The Chicago star., September 14, 1946, Page 3, Image 3

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

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

                
Civil rights menaced in move
to bar Lightfoot from ballot
Hearings on objections to the nominating petitions of Claude Lightfoot, independent candidate
for state senator in the sth Senatorial District, highlighted local independent campaigns in Chicago
this week. . Vr . ; '. .
Wmmm * ILJr
Claude Lightfoot, independent candidate for State Senator in
the sth District, shown with his wife, Geraldyne, filing his petitions
for the ballot at the City Hall. Although Lightfoot submitted more
than the required number of signatures, efforts were being made
here* this week to rule him off the ballot.
School kids battle
lunch price boost
Thousands of Chicago school
children faced substandard diets
this week as the school system
indicated that the new increases
in school lunch prices would be
maintained.
Although only 30 percent of
the students who bought their
lunches in school last year were
reported doing so during the first
week of school this year, Board
of Education officials said that
they intended to keep the new
20 and 25 per cent rates.
Admitting that the lunch pro
gram would lose more money at
the current rate of sales than if
the old prices were continued.
Shoe union victory
Workers of the Cole Rood &
Haan Shoe Company voted to be
represented by a union this week.
In an election conducted by the
National Labor Relations Board,
they voted 103 to 41 to be repre
sented by Joint Council 25 of the
CIO United Shoe Workers.
LaSalle Hotel, fascist hangout, could be ’home’ to a lot of vets!
By LEONARD LEWIN
City and state authorities are
supposedly busy leaving no
house-brick unturned to solve
the housing crisis.
But the suspicion is mounting
that, neither our governor or our
mayor would know a housing
project if it fell on them!
The fact is that it would take
a very small heap o’ livin’ to
turn any number of empty Chi
cago buildings into temporary
hofhSs for our homeless.
A # * *
How many families could live
in the LaSaile Hotel?
How many families could live
in the closed servicemen’s cen
ters?
How many could live in the
empty barracks at the Great
Lakes Naval Training Center?
What about other unused pub
lic buildings the
state?
school officials claimed that in
creased costs were fully responsi
ble for the price boost.
* # *
WHILE the American Youth
for Democracy and other groups
prepared a fight to reduce lunch
prices, the schools were accused
of a double violation of federal
policy.
Dr. John A. Lapp, of the Citi
zens’ Schools Committee, charged
that the increases were not only
out of line with price control ob
jectives, but also violated the
basis on which federal subsidies
are paid to schools to assist low
cost lunch programs. Regulations
require not only certain lunch
standards, but also that the pro
gram be operated on a complete
ly non-profit basis.
Elementary school lunches,
which we sold for six
cents last year, were raised to
eight cents last Christmas anc!
to 20 cents last week. The schools
receive in addition eight cents in
federal and state subsidies for
each lunch. For high school
FREE ENTERPRISE, Govern
or Green assures us, will take
care of the housing shortage.
Everything is being done, says
Mayor Kelly, to find homes for
Chicago’s homeless thousands.
No federal action required, ac
cording to the 79th Congress
The truth is, of course, that the
pathetically small program for
temporary veterans’ housing has
already been slashed to a frac
tion of its original schedule.
And it’s also a fact that hous
ing crisis continues to get worse
as winter approaches, while the
Governor and other responsible
public officials encourage the
snafu by doing nothing.
* * #
THE LA SALLE Hotel, scene
of the tragic June sth fire, an
nounced recently that it expects
to reopen in January. It is listed
as having 1,000-room capacity.
Over 6,000 names were chal-,
lenged on the South Side Com
munist leader’s petitions on mis
cellaneous technical grounds last
week, after he had submitted
10,600 signatures, substantially
more than the 7,100 required mi
nimum.
Urging the Board of Election
Commissioners Id' “weigh care
fully” the objections to' the peti
tion, the Chicago Civil Liberties
Committee challenged “any at
tempt to limit or restrict the
right of citizens to select their
own independent candidates”.
_ * * »*
t\ A STATEMENT signed by
leaders of labor, church, civic,
and fraternal organizations, the
CCLG described the challenged
petition as a “matter which deep
ly affects the civil liberties of ci
tizens.” Signers included Henry
W. McGee, President of the
NAACP; George Murphy of
UNAVA; Robert C. Travis, State
CIO Vice-President; and Ira Lati
mer, CCLC Executive Director.
Meanwhile, other independent
candidates prepared for a vigor
ous campaign before November
sth. Campaign workers for Syl
via Woods, candidate for assem
bly in the 21st district, are con
centrating on registration
Mexican-American driven from home
To 25-year-old Adrian Lozano
violence is ho stranger.
Lozano, a war veteran, has
undergone three years of vio
lent fighting against tyranny
and intolerance overseas.
But this week Lozano lost his
bitterest battle against racial
tyranny in his own home.
# * *
HE WAS driven out of his 1-
room-apartment at 907 South
v 1
lunches, which were raised from
20 to 25 cents, they receive elev
en and a half cents in subsidies.
* # *
EDUCATION and diet experts
have questioned strongly school
board contentionse that the high
school and grammar school
