual broadcast
to be carried on Station WJJD
next Sunday, Jan. 30, at 3:30
p.m.
The program, sponsored by
American Jewish Congress, Chi
cago Division, will feature Chi
cago citizens in various walks
of life telling about day-to-day
discriminatory rebuffs they have
met.
Studs Terkel, one of Chicago's
lop progressive radio writers, is
producer for the program on
which a state senator, doctor,
private secretary, professional
model, office supervisor, engi
neer. housewife, iron worker,
and medical student will tell
about their experiences in
searching jobs, education, medi
cal care and even places to eat.
PROGRESSIVES RAP FOES
OF CAREY NO-BIAS BILL
Lashing out at “unprincipled attacks” on the Carey
anti-discrimination ordinance, the Progressive Party of
Illinois this week took the lead in the fight to keep Jim
Crow out of slum clearance housing projects.
The proposed ordinance now being considered by the
City Council committee on hous
ing was advanced by Aid. Archi
bald J. Carey (3rd). It would
outlaw racial, and religious dis
crimination in any project built
on land purchased from the
Chicago Land Clearance Com
mission.
Main snipers at the proposed
law are Milton C. Mumford, for
mer Chicago housing co - ordi
nator, and the Citizens' Assn, of
Chicago. Their argument is that
passage of the anti-bias mearure
would “virtually kill the slum
clearance program.”
In a hard-hitting statement
by its legislative director, Sid
ney Ordower, the PP shot holes
through the opp suion's "fla
grant attempt tr by-pass the will
of the people.” Refuting claims
that slum clearance projects
are private in ownership, Or
dower pointed out:
“In the November, 1947, elec
tions, the people of Chicago
passed a bond issue to help
finance the slum clearance and
housing redevelopment pro
gram. Mumford and the LaSaile
Street crowd whom he Repre
sents now want to deny certain
sections of Chicago’s population
the very housing which they
voted to finance.”
Point by point, the Progres
sive Party statement knocked
the props from under arguments
advanced by foes of the Carey
amendment.
‘‘The charge that insurance
companies will not come to Chi
cago because of the Carey ordi
nance is so much ‘hogwash.’ Our
investigation proves that insur
ance companies generally are
shying away from slum clear
ance and housing projects, with
or without anti - discrimination
ordinances, because the profit
return is not ‘large enough.’
‘‘The fantastic charge of the
Citizens’ Assn, that this ordi
nance would impose a new kind
of ‘restrictive covenant’ must be
labelled for what it is—a blatant
and demagogic example of
racism, pure and simple.”
Tossing the hot potato into
Krakow Sinfonietta brings
nood music to common man
Like the letter carrier who takes a hike on his day off,
Chicago’s newest musical aggregation is composed of 16 men and
one woman who play music when they relax from their regular
occupation—playing music.
The result is the Krakow Sin
fonietta, organized and conduct
ed by Leo Krakow, former prin
cipal violinist with the National
Symphony in Washington. The
Krakow Sinfonietta approach is
away from the “stuffed shirt”
idea of classical music, toward
greater appreciation among a
larger audience.
Krakow, a small, dynamic
person, is a musician's musician;
he uses no baton when con
ducting. “You don't control an
orchestra with a stick,” he says.
Wants Music for All
When he attended the Edin
burg music festival recently, he
found it “deplorable” that the
man on the street—the average
Scot—regarded the festival as
the property of professional mu
sicians and the upper crust.
Krakow feels that the Sinfoni
e'tta will break down any sim
ilar reservations among Chica
goans.
For its bow to music lovers on
Feb. • at the Eighth Street
Theatre, the Sinfonietta will
feature the first Chicago per
formance of the Haydn Violin
Concerto. The Fleisher Library
in Philadelphia is lending the
manuscript of this recently-dis
covered Haydn masterpiece. So
Leo Krakow
loist will be Herman Clebanoff,
concertmaster, who holds the
same post with the National
Broadcasting Company orchestra
here.
The only woman in the Kra
kow Sinfonietta is Margaret
Cree, whose talent and experi
ence equal that of her fellow
musicians. Miss Cree is princi
pal cellist in the Grant Park
Symphony and is the wife of
Donald Evans, Chicago Sym
phony violist.
The Krakow Sinfonietta in
cludes Irving Ilmer, Edward
Gradman, Sol Turner, Theodore
Silavin, Rovall Johnson, Philip
Sharf, Leon Brenner, and Frank
Feodoroni, violinists with the
Chicago Symphony; and David
Chausow, first violinist, Great
Northern Theatre.
