The Chicago star., June 12, 1948, Star Edition, Page 2, Image 2

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

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

                
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Not one—but two new fare boosts planned!
Chicago’s straphangers are facing not one
fare increase—but two separate fare boosts!
If the two proposed fare increases are
approved by the banker-dominated Transit
Board, the public will start paying at least
13 cents for a street car ride and 15 cents on
the elevated by July 1.
The Transit Board, which manages the
Chicago Transit Authority, has the power to
raise fares without a public hearing. It
doesn't even have to prove that an increase
is necessary.
Already Chicago transit fares are the
highest in the entire country, with the street
cars charging 11 cents and the “L” lines de
manding 13 cents for a ride on slow, outdated,
uncomfortable, and inconvenient systems.
Philip Harrington, Transit Board chair
man, proposed the two fare boosts this week,
claiming that “new equipment . . . has used
THE CHICAGO STAR, JUNE 12, 1948
City ownership brings top
wages to transit workers
The contract now in negotia
tion between the Amalgamated
Assn, of Street, Electric Railway
and Motor Coach Employees
<AFL) and the Chicago Transit
Authority will give Chicago trac
tion workers the highest wage
scales for such work in any city
of the U. S.
Some points of the new agree
ment will go to arbitration, but
the new wage scales have already
been approved by the CTA.
These will raise the hourly rates
Os motormen from the $1.34 now
paid them to $1.47. Conductors
will be increased from $1.29 to
$1.42, towermen from $1.40 to
$1.53, and ticket agents from
$1.12 to $1.25.
The Amalgamated, which has
refused to comply with the Taft-
Hartley Act on principle, is also
seeking a maintenance otf mem
bership clause through dues
check-off. Under the new con
tract, Chicago traction workers
will become eligible for S6O
monthly pensions on reaching 65,
Expose State Dept, hoax to
scare visitors to Poland
Chicago’s large Polish-Ameri
can community—largest in the
world —was the intended victim
of the latest hoax of the U. S.
State Dept, in its “cold war”
against Poland and the other
new democracies of eastern
Europe.
The State Dept, issued a re
port May 25 claiming that the
Polish government might force
li CWTitti aim puDnsned WEEKLY
by The Chicago Star Publishing
Co., Inc.. 166 West Washington
Street, Chicago 2. 111. Phone
RANdolph 0580.
Cable address: Chistar
Frank M. Davis Executive Editor
Carl Hirsch Managing Editor
WUHam Sennett General Manager
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
(Except Canada
and foreign) 1 Year $2,001
1 Entered as second class matter'
June 25, 1946 at the post office at
Chicago, 111., under the Act of
March 3. 1879.
Postal regulations require that
all new subscriptions for military
personnel stationed overseas must
be accompanied by a written
request from the person to whom
the subscription is directed.
up (CTA’s) cash resources.”
There are at least real reasons for Har
rington’s proposal. CTA’s funds are being
drained by big investment bankers, who are
admittedly getting “the highest interest paid
anywhere in the country” on the CTA bonds
they handled.
And the CTA is probably the only mu
nicipally-owned transit system which is re
quired to be self-sustaining while spending
millions for new equipment which should have
bee'n purchased over the years by the former
owners. The bankers didn’t want CTA to
have any taxing power.
Since last summer, street car fares have
increased more than 37%, while "L" fares
have gone up 30%.
Street car fares rose from 8 to 9 cents
under private ownership, and from 9 to 10
and later to 11 cents under CTA. In the same
period of time—less than a year—“L” fares
have been increased from 10 to 13 cents.
providing they have worked on
the Chicago transit system far 20
years.
All workers are eligible for
two-week vacations after work
ing on the system for one year.
This increases to three weeks
after 20 years. In the case of
the disability pension of SSO set
up under the new contract, work
ers are eligible after ten years.
All workers are credited with a
$1,250 insurance policy.
