The municipal program for the Communist Party in Chicago’s 1924 city election distributed in tens of thousands of copies to homes and workplaces. Before a number being disqualified at the last minute, the Party ran candidates in eight wards. Also included below is the Party’s organizational plan for getting out the vote, and biographies of five of its candidates, including of Edward Doty, a Black packinghouse worker and former member of the African Blood Brotherhood.

‘Workers (Communist) Party Chicago Aldermanic Elections Municipal Program’ from The Daily Worker. 2 No. 250. January 12, 1925.

All Sunday the members of the Workers (Communist) Party were busy circulating aldermanic petitions among workers in those wards where the party has placed candidates in the field. Thousands of signatures were secured and the outlook is good for placing the whole list of Communist candidates nominated on the ballot for the elections February 24.

Today the DAILY WORKER publishes in full the municipal program of the Workers (Communist) Party on which it has entered its candidates in the elections. The program is as follows:

* * *

THE WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY is what its name implies—a party of and for WORKERS.

We do not repeat the ridiculous pretentions of the other parties, that we have a program which will suit all classes. We state frankly that our program will bring no comfort to the banking kings, merchant princes, traction lords and real estate sharks who now hold Chicago in their covetous grasp. But to all workers, and working class organizations struggling for the advancement of the workers, we pledge our loyal support in any and all conflicts, at any and all times.

Now, when great numbers of workers are suffering from unemployment when police and injunctions are called in by the bosses to break all strikes, when the working class standard of living is being steadily forced down, when gigantic municipal traction steals are being engineered, when working class children are suffering from inadequate and improper schooling—it is necessary to come forward with a program which exposes the real issues in the aldermanic elections to be held on Feb. 24—a program which faces the issues frankly, and which rallies the working men and women of Chicago for struggle against the capitalists on the basis of the immediate interests of the workers.

The Workers (Communist) Party and the candidates it endorses stand for the following immediate program; if elected, the candidates will make use of their position to mobilize the masses toward putting It into effect:

PUBLIC UTILITIES

1. The Workers (Communist) Party demands immediate removal of public utilities from the ownership and control of private capitalists. Confiscation of all franchises. Operation to be for public service and not for private profit—under direct public management, vested in committees chosen by the workers engaged in the various branches of service.

2. Traction. The voters of Chicago have repatedly gone on record for a single, unified, municipally owned traction system of surface lines, “L” and subway. In place of this, Mayor Dever is dickering with the traction magnates to turn over to them what amounts to a perpetual franchise on Chicago transportation. The Workers (Communist) Party demands that the city immediately take over the existing lines in the form outlined below:

(a) Operation to be carried on by the traction employes, thru special committees, working in conjunction with the existing street carmen’s and elevated employes’ unions.

(b) Provisions for immediate improvement of service—increased seating capacity for men and women going to and from work.

(c) Reduction of fares, with special rates for passengers during rush hours.

UNEMPLOYMENT

1. Work or compensation for all unemployed, not as a matter of “charity”, but as a direct municipal responsibility. The city to bear the cost, and compensation wages to be paid thru working class bodies selected by labor unions in conjunction with unemployed workers.

2. No evictions for non-payment of rent.

3. City government must assume responsibility for comfortable housing of unemployed workers free of charge while they are unemployed, and rooms in the houses of wealthy residents must be requisitioned for this purpose.

4. Immediate inauguration of a program of public works, especially with a view toward relieving the unemployment situation.

(a) Construction of adequate municipal subways, to be owned and operated as indicated above.
(b) The so-called “Chicago Beautiful” plan to be completely changed to provide improvement and sanitation of working class districts, and to be immediately inaugurated.

5. Abolition of private employment agencies. Establishment of public free employment bureaus by unemployed workers’ organizations and unions, operating at municipal expense.

6. The candidates endorsed by our party will support the above unemployment measures, and, further, will lead in the creation of councils of unemployed workers, for the purpose of bringing pressure to bear upon the employers and the municipal authorities.

EDUCATION

1. Education to be taken out of the control of the political servants of big business and placed in the hands of teachers, students and working class parents.