Violas, Harold Klatz, Isadore
Zverow, and Samuel Feinzim
er, of the Chicago Symphony;
Celli, Miss Cree, Karl Fruh,
NBC, and Harry Wogman, Guild
String Quartet. Nathan Zimber
off, formerly of the Detroit Sym
phony, is string bassist.
Mayor Kennedy's lap, Ordower
asks what he has “to say about
this latest effort to throttle
democracy? -f he means what he
says about being the mayor for
all the people of Chicago, then
let him speak out vigorously for
the passage of this ordinance.
Otherwise, he will be aiding and
abetting the Jim Crow pattern
of housing in Chicago.”
The PP pledges to “support
the Carey measure to the limit
in order to fulfill its election
pledge that housing in Chicago
‘be built on a democratic basis’,”
said Ordower.
Meanwhile, a public hearing
has been set for Feb. 1 for op
ponents of the measure and the
City Council will vote two
weeks later.
guard had been transferred to
29th and South Parkway to re
place an injured guard. There is
no traffic light at 29th, he
pointed out, while at 41st there
is a signal light.
Not satisfied with the make
shift arrangement the mothers
suggested that perhaps the lack
of an adequate staff was due to
the fact that women service
guards have been cut to four
hours pay per day. Formerly
they worked an 8-haur day. “A
woman who has to support her
self, or a family,” Mrs. Swan
son said, ‘‘could not do so on a
50 percent wage cut.”
In a statement to The Stand
ard, Capt. Annen denied that
the wage-hour cut had reduced
his staff . to a dangerously low
point. ‘‘We’re in the process of
recruiting and within two weeks
we’ll have new personnel,” he
said. ‘‘Some of these women
guards are making an issue of
the reduction to four hours. But
they make $1.50 an hour and
the Park District realized that
it shouldn’t pay them for the
time they were not actually at
the school crossings.”
On the 8-hour shift, the
guards patrolled areas around
the schools during the time the
students were in classes. Cur
rently they are on duty only in
the morning, at noon and in the
evening.
Despite the fact that they
must be at home during those
hours fixing lunch and break
fast for their children, some of
the mothers are considering vol
unteering for guard duty at 41st
and South Parkway. They still
feel that “it’s fortunate no casu
alty has occurred so far."
Hike jobless, accident
pay, UE members urge
A campaign to lift jobless
benefits in Illinois to $40 a
week for 52 weeks was launched
at an all-day legislative confer
ence of more than 125 United
Electrical Radio and Machine
Workers (CIO) held last Sun
day at UE Hall, 37 S. Ashland
Ave.
Lengthy discussion of the
urgent need for hiking unem
ployment and workmen’s com
pensation ben
efits highlight
ed the session,
ehaired by
Pres. Ernest
Demaio of Dis
trict 11.
Delegates
agreed that in
n.u»;« addition to
DeMaio racing jobless
benefits, extending their dura
tion and eliminating the one
week waiting period, the law
must be revised to extend pro
tection to all workers, including
those in plants employing less
than six persons, government
workers, agricultural workers
and workers in non-profit insti
tutions.
Of particular coneern to the
rank-and-file UE workers were
the detailed case-histories of
laid-off worker* who the U.S.
Employment Service recently
tried to force into lower-paying
and lower-skilled jobs. This
trend, it was emphasized, is
especially hard on Negroes and
women.
Delegates also agreed to ask
the Illinois Assembly to raise
weekly benefits for workers dis
abled from industrial accidents
to two-thirds of the worker's
previous average weekly earn
ings, but no less than $40 a
week, and to increase specific
loss rates to at least the level
of rates paid in Wisconsin.
The conferees unanimously
adopted a detailed program of
action, which included a de
mand that the Illinois legisla
ture adopt a temporary disabil
ity law, establish a Fair Employ
ment Practices Committee, and
enact a law to guarantee every
worker in the state two paid 15
minute rest periods in every
eight-hour work day.
HYSTERICAL Mrs. Bessie Moltz, 30,
is about to collapse in the arms of
a Chicago policeman who brought
news of her husband’s death. Vic
tim of a holdup man, Samuel Molte,
40, working in his laundry, was
shot in the leg and bled to death be
fore aid arrived. (fntermj(ional)]