The Chicago star., September 14, 1946, Image 16

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

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

                
Rally against Iynchings heie Monday
THE CHICAGO
Plight of 'Poor GM’ moves
workers to take attion
General Motors’ employees
at the big electromotive diesel
works were deeply touched this
week, as they read of the sad
plight of the corporation being
“forced” to seek a price in
crease of SIOO per car.
Immediately taking up a col-,
lection in the shop, AI Rubio,
Bob Ezydorski, Dino Pellegri
ni, dames Burton, and Ray Ser
go gathered 87 cents, which
they sent to GM president C.
E. Wilson “to help tide you
over”.
The GM workers indicated
v :
Hit Lichfield farce
The Chicago area executive
committee of the American Vet
erans Committee yesterday pro
tested the “shanghaiing” back to.
the United States Os Capt. Earl J.
Carroll, former Lichfield dention
camp trial prosecutor, and called
for a full-scale congressional in
vestigation of Army and Navy
disciplinary camps.
Citing Capt, Carroll’s courage
ous fight to bring the spotlight
of public attention to bear on
Army abuses of the court-martial
system, the committee called the
ordering back of Carroll to the
United States "another move of
Sandra has sawdust,
not ants. In her pants
Sandra Witkowski, age 1, lias no* ants in her pants.
She has sawdust.
It makes her cry.
Her mother, Mrs. Helen Witkowski, of 825 N. Wood St„
appeared this week before the City Zoning Board of Appeals
to try to stop the Duncan Meter Co. from building an addition
$ to its wood-working plant.
“My Ijaby takes a lot of diapers”, said Mrs. Witkowski.
“I have to hang them up in the yard, and when I take them
down they're full of sawdust.
“Sometimes it gets so bad that it seems to be raining saw
dust on a sunny day.”
\ ; ' . '
A; sirnt ** nn
From Page 1
committed treason to the United
States of America, betraying his
country when it was at war and
fighting for its life.
He could be found in all lay
ers of society. Sometimes he was
a newspaper magnate, tipping off
the enemy to ■ plans of a battle.
Sometimes he belonged to a
shirt organization, plotting to set
up a local Hitler.
Sometimes, he was an editorial
writer, slandering -our wartime
president and commander in
chief. Sometimes, he ran a filthy
little newspaper, copying Nazi
propaganda off the airwaves.
And sometimes, he sold secrets
to the enemy. Once, indeed, an
effort was made at a mass trial,
but these were the little fish, and
even that case was thrown out
of court.
*■ # *
(B) The foreign traitor who
seeks refuge. He, too, is varied
in origin. Sometimes he is a Rus
sian soldier, called to the front,
deserting the field of battle, out
of cowardice.
Sometimes, he Is a fiictator’s
right hand man; his country has
thrown out the fascists, so he
that they were confused to
hear that the giant corpora
tion’s operation was unprofit
able, since they had read the
day before that GM had in
creased its assets valuation by
over half a billion dollars since
January Ist, 1945.
Apologizing for offering Mr.
Wilson such a small sum, the
workers explained that they
were laid off three days last
week “while GM counted
up its assets during inven
tory”.
high officers to whitewash fellow
officers who either through neg
i lect, dereliction or incompetence
■ permitted these abuses to exist."
in calling for the investigation,
i. the committee said that Carroll’s
charges of abuses by the military
of the court - martial system is
amply substantiated by a com
parison of the sentences given
Sgt. Judson H. Smith and Col.
James A. Killian, commander of
the 10th Reinforcement depot at
: Lichfield, England,
i Smith, a prisoner, was given
1 three years of hard labor and a
: dishonorable discharge while Kil
; lian was fined SSOO and re
’ primanded.
takes refuge here. Sometimes, he
is a dirty little international
thief, but because he is willing
to malign honest men, we give
him refuge.
Usually, he writes a book, or
lends his name to a ghost-written
book, giving the so-called "inside
dope” about his native land. The
book is lies and filth, but it goes,
and he ends up with a fat maga
zine or newspaper contract.
* * #
(C) The third type of traitor
is more complex. He too sells out
his country and humanity, but
he does it under the guise of
fighting Communism.
He might have been a member
of the Communist Party for a
month or two. That gives him ac
cess to inside dope. Or he might
have visited Russia at one time
or another, which gives him the
background to be a professional
anti-Sovieteer.
Almost always, he has been a
radical of one sort or another,
§md he operates now as a dis
illusioned martyr who has seen
his principles betrayed. He turns
up at literary cocktail parties.
Middle-aged, frustrated women
love him, and he warms their
beds regularly and weeps about
his lost ideals on their shoulders.
* * #
He writes for the Social Demo-
National leaders are flying to Chicago to speak at the giant downtown demonstration against
lynchings in Dixie and race violence on the south side to be held Monday, Sept. 16 at 5 p. m. on the
corner of State and Madison Streets.
Michael Quill, president of thci
United Transport Workers Un j
ion, Rev. Malcolm Cotton Dobbs,
executive secretary of the Ala j
bama section of the Southern j
Conference for Human Welfare
and Canada Lee, noted actor,
will be featured together with lo
cal civic and union spokesmen.
Sponsored by the Chicago Citi
zens Committee Against Lynch
ing, an organization composed of
50 religious, union and civic
groups, the rally will demand ac
tion from the federal government
to stop the current wave of race
terror which has killed 11 Ne
groes in Southern states within
the past t\yo months.
# * *
THE demonstration comes on
the heels of a new outbreak of
vandalism against Negroes and
Mexicans in Chicago where more
than 50 homes of colored citizens
have been bombed or burned in
the past year.
Already a city-wide event, the
demonstration climaxes a num
ber of community protest meet
ing held after the massacre of
two Negro couples in Monroe,
Ga.
The Committee has issued spe