(a) Complete supervision over school policies to be voted in councils of teachers and parents, which will decide what shall be taught in the schools, text books to be used etc.
(b) Administrative matters in the schools to be in charge of joint councils of teachers and students, who will select all principals and other officials.
(c) No discrimination against individual teachers because of political opinions. No interference with the right of teachers to organize in their Teachers’ Union.

2. Unequivocal rejection of the platoon system.

3. We demand that all children in public schools of Chicago shall be fully maintained at the expense of the city throughout the year, not only as regards text books, but also in regards to food, clothing, transportation to and from school, vacation expenses, and all other expenses necessary to a healthful life while studying.

4. Improved schooling facilities with adequate playgrounds.

5. Substantially increased pay for teachers. Money for increased wages to be obtained thru special assessments levied against wealthy tax dodgers and coupon clippers.

POLICE

1. Abolition of use of police to break strikes, and their use in all other labor disputes. Maintenance of order during strikes, picketing, etc., to be exclusively in the hands of committees elected by the workers on strike.

2. Abolition of private detective agencies, which have proved to be nothing but institutions of thuggery and frame-ups against the workers.

3. Prohibition of use of scabs; penalty of fine or imprisonment for all employers using or importing strike- breakers.

INJUNCTION

1. We demand abolition of the use of injunctions against the workers in labor disputes, and we urge mass violation by the workers of any injunction that may be issued.

CONDITIONS OF LABOR

1. We demand the use of the city government power of public health regulation, to compel the payment of not less than the union scale of wages to all workers employed in so-called private industry or in any kind of labor, with enforcement of eight-hour day and 40-hour week, severe penalties to be put upon employers violating same.

2. Sanitation, safety devices, ventilation, heating and all other conditions of labor in workshops to be subject to the sole control of shop committees elected by the workers, any employer violating regulations laid down by such committee, to be punished as violating a city health ordinance.

3. All factory inspectors to be selected by the labor unions.

4. Maximum six-hour day for women in industry; equal pay of women with men for equal work done.

5. Maternity maintenance of working women during vacation of six weeks before and six weeks after childbirth–at expense of employer.

CHILD LABOR

1. In accordance with the consistent national campaign against child labor initiated by the Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party, we demand the abolition of all child labor up to 18 years of age, children to be supported at municipal expense.

(a) Funds for this purpose to be secured thru taxes levied against corporation profits and high individual incomes.

2. Young workers (youth).

(a) Equal pay for equal work for young and

old.
(b) Maximum six-hour day for all young workers under 21 years of age. Five days of work a week.
(c) One month’s vacation for young workers each year, with full pay.

RACE DISCRIMINATION

1. The Workers (Communist) Party demands unqualified social, economic and political equality of all workers, irrespective of color, race or creed.

2. Equal pay of all workers for equal work done.

3. Immediate and unceasing action against the menace of the ku klux klan.

4. No discrimination against Negroes in matters of residence, admission to restaurants, theaters, etc. Severe penalties for landlords persisting in the practice of charging higher rents to Negroes than to whites.

5. We demand that the habit of Chicago police in breaking into the homes of Negroes at will, be brought to an immediate end. No toleration of attempts to establish a caste system with the Negroes as an inferior caste by the arresting and terrorization of men and women of the two races for no other offense than friendly association in their homes and public places. This must be made a political issue.

MUNICIPAL EMPLOYES

1. Reduction of salaries of mayor, city council, municipal judges and other higher city officials to put them on a level with the average wage earner.

2. No interference with the right of any branch of municipal employes to organize in labor unions. Establishment of the shop committee system as a means of direct control of job conditions by the employes of the various departments.

CONTRACT LETTING

1. Abolition of private contract system in the construction of public works; all contracts to be let thru the unions, with union working conditions, wages, hours, etc.

HOUSING

1. We demand that all rents be drastically reduced, and that the extortion and “unfair practices” laws be invoked to enforce this demand.

2. That the city government immediately begin construction of modern apartment houses for workers, to be rented at the cost of operation–the construction work to be undertaken on a scale to provide employment for workers now unemployed.

RIGHT TO VOTE

Extension of the suffrage, giving ALL workers in Chicago the right to vote–present restrictions requiring citizenship, permanent residence, etc., being an obvious discrimination in favor of the capitalist class.

