Star fund drive lags-rush funds today!
WHILE several hundred of our readers have
already responded to the Star's Emergency
fund Drive appeal, our drive for funds is behind
schedule.
The Star has already been forced to reduce
to 8 pages. And unless we achieve our minimum
goal of $7,500, we wiH be unable to continue
publication.
We are sure our readers will agree that The
Star is needed now more than ever before. But
good wishes alone will not publish The Star.
PRICE TRENDS since eerly pert of century, shown on chert, indi
cete plight of people today. According to- U. S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, prices are now at all-time peak.
Progressive petitions
filed with Gov. Green
SPRINGFIELD— Petitions
bearing 75,268 signatures of
voters who want the Progres
sive Party to appear on the bal
lot in Uinois Nov. 2 were turned
over this week to Gov. Green at
the Executive Mansion here.
William Miller, state director
of the party, said that the signa
tures covered 3,710 petition
sheets.
The petitions were also filed
in accordance with the legal re
quirements with the state audi
tor of public accounts and the
secretary of state.
With the signatures gathered
from 88 different Illinois coun
ties, the Progressive Party
spokesman declared that a place
on the Illinois ballot was as
sured for Henry A. Wallace and
Glen H. Taylor.
A full Progressive Party slate,
headed by Curtis D. MacDougall
for U S. senator and Grant
Oakes for governor was also
Chicago Nisei to canvass
for Progressive Party
Chicago Nisei for Wallace—a
new Japanese-American organ
ization—got underway this week
with the election of Miyo Uyeno
as chairman.
Mrs. Uyeno also is secretary of
the 6th Ward Progressive Party.
A door -to - door canvassing
campaign to bring the issues of
the election to the Japanese-Am
erican community will be carried
out under the direction of Don
Matsuda and Yoshitaka Takagi.
Nl. Supreme Ct.
to rule on PPI
SYCAMORE, ILL.—The Illinois
Supreme Court Is expected to rule
within the next few days on a
Progressive Party plea that its
status as a legally qualified politi
cal party in Cook County be re
affirmed. The high court issued
such a ruing last Spring, but Cook
County election officials have re
sorted to delaying tactics in the
lower Appellate Court. The PP
appeal was made here last week
to Chief Justice Fulton.
filed. The election law requires
that 25,000 signatures be gath
ered, with a minimum of 200
from each of 50 counties in the
state.
Oops! Our error
Don’t let the House Un-Am
erican Committee hear of this,
but The Star’s face is red. Infla
tion statistics printed in a recent
issue were incorrect.
Here are the correct figures, as
reported by the U. S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics: the cost of liv
ing in Chicago is now 76.2%
above the pre-war level, with
prices here having jumped 45.3%
since price controls were re
moved.
Here’s how prices have jumped
above the pre-war level: food,
121.5%; clothing, 99.2%; rents,
31.5%. The Star misinterpreted
the BLS percentages.
Last week Toshiye Ishimoto,
who was a delegate to the Pro
gressive Party convention, re
ported on the accomplishments of
the Philadelphia meeting at a
gathering in the offices of the
Chicago Resettlers Committee,
1110 N. LaSalle.
* * *
THE new group’s constitution
says that its aim is “to gain the
widest participation of Japanese-
Americans in support of Henry
Wallace and other progressive
candidates.’’
It declares that the Wallace
movement is the best force for
solving the “special problems of
Japanese-Americans” citizen
ship for the foreign-born, dem
ocratization of immigration laws,
elimination of restrictive cove
nants, and enactment of a fair
employment practices act.
Officers of the club, besides
Mrs. Uyemo, are: Ernest S. liya
ma, Jack Otake, and James Miy
ashiro, vice chairmen; Yuri Tash
ima, recording secretary; Toshiye
Ishimoto, corresponding secre
tary; and “Smoky” Sakurada,
treasurer.
The need: $7,500
Received: $2,245 '
Here are some of the reasons why $7,500
will guarantee continued publication:
• The Star operates at a deficit. We sell the
paper to subscribers for about 4 cents a copy
and total cost to us is around 9 cents.
Meat ban spreads;
packers feel pinch
Housewives from Progressive
Party ward clubs and Women for
Wallace committees this Thurs
day engaged in city-wide mass
demonstrations protesting the
outrageous prices of meat.
And as the Wallaceite anti
inflation campaign in Chicago
rolled up steam, a Chicago. Sun
survey revealed that meat sales
had dropped as much as 50% in
some Chicago butcher shops.
