f '
The Chicago
Vol. 3, No. 29
Published
Weekly
Eviction panic
hits tenants
Star story brings SIOO
Invalid finds way to aid
youths raided by police
vC bed-ridden invalid, moved
by a story in The Chicago Star,
this week took his place in the
j fight for free-
H dom of assem-
J bly in Chicago
j)* -w —and won the
praise of tne
city's liberals
He was Ed
ward J. Mc
jp Guriy, who
IHBHB has been oon-
H. B. Ritman *“\ ed f
bed at 508 W
78th for years by chronic ill
ness.
When hie copy of The Star
arrived last week, McGurty
read with interest an article
which told how 13 young Wal
lace supporters planned to file
suit for more than half a mil
lion dollars damages because
they had been illegally arrested
while holding a Youth for Wal
lace meeting in a private home.
* * *
UNABLE to leave his home
and help in the case, McGurty
decided that he would take part
in his own way. He wrote a
letter to H. B. Ritman, chair
man of a committee of lawyers
in charge of the case.
This is what he wrote:
"Dear Mr. Ritman:
"Having read in The Chicago
Star this morning of the legal
move to recover for unwarrant
able arrest of a group at 5511
Kenwood, I am sending you.
unsolicited, a check for SIOO to
aid in legal expenses.
"X am permanently confined
Plan 'Dems for Wallace'
See Page 3
Chicago, July 17.1948 ★Edition Fir* Cents
to my home by illness, and this
is the only way I can help.
"Yours for progress, Edward
J. McGurty."
* * *
RITMAN replied:
“Your contribution is, of
course, very generous, but the
spirit which motivated your ac
tion is even more inspiring to
all of us.
"It is people like you who
make all struggle worthwhile."
» * *
THERE were other develop
ments in the case too.
At the request of Police In
spector Edwin J. Daly, Ritman
agreed to withhold legal action
for “a few days” until Daly
could complete his investigation
of the police raid.
Daly, who has already ad
mitted that the raid was "ill
advised," has concluded his
questioning of Capi. Malt Mur
phy and other policemen of the
Hyde Park station. Now he is
getting statements from the
students who were arrested.
As progressives awaited
Daly’s report to Commissioner
John C. Prendergast, a number
of influential newspapers blast
ed the storm-troopers tactics of
the police.
* * *
THE Chicago Defender, Negro
weekly, charged that ‘ the vague
charge of disorderly conduct”
placed against the students —
and later dismissed in court—
was a “veil” for the real reason
for the arrests: “the presence
of a Negro” at the Youth for
jEk JU 'So 13ia
the people** viewpoint -—-
|
I
| P
Wallace meeting. The article
was the Defender's main news
story of the week.
The Sentinel, which has the
largest circulation bf any Eng
lish-language Jewish weekly in
the U.S., also hit the police
raid. The Sentinel’s editor, J. I.
Fishbein, pointed out in an edi
torial:
“Most of those arrested hap
pened to be Jews. Undoubtedly,
this was one of the most de
cisive factors motivating Capt.
Murphy.
"The 'good' captain knows a
Hitlerite conception of a
'Commie' when he sees one—
especially if the name happens
to be 'Rosenbaum,' Blumen
lhal.' ‘Wolfson’, or 'Fineberg.'"
* * *
THE Lawndale News and the
West Town Herald, West Side
community newspapers both
discussed the case in front page
columns written by Morris Kap
lan, editor of both weeklies.
"Perhaps there should be a
special hour or two reserved
for silent contemplation of the
Bill of Rights by Chicago's
policemen," Kaplan suggested.
He called the police raid "un-
American and undemocratic."
Kaplan also quoted the Amer
ican Civil Liberties Union as
denouncing the police raid,
which the ACLU called “a
shocking violation of personal
civil rights, approximating the
conduct of the Gestapo.”
The Civil Rights Congress, in
cooperation with the Progres
sive Party, is handling the case.
By ISABEL CARR
Big time realtors are riding the crest of a new wave
of evictions in Chicago.
July, which brought Chicagoans oppressive heat and
electrical storms, brought also a record flood of 570 evic
tions on the first day of the month.
A survey by The Chicago Star showed that the Muni
cipal Courts have handled an average of 300 eviction cases
a day since July 1.
Most affected by the flood of evictions is the South Sid-
Negro community, where, a recent survey showed, 1,000
pending eviction cases will find at least 7,000 persons home
less by Jan. 1, 1949, if the courts decide in favor of landlords.
* * *
ACCOMPANYING evictions are increased rents of the
majority of Chicago tenants. Eighty per cent of all rent
increase applications by landlords are being granted almost
automatically by the Office of Housing and Rent Control.
The eviction rush and higher-than-ever rents are the
direct result of passage, April 1, by the bipartisan 80th
Sec Page
DEM LEADER Howard McGrath (center) couldn't even fake a emile
for reporters at a convention press conference in Philadelphia—not
with that king-si*e Truman poster breathing down the back of hi*
neck.