The Chicago star., September 14, 1946, Page 10, Image 10

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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MEMBERS of the Sailor's Union of the Pacific and the Sea
farers International Union (both AFL) walked off their ships
protesting the Wage Stabilization Board’s refusal to sanction
pay increases won after collective bargaining negotiations. Other
AFL maritime unions and the Committee for Maritime Unity
(six CIO and one unaffiliated union) have pledged support to
the strikers.
Fire-trap for the aged
Fines flew left and right in
building, fire, and health cases
last week as Judge Sam Heller
took over the License Court
with the announcement that he
meant to end the “compliance
court” theory of operation
whereby dismissals have been
granted when violations are cor
rected.
The biggest fine, the legal
maximum of S2OO, was im
posed on Mrs. Pansy Wilson,
owner of a three-story frame
fire-trap at 4133 DrexeJ avenue
now used as a “boarding house”
for elderly persons. This was
over the violent objections of
her attorney, Philip R. Toomm,
president of the notorious anti-
Negro Oakland-Kenwood Prop-
; Henry Winston ;
h National Organization Secretary of llllliL .. ; $
|| Communist Party, U.S.A. VE9|h" j|
I 27 years of the £ j
f Communist Party wMßjpf'M ,
I ATTEND THE MEETING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD 1
1 Northwest Side: people’s auditorium Tuesday 1
| 2457 West Chicago Ave. Sept., 24, at 8 P.M.
I South Side: parkway ballroom Wednesday '
I 45th and South Parkway Sept., 25, at 7:45 P.M. 1
s North Side: Finnish workers hall Friday
| 2409 North Halsted Sept., 27, 8 P.M. |
Auspices: Communist Party, 208 North Wells Street, I
| Chicago, 111. Randolph 5580 1
THE CHICAGO STAR, SEPTEMBER U, 1946
erty Owners’ association
Admitting she was fined SSO
in 1943, Mrs. Wilson said she
had spent $15,000 improving the
house. Her boarders paid from
SBS to SIOO a month, she said.
“If it is such a losing busi
ness, why do you persist in
staying in it?” asked the
judge.
Said Attorney Toomin, “Why
don’t you do what Judge
Charles S. Dougherty did last
week, levy a minimum fine.
Then give us a chance to bring
in a court reporter next time
and appeal.”
“If justices Black and Jack
son can disagree, so can Heller
and Dougherty,” replied the
judge.
Negro vet, beaten by (ops, seeks
justice in Lovejoy’s Alton, 111.
By FRANK MUCCI ,
ALTON, 111. The case of the three Madison County police deputies who brutally
beat Lucian J. Hopkins, Alton Negro veteran of four s years war time service in the Navy,
was scheduled to come before the grand jury here on September 11.
A wave of indignation and pro
tests on the part of people from
Madison County and other parts
of the State resulted in the dis
missal and arrest of the deputies
for their criminal act of beating
the Negro veteran.
But while Hopkins, who is
being charged with burglary
and assault and whose case is
also coming before the grand
jury, is held in jail under
$15,000 bail, the three white de
puties are free on a bond of
$1,500, under charges of as
sault with a deadly weapon.
* # #
THE deputies, confronted by a
signed statement by Hopkins that
he was beaten by them while be
ing transferred at 1:00 a.m. from
the Alton city jail to the county
jail have admitted that Hopkin’s
statement is “substantially true’’.
Hopkins said that the deputies
started beating him as soon as
soon as they got him outside of
the Alton jail. He said they then
drove to a tavern east oi Alton,
where upon the invitation by the
deputies several patrons also
beat him with the deputies black
jack.
Later they stopped at a restau
rant where three women were
asked to beat him but refused.
According to information receiv
ed at the County jail, even
though beaten severely and
bleeding badly Hopkins was not
given medical attention until 1
p.m. the next day, 12 hours later.
* * *
THE Alton branch of the Na
tional Association- for the Ad
vancement of Colored People at
a meeting attended by 150 peo
ple, named a committee of 11 to
investigate the beating of Hop
kins and to help obtain witnesses
to testify against the three depu
ties.
Anthony W. Daly, local judge
and legal advisor for the NAACP,
stated that the organization
“does not tolerate violence of any
sort” ' and asserted that the
NAACP desires that both Hop
kins and the deputies receive a
fair trial and the guilty punished.
Alton, is today an industrial
community of 35,000. This is
where Elijah Lovejoy in 1837
was shot and killed by a mob be
cause of his uncomprising and
unrelenting fight against slavery.