The CTA group health plan
pays workers S2O per week after
the first three days’ absence due
to illness, up to a limit of 26
weeks. A SI,OOO policy is also
carried for pensioners. Other new
contract benefits include a 30-
minute relay rest period after
four hours work, a night differ
ential df five cents per hour, and
complete seniority rules.
Insurance, pensions, group
health plan and vacations are
paid for by the CTA, without
salary deductions.
American Poles visiting Poland
to remain there, on the grounds
that children bom anywhere to
Polish parents are Polish citizens.
Some 20,000 such cases are in
dispute, the State Dept, claimed.
* * *
THE facts, made public by the
Polish Ministry of Foreign Af
fairs, exposed the State Dept.’s
falsehood so completely that even
Irving Pflaum, anti-Soyiet for
eign “expert” of the Sun-Times,
was forced to accuse the State
Dept, of “an attitude . . . that’s
dangerous and bad.”
The facts: There were 63 cases
in dispute, not 20.000. The Polish
government itself eliminated 24
cases by deciding that the indi
viduals were not Polish citizens.
Furthermore, the Polish gov
ernment was not challenging the
U. S. citizenship of Polish-Ameri
cans travelling on U. S. pass
ports. The disputed cases in
volved Poles born in the U. S.,
taken to Poland as children, who
had never registered as foreign
ers in Poland but had taken part
in Polish life as Polish citizens.
The U. S. attempt to deceive
Polish-Americans caused even
Pflaum to comment that "it sug
gests a desire in the Stale Dept,
to play power politics at the ex
pense of truth and the American
people's right to be correctly in
formed by their public servants."
Anti-fascist vets asked to
file as foreign agents'
Veterans of the Abraham Lin
coln Brigade who fought fascism
in Spain have been ordered by
the U. S. Department of Justice
to register as “foreign agents”
for continuing on American soil
the battle against tyranny to
which many gave their lives.
In a letter to the New York
headquarters of the Brigade, Wil
liam E. Foley, acting chief of the
department’s foreign agents reg
istration section, said in part:
“Information received by this
Department indicates that the
Veterans of the Abraham Lin
coln Brigade is engaging in ac
tivities within the U. S. which
require its registration with this
Department under the terms of
the Foreign Agents Registration
Act of 1938, as amended.
* * «
"IT APPEARS that the Brig
Godspeed
MEMBERS of the 80th Con
gress this week were
happily looking toward ad
journment. But nobody could
be happier about adjournment
than the long-suffering Ameri
can public.
From the angle of labor’s
rights, civil liberties, the war
danger and the American pock
etbook, this undoubtedly will
have been the costliest Con
gress on record. On the plus
side, the record is minus.
And so to homeward-bound
congressmen, the people could
well say, “Godspeed,” and think
whatever profaner thoughts
they wanted to.
Shutdown
Down in Birmingham, Ala.,
the Tennessee Coal, Iron and
Railroad Co.’s six big coal mines
were shut down tight this week.
James H. Terry, United Mine
Workers’ representative, said
he didn’t know when the miners
would go back to work.
They quit work in protest
over the fatal shooting of a
fellow miner, C. L. Butler, a
Negro, who was killed by coun
ty deputies.
New Model
THE Ford (“Wage Cut”)
Motor Co unveiled its 1949
prices this week, and they range
from SBS to $125 higher.
The new Ford itself goes on
City council defers
school Yed-hunt'
The City Council committee
on schools was expected to vote
this week on whether to take
up where the Chicago-Herald
American left off in its read
smear of Miss Emilie Noack,
Senn High School civics teacher.
Earlier action on the investi
gation had been deferred until
the scheduled Wednesday meet
ing of the Board of Education.
Supt. Harold C. Hunt was to
amplify earlier statements that
after a 10-day investigation by
the board he found “nothing to
sustain the charges, made by the
Herald-American.”
The committee’s vote to defer
was taken after Aids. Frank
Keenan (49th) and Robert E.