lunches “cost” 36*4 and 28 cents,
respectively. Class A (high
school) lunches consist of a glass
of milk, a slice of bread, two
teaspoons of butter or margarine,
four ounces of vegetables, and
two ounces of meat or its
equivalent.
Although there is a shortage
of hotel space in Chicago for
transient and visitors, the closing
of the LaSalle does not appeared
to have created any major hard
ship. A dissenter to this might
be Gerald L. K. Smith, who has
for a long time found the La
Salle Chicago’s most convenient
ha’l to heil in.
Granting the necessity of cer
tain appropriations and perhaps
some stronger housing legisla
tion, the Star couldn’t find any
official who could give any good
reason why the LaSalle hotel
should not be, taken over for a
temporary housing project.
# * *
AVERY Brundage, board chair
chairman of the LaSalle, could
no doubt offer plenty of reasons
—chiefly that running a big hotel
Is more profitable than turning
it over to be used as a housing
project.
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|||||||| Jggjgg
ft b.
COLLEEN Mary Sullivan, 20,
Detroit beauty, was chosen as
Miss AFL of 1946 in a beauty
contest open to all AFL mem
bers and their families. She
fulfills all contract specifica
tions.
Loomis because he is a Mexican-
American.
Coca-Cola bottles and bricks
crashed through the windows of
the apartment owne*d by Fred
Cesare of 4027 W. Monroe two
nights after he allowed Lozano
to move in.
Hoodlums in the neighbor
hood threatened Lozano’s life
until his landlord, frightened,
pleaded with him to leave the
apartment.
Class B (grammar school)
lunches include the milk
and bread and about half
as much of the other foods.
School officials claim that the
food alone in the Class B lunch
costs 13 3/4 cents, and the labor
and administrative costs are
131/4 cents.
As more and more Chicago
children are forced to bring cold,
and usually inadequate, lunches
from home, parents and educa
tors are voicing increased con
cern for the health danger caused
Brundage, however, has never
been distinguished for enthusi
asm. in behalf of people’s needs.
He has reserved that for such in
stitutions as Adolf Hitler and
Nazi Germany.
Back in 1936, when he rturned
from Germany with the U. S
Olympic team which he took
there over protests, Brundage
was fulsome with his praise of
the Third Reich. An important
speaker at that year’s German
Day rally, he later became a big
shot in the America First move
ment with other American pals
of Hitler.
* • #
ALTHOUGH at least 2,000 peo
ple could be housed in the La
Salle, there are plenty of other
structures which could also be
converted to temporary housing
projects more easily than by
building new ones.
UE wins
6 months strike
at Ahlberg
An agreement reached early
this week finally ended Chicago's
longest post-war strike.
Members of Local 1114 of the
CIO United Electrical Workers
returned to work Monday, after
ratification of the new contract
with the Ahlberg Bearing Com
pany. They had been on strike
since March 18th.
new agreement provides
for a 13 V 2 cent an hour wage in
crease, as well as a provision : i
re-open the wage section of the
contract. This increase is in addi
tion to a five cent an hour in
crease .agreed to last January.
Algo agreed to 'was a new plant
minimum rate of 88 cents an
hour, which replaces the former
62 cent-minimum fate.
# •* *
HAILING the settlement. Local
1114 Business Manager Louis
Torre declared that the union
looked forward to a period of
‘.‘improved’’ labor relations. Point
ing out that the new agreement
contained' union security provi
sions and substantially stronger
seniority protection for Ahlberg
workers, Torre described the con
tract as “better and more work
able” than the preceding one.
Among the contract changes
agreed to were a single job rate,
eliminating rate ranges and a
company “merit”, plan. Vacation,
transfer, and arbitration provi
sions were also strengthened.
THUS CHICAGO’S unchecked
racial violence spread to Mexi
can-Americans who will hold a
special rally against racial dis
crimination at the Ash'and Au
ditorium, at Ashland and Van
Buren St., on Sept. 14 and 15.
The rally is sponsored by the
Mexican Patriotic Committee
which represents more than
30,000 Mexiean-Americans living
in Chicago communities.
by the price boosts. Many fear
that the purposes of the federal
lunch subsidy may be defeated
by the higher prices, barring the
benefits of the hot lunch pro
gram from children of the lowest
income groups who need it most.
Meanwhile, civic, parents’, and
youth groups are preparing to
conduct a city-wide campaign to
lower the lunch prices. Already
scheduled by the AYD is a meet
ing in the Roosevelt College au
ditorium Friday evening, Septem
ber 20th, where steps are planned
to organize further action.
Among them are the Great
Lakes barracks, well-constructed
buildings that could take care of
an estimated 4,000 persons. The
Lake County Housing Authority,
however, had received funds au
thorizing work on less than a
quarter of the barracks’ capacity.
Earlier this year, efforts were
made, chiefly by the American
Veterans’ Committee, to get the
Army’s abandoned Gardiner Hos
pital for use as a veterans’ hous
ing project. Regarded by the Chi
cago Housing Authority as ex
tremely suitable for conversion
to housing, Gardiner became an
Army area headquarters. In
spite of protests, the War De
partment ruling indicated that
Gardiner’s lake - front breezes
were considered more important
to help the morale of the Army's
brasshats than to provide vet
erans’ families with a place to
live.
3
THE CHICAGO STAR, SEPTEMBER U, 191,6