Vets to fight
on-the-job slash
Veterans who have been sub
jected to undue hardships as a
result of the edict which limits
wages and subsistence allow
ances paid to ex-servicemen tak
ing on-the-job training under the
GI Bill of Rights to a maximum
of $175-S2OO per month were
urged this week to communicate
immediately with the Chicago
Area Office of the American Vet-
Meat famine rises here
From Page 1
tionalization of the meat industry
“to guarantee the farmer a fair
price for his cattle, the consumer'
an adequate supply of meat at
reasonable prices and the worker
a steady job under decent wages
and working conditions.”
# * *
ON the other hand Earl W.
Jimerson, president, and Patrick
E. Gorman, secretary of the
AFL’s Amalgamated Meat Cut
ters and Butcher Workmen of
North America who claim 4,500
members in Chicago declared
they would request Washington
officials to remove price controls.
“We’re stalemated. The pack
ers say they can’t operate under
ceilings and compete with the
black market” declared Gorman
and Jimerson.
But livestock experts here de
clared flatly that the facts be
hind the meat industries reveal
the “Big Four’s” fabulous pro
fits gained by manipulating the
meat supply in order to wreck
price control.
• « *
THE meat crisis now gripping
the nation came despite Sec. of
Agriculture Clinton P. Ander
son’s gift to the packers of SIA5 l A
cents a pound on beef, 2'A cents
a pound on pork.
The National League of
Women Shoppers had wired to
the meat producers will not re
sult in the production of a
single additional pound of
meat.”
A spokesman for the American
Meat Institute, the association of
Big Packers, remarked before the
sit-down strike began, that the
supply of meat would be “very
light” for 10 months until OPA
expires on June 30, 1947.
# # *
THE “Big Four’s” alibi that
cannot buy livestock and stay in
compliance with OPA prices is
belied by the fact smaller packers
had no difficulty buying cattle
and staying within OPA ranges
during the last July crisis.
When price controls were drop
ped in June and July, the big
packers went in and ;* id as high
as S2B per hundred weight lor
livestock.
Ralph Helstein, UPWA’s presi
dent pointed out:
“We have been convinced
from the very beginning that
the largest packing companies
were engaged in manipulating
the meat supply in order to lay
the ground work for wrecking
price control. There has, never
been conclusive evidence that
these companies were unable,
as they claimed, to buy cattle
under OPA ceilings and ‘re-
erans Committee in Room 1110,
123 West Madison Street.
“We know that thousands of
veterans in the Chicago area
have had the heart knocked out
of their personal reconversion
plans by this ill-advised law.”
said Sidney Ordower, executive
secretary of AVC’s Chicago Area
Council, “But we can take effec
tive action only if the veterans
who are taking the rap let us
know the details of their specific
cases. No law which works such
a tremendous hardship on so
many men who gave good yeai's
out of their careers to defend
their country will be tolerated by
the American people if the facts
are given a wide hearing.”
main in compliance!” „
* # #
BETWEEN now and January,
1947, the meat trust will receive
approximately $400,000,000 in fed
eral subsidies.
This, plus its hoarding of “in
ventory gain'”, will cushion any
losses the industry may suffer
during the coming months.
According to Helstein, “70,000.-
000 pounds of meat in the hands
of a packing company at the
time price control went off would
undoubtedly on a conservative
estimate receive an average
mark-up of 10 cents a pound. The
resultant seven million dollars
would be almost clear profit.”
* * *
SINCE the Big Four produce
more than 90% of all of Ameri
ca’s meat they know the small
packers’ capacity cannot fill the
consumers needs. Their mon
opoly control guarantees them
an assured market under any cir
cumstances.
The facts behind the black
market bugaboo were exposed by
Helstein who pointed out “The
black market was never large
enough to make a noticeable dent
on our large resources of live
stock.
“Obviously when the large
companies virtually went out
of the cattle market, their ac
tion reduced the supply of
beef and thereby tended to
enlarge the ‘black market’ the
very thing they argued was
causing all the trouble.”
* * #
OPA Deputy Administrator
George Moncharsh has declared
that the black market does not
divert meat from the retail mar
ket, as the packers claim, but
“meat tends to get more and
more into the hands of those
more able, to pay for meat.”
The black market has catered
mainly to high-income groups
with its $4 steaks in hotels and
fancy restaurants.
Hard hit by the sweeping lay
offs UPWA this week announced
that it was forced to postpone
taking a strike vote in half its
locals.
* * *
IN the Chicago area, Local 25
of Wilson & Co., with 3,500 mem
bers reported that it would con
duct its strike vote early. .this
Week. The largest local, ’Swift ft
Co., with 5,000 members*will al
so conduct balloting on the strike
issue.
But hardest hit by the meat
famine are consumers who are
the real victims of the Big Four’s
ability to turn the meat supply
on and qff like water from a fau
cet.