Merriam (sth) argued against
ade has been soliciting funds
within the U. S. on behalf of the
underground Spanish trade un
ion movement and such activity
constitutes the Brigade as an
agent of a foreign principal, with
in the meaning of the Act.”
Chicago’s Herman Bottcher
Post of the Vets replied:
"In the last ten years we have
worked continuously and publicly
against Franco and can only con
sider this request, made at this
time, as pretty clumsy camou
flage for the real purpose of the
aetion, which is to cripple the
anti-Franco movement in our
country.
“We are not foreign agents.
“We are Americans proud of
having fought fascism in two
wars. We are anti-Franco and
believe that most Americans
support the Spanish anti-fas
public display June 18—three
days after wage negotiations get
under way with the United
Auto Workers.
It makes sense to assume that
with prices up, Ford workers
will be readily granted the 30-
cewts an hodr they are asking.
And yet something tells us that
Henry Ford II has no such
thing in mind.
Something wrong'
SOMEONE remarked that
the recent stories about
the adventures of Gl’s and at
tractive Soviet spies were cook
ed up simply to bolster U. S.
Anmy recruiting.
Columnist Drew Pearson,
however, sounded a note of
alarm this week, opining that
“there is either something
wrong with our current Russian
policy or else that policy has
not been properly sold either at
home or abroad.”
Disturbing Pearson is the fact
that “a total of four American
citizens in Moscow have now
either deserted to the Russians
or denounced American policy
toward Russia.
All this, he says, plus the
daughter of the Commerce De
partment assistant now work
ing for the Soviet Tass News
Agency, plus the large and
youthful fallowing of Henry
Wallace, "make it appear that
the United States is losing part
of the cold war with some of its
own younger generation.”
Aid. Alban Weber’s (50th) pro
posal to re-investigate Mi s g
Hoack. Keenan and Merriam
declared that the investigation
was outside the province of.the
council.
* * *
RUSSEL Ballard, chairman of
the organizing conference of the
Citizens Schools Committee, in
a letter urging members of the
Schools Committee to turn out
at the Wednesday Board of Edu
cation meeting in support of
Miss Noack, declared:
"We believe the suggested
public hearing (investigation)
before the City Council is un
necessary and would set a dis
astrous precedent of interference
with school curriculum and
leaching."
Support for Miss Noack came
also from the Progressive Party
of Illinois. A Prog. Party spokes
man charged “councilmanic
witch-hunting,” demanding that
the City Council call off further
investigation.
“Not once has the City Council
felt justified in overriding the
Board of Education's responsi
bility for Chicago schools ...
to investigate low pay for teach
ers or the crying inadequacy of
our school system. Not for one
minute did Council choose to
exercise its legitimate authority
to investigate a recent appointee
o he Board of Education who
was in fact a leading member
of the fascist-supported Ameri
can Action. Inc."
cists.”
Sydney Harris, secretary of the
Chicago chapter, pointed out that
"if the Justice Department can
get away with this, they will
have established a beach-head
from which they can advance
against all who disagree with
government foreign policy."
Educator
MARSHALL Field’s Sun-
Times, which would like
to see Gen. Eisenhower as the
Democratic candidate for Presi
dent, doesn’t seem much inter
ested in Ike’s views on educa
tion.
We looked carefully through
the Sun-Times this week after
Ike was installed formally as
president of New York City’s
Columbia University, but we
couldn’t find this interesting
statement:
"I have nothing to say about
education. I don't know enough
about it."
To reporters at Columbia
University, he admitted:
“At least I was trained for
that (military) business. I'm
not so sure of this."
But then, whaddya have to
know to be an educator—in an
era of thought control?
Spain fights
HERE are some amazing
things happening in fas
cist Franco Spain.
This week, two Franco police
agents were publicly tried and
executed by Republican guer
rillas in the village of Cesare
in Galicia.
First hand reports from in
side Spain reveal that the
guerilla movement has grown
to the point where Franco is
throwing artillery, tanks and
planes into battle against them.