Varied and colorful Progres
sive picket signs emphasized that
the housewives’ target is neither
the farmer nor the corner
butcher, but the big packer,
whose net profits last year aver
aged 312% above 1939-
The ward demonstrations dif
fered according to the ingenuity
of the 50 ward “Beat High Cost
of Living” committees. Buggy
parades were featured in some
places, while in many wards,
protesting housewives distributed
thousands of leaflets featuring
the slogan—“No meat for me till
prices come down.”
* * #
MEANTIME, the city - wide
chain telephone campaign, joint
ly sponsored by 7 women candi
dates of the Progressive Party
and Women for Wallace, was
moving ahead, and hundreds of
women were obtaining signatures
on a new “meat price roll-back
pledge.”
Signers of the pledge affirmed
this declaration: “I want to help
roll back meat prices and to stop
the robbery of American con
sumers by the giant meat pick
ing interests. I will not buy a
single pound of fresh meat until
the packing corporations have
reduced the wholesale price of
meat, thereby making it possible
for my corner butcher to sell
i ............. i
• Our total income on subscriptions, advertising,
newsstand, ond bundle sales is about $450 a
week below operating expenses ,
• If $7,500 is raised, it will provide that dif
ference between present income and expenses
to take care of the deficit from Labor Day until
January Ist.
We on The Star have come to you with this,
aur most difficult problem. Only you can decide
what happens to your paper at this crucial time.
" e re counting on you to send in your con
tribution NOW-TODAY!
These are meat profiteers
... S ' Dept ' -° f Labor llatUtic * * h °" sharply who * raspon
«bl« for high prices. Prices paid lo farmers for livestock have
gone tip 74% since June 1946. but The Meal Trust has raised
its prices on wholesale meat to retail butchers by 120%! And
the butchers are getting squeeied—the price they charge the
consumers has gone up only 112%.
You’d expect this to be reflected in the Meal Trust's profits,
and it is. Profits of the Big Four last year were 430% over
1939 profits. 120.9% over 1945 profits.
Here are how the individual Big Four packers have
made out:
PROFITS in MILLIONS of DOLLARS
1947 1946 1939
Armour 53.0 57,j 3 7
WiUon 23.6 17.0 L 3
Cudahy 12.5 16.0 4.0
meat to me at a reasonable
price.”
Dorothy Bushnell Cole, chair
man of the anti-inflation pro
gram committee of the Progressive
Party and Women for Wallace,
reported on the first week of
the campaign to the Cook County
central committee. That body
agreed that the fight to drive
prices down and to curb evictions
must be given major emphasis
in the weeks ahead, especially in
precinct canvassing
* * *
EARLIER nearly a hundred
housewives had staged a power
ful demonstration against the
“Big Four” packers, picketing
the main gate of the Chicago
Stockyards for two hours.
A statement released by Dor
othy Bushnell Cole, Progressive
Party candidate for Congress
from the 9th district, commented
that “the packers in their ex
pensive newspaper propaganda
try to make us, the housewives,
a scapegoat for high meat prices.
They tell the public that we ‘in
sist’ on having meat for the fam
ily without regard to price. That
is nonsense. The records show
that the average American is
consuming 10 pounds less meat
this year than he did last—l4s
pounds compared with 155
pounds in 1947.”
Calls jury
anti-Jewish
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (FP)
The federal grand jury which
indicted 12 Communist party
leaders was a “white, Aryan and
upper middle class” blue ribbon
jury with an anti-Semitic bias,
John Abt, national counsel for
the Progressive party, charged
here.
Abt ,who spoke at the found
ing convention of the California
Independent Progressive party,
based his charge on his own ex
periences when called to testify
before the grand jury in New
York.
Abt said he was persistently
questioned about his religious be
liefs by one juror. When he re
plied for a second time, “The
faith of my fathers was Jewish,
but I do not attend any religious
institution,” the questioner in
sisted: “But are you a Jew?" At
this point even the prosecuting
attorney became alarfhed, Abt
said, and the episode was strick
en from the record over Abt’s
objections.
Hearing set
NEW YORK—Motions in the
case of the 12 indicted members
of the national board of the
Communist Party, including Gil
bert Green of Chicago, will be
heard in U. S. District Court
here Sept. 27.
3
THE CHICAGO STAR, AUGUST 21. 1948