The above program of immediate demands touches issues which are vital to every working man and woman in Chicago. Every one of these issues is a direct outgrowth of the present system of production for private profit–that is, of capitalism. Because of the monopoly which the bosses maintain over the factories, machines, etc., the workers are obliged to toil long hours and for meager wages, while the goods that they produce are taken by the capitalists. With schools, press and police power in the hands of capitalism, it is obvious that these elections do not offer any real opportunity for the workers. Capitalist democracy is nothing but a sham. There can be no real solution of the great problems weighing down upon the workers, until capitalism is overthrown- until the workers seize control of the governmental power and take over industry. This will be accomplished thru the establishment of a Soviet republic, a workers’ and farmers’ government.

We call upon all labor unions and working class organizations which a in agreement with the immediate demands set forth in our program to establish a united front with the Workers (Communist) Party in the fight for their realization, thru support of the aldermanic candidates listed below:

Third Ward–E.L. Doty, 3638 Ellis Park Ave.
Eleventh Ward–Victor Zokaitis, 2956 Emerald Ave.
Twenty-Second Ward–L. Cejka, 2827 S. Spaulding Ave.
Twenty-Fourth Ward–H. Epstein 3131 W. 15th St.
Twenty-Eighth Ward–N. Dozenberg. 321 N. Avers Ave.
Thirty-Second Ward–Peter Lucas, 2014 Cortez St.
Thirty-Fourth Ward–Harry Brooker, 2708 Crystal St.
Forty-Fourth Ward–J.W. Johnstone, 2406 N. Clark St.

THE COMMUNIST CAMPAIGN IN MUNICIPAL ELECTION SPEEDS UP AS PROGRAM APPEALS TO WORKERS

The Workers (Communist) Party, Local Chicago, has now gotten into full swing in the local aldermanic municipal elections on Feb. 24, 1925. There are running nine candidates endorsed by the Workers Party. At the meeting of the elections committee on Tuesday night, Jan. 14, much progress was reported. All the ward captains feel confident that the necessary signatures to place the Communist candidates on the ballot will be obtained by Jan. 25.

Getting Candidates on Ballot.

The third ward where our colored comrade, E.L. Doty, is candidate and Gordon Owens is captain, is swinging into line. The Eleventh Ward, Victor Zokaitis, candidate, has over halt of the signatures needed. The Twenty-Second Ward, Louis Cejka candidate, A. Overgaard, captain, reports the same. The Twenty-Fourth Ward, Hyman Epstein, candidate, W. Kruse, captain, will probably get sufficient signatures on the big drive next Sunday. Twenty-Eights Ward, Nick Dozenberg candidate, August Ozol captain, has done very well, over 400 signatures being secured to date. A propaganda committee of seven is on the job to make the campaign a success and the comrades there are working very hard. In the Thirty-Second Ward, Comrade Peter Lucas candidate, M. Stolar captain, states that all the comrades are on the job. Thirty-Fourth Ward, Harry Brooker candidate, I.L. Davidson captain, the DAILY WORKER sub campaign is going along very successfully, while also securing petitions, they have set as their aim 200 new subscribers for the DAILY WORKER in this ward. In the Thirty-Fifth, J. Louis Engdahl candidate, N.J. Christensen captain, next Sunday should see the ward over the top, and the same goes for the 44th ward where Jack Johnstone is the candidate and Walt Cannon captain.

DAILY WORKER Distributed and Subs Gotten.

Comrades are all taking bundles of the DAILY WORKER and sub-cards when going out and report some successes. Bundles are being mailed to the ward headquarters so that comrades will be certain to take them along in getting signatures. There are two Sundays left to make final drives for signatures. Sunday night, Jan. 25, every signature obtained must be in the hands of the ward captain or city organization. The election campaign is also speeding up in other directions. Meetings are being scheduled by the captains of the wards, and in addition, arrangements are being made to cover election meetings and open forum meetings of other organizations so that propaganda to the fullest extent may be put forth.

Will Cover Many Meetings.