cial invitations to Southern clubs
and fraternities in the city. Thej
Rev. Verle Blair of the Church
of Our Master has sent out a
special call, to a white churches
to participate in the demonstra
tion. ....
#, # #
LOCAL leaders who will spark
plug the meeting, the first of its
kind in the city, include key
speakers Aid. George B. Kells of
the 28th ward, Sam Parks of the
United Packinghouse Workers of
America, and Mrs. Rebecca
Styles Taylor of the Chicago
Northern District Ass. of Colored
Women’s Clubs.
Mayor Edward J. Kelly has
been invited to become a sponsor
of the event by the Committee
which complimented him on the
resolution against lynch terror
and the Ku Klux Klan which he
introduced into the City Coun
cil.
The Committee pointed out to
the mayor the “particular ap
propriateness of State and Madi
son Streets, the world's busiest
corner” as a site for an anti
lynch demonstration by compar
ing the bond rallies held here to
raise money to fight fascism dur
ing the war.
crat and Trotskyite rags, but that
is a sideline, a labor of love. His
big money comes from the Boss
Press, the great newspaper and
magazine chains. Every one of
them must have their own pri
vate renegade, and some have a
whole string of professional
traitors. It pays well; some of
these characters earn from fifty
to one hundred thousand dollars
a year.
This, of course, is the real
Judas Type, who has sold his
soul to the devil, and who con
stantly reiterates those old and
weary Judas Words, ‘'Christ be
trayed Christianity—the Soviet
Union has betrayed socialism.”
But the space I have at my
disposal is near used up, and I
have only begun the catalogue.
At some later date, I’ll talk of
those who betray labor from
within, of those who wear the
name of liberal and betray ev
erything dear to men of good
will.
Quantitatively, treason has in
creased, but the traitor runs to
type. If he ever decides to form
a society, I would suggest a
name:
“The Thirty Pieces of Silver
Club."
Anti-Negro terror
mounts in Ist Ward
MRS. Mattie Calhoun, above, htfd to jump from the third floor
when her home at 249 Alexander Street went up in flames August
31st. The blaze, worst of a series of deliberately-set incendiary fires
in the First Ward, came after repeated threats to Negro residents
of the area by hoodlums bent on driving them out of the area.
Rape, arson, and murder thn
a terrorist move to drive Negro :
worth district of the First Ward, v
to cover what may develop into i
• • *
Negro-hating hoodlums have
terrorized residents of the neigh
borhood for more than a year,
without any police action. The
law was forced to make a stand
last week, however, when Fire
Atty. Earl Downes began investi
gating incendiary fires that have
swept a dozen Negro occupied
homes in the crowded slum. Now,
uniformed Negro officers are
patrolling the area from 22nd St.,
to 24th St., west of Wentworth
Ave., 24 hours a day.
The investigation, which show
ed evidence of an organized ter
ror campaign to drive Negro
voters from the patronage-rich
ward began after a fire early Au
gust 31, in which six persons
were injured. Residents of the
community, too terror-stricken to
permit use of their names, re
vealed that continuous threats
have been made against them.
They credited the threats to
“gangsters”, who ordered them
to move, or be burned out.
# * *
BEFORE the scope of the anti-
Negro pogrom extended to the
field of politics, where Demo
crats and Republicans have long
vied for control of the ward, sus
picion pointed to Mary “Ange
lina” Ellis. Mrs. Ellis, owner of
most of the buildings in which
fires have occurred, has an un
savory reputation with police.
She was under investigation as
an arson suspect, several years
ago, but was cleared.
She was ruled out as a current
suspect, however, on the basis of
the huge profits she makes from
renting. Mrs. Ellis rents exclu
sively to Negroes, and charges
$lO a week for one and a half
room cubby holes, without heat
or sanitary facilities. Her proper
ty is in bad repair and most
apartments are fire traps.
For a time, officials sought to
credit a revenge motive, because
Mrs. Ellis has been threatened
several times by persons she re
fuses to name. This possibility
was ruled out as a major factor
Friday morning, when two men
■eats were combined last week in
families from, the crowded Went
while police officials vainly sought
a major political scandal.
raped Mrs. Charles Johnson in
her apartment at 329 W. 22nd pi.,
and threatened her with death if
she did not move. The building
she lives in is owned by a Chi
nese.
THE MEN described by Mrs.
Johnson as a Mexican and an
Italian, forced their way into her
apartment at gun point early
Friday morning when no police
men were on duty in the area.
They searched her belongings,
claiming they were looking for
weapons. After ransacking the
apartment, the men raped Mrs.
Johnson, and attempted to rape
her 16 year old daughter Laura,
who was with her.
Before they left, the attackers
warned Mrs. Johnson to move or
be burned out. They told her they
intended to clear the neighbor
hood of Negroes. Those they do
not burn out, they threatened to
kill. Mrs. Johnson’s husband
came home before the rapists
left, and they forced him to ac
company them to the street,
threatening to shoot him. They
then fled the scene in opposite
directions.
Following Mrs. Johnson’s com
plaint, Captain Doyle of the third
police district doubled the guard
over the area,
SINCE Pearl Harbor, there has
been an influx of Negroes into
the troubled area. Although many
families have lived there for 20
years, major disturbances only
began since V-J day. Residents
feel that a great change in the
voting population would upset
the delicate political balance in
the ward which is so arranged
that Republicans hold many
: state offices, while the alderman
is a Democrat.
Many jesidents feel that hood
lums are being used locally to
maintain this balance through
terroristic acts. Daily, families
are moving from the neighbor
hood, despite the doubled police
guards. Most of thefn feel that
the terror wave will begin again,
as soon as the police details are
removed.