An organization called the Chicago public affairs association has arranged for the discussion of a number of municipal problems in Chicago, chiefly of a middle class character. The meetings will be held in public schools. These schools are available for these meetings on first and third Mondays of each month. Our comrades everywhere are urged to attend these meetings in order to extend the scope and broaden the agenda and get our message and program before the meetings. There is no doubt that despite the petty bourgeois middle class character of these meetings, working men and women in the neighborhood will be attracted during the campaign to these meetings, and our comrades must therefore reach them with our literature, spoken word and every other way possible. To these so-called open forums, aldermanic candidates are to be invited. Meetings under the direction of the Workers (Communist) Party are also being arranged by ward captains. In other columns are listed the schools, location and the wards of the so-called “open forum” meeting; scheduled. Further publicity telling what these “open forums” really are will be dealt with in further issues of the DAILY WORKER.

To Distribute 50,000 Copies of Communist Program.

The municipal program put forward by the Workers (Communist) Party and which the candidates it endorses are supporting, has been summarized in leaflet form. It is expected that 50,000 copies of this leaflet will be distributed in the shops, factories, from house to house and at all other meetings possible. This leaflet, dealing especially and plainly with the main issues before the workers, will have the effect of bringing the Communist program before tens of thousands of workers and getting them closer to the Workers (Communist) Party.

Every party and Y.W.L. branch should immediately order these leaflets thru their branch or ward captain and make arrangements for Systematic distribution. The municipal election campaign being conducted by the Workers (Communist) Party, Local Chicago, and the aldermanic candidates it endorses, links up all phases of the national campaign and issues being conducted under the direction of the central executive committee of the Workers (Communist) Party.

Campaign to Reach Unions.

Efforts are being made to reach the trade unions and other working class organizations on the question of child labor, Sacco-Vanzetti, defense of Ruthenberg and Minor, race discrimination, unemployment and many other burning issues.

Extended Beyond Parliamentary Activity.

Our campaign is not being conducted on purely parliamentary lines, but every other avenue of activity is being utilized. The Communist municipal program is a program which touches the requirements of every working man and woman of Chicago.

But, as our program points out, the only final solution of labor’s problems is to do away with capitalism; to take over political power into their own hands and then take the necessary measures to insure control of industry, and work to put the Communist program into effect. Letters are being sent to trade union and other working class organizations to enlist them in the support of the candidates endorsed by the Workers (Communist) Party on the basis of the program set forth. In subsequent issues of the DAILY WORKER there will appear articles dealing with each phase of the program and the progress of the campaign.

Our Candidate in the 34th Ward.

HARRY BROOKER, candidate endorsed by the Workers (Communist) Party for alderman in the 34th ward, has a long history of service to the labor and revolutionary movements of Russia and America. Comrade Brooker is a printer, working at the trade, and a member of the Typographical Union, Local 16, Chicago. Comrade Brooker is forty years old. He started to work for his living at the age of eighteen. In 1903, he became a member of the social democratic party of Russia and six months” later he joined the social revolutionary party. He remained active in the left wing of this party up to 1908, when he left Russia for the United States. During the period of his activity in Russia he was arrested ten times–once for working in an underground print shop, and in 1907 he was exiled to the province of Viatka. When he came to the United States he made New York his home. There he joined the Workmen’s Circle, then the socialist labor party, and in 1918 the socialist party. In 1919 the joined the Communist Party and has been a member of the Communist movement ever since. He has been very active in the Communist movement, having held various responsible party positions, including that of sub-district organizer. He joined Local 83, New York, of the Typographical Union in 1912 and has always been an active and loyal union man. He assisted in establishing the six-hour day for Jewish printers in Chicago, was secretary of the United Hebrew Chapels, and shop chairman in the print shop of the Jewish Daily Courier in 1920. The life story of Harry Brooker is a tale of unswerving devotion and sacrifice to the working class movement—a tale of hard work, unflinching bravery in the face of czarist oppression, and patient striving to serve his fellow workers. His record is one that wins the respect and confidence of every working man and woman, one that assures them that he will faithfully fight for their interests at all times and in all places.

MILITANT MACHINIST IS COMMUNIST ALDERMANIC CANDIDATE IN 22nd WARD

Louis A. Cejka, candidate for alderman endorsed by the Workers Party of Chicago in the 22nd ward, works as a machinist every day and consequently is thoroughly familiar with the needs of the workers. He is not involved in high politics in Chicago and therefore does not approach the question of municipal government from the point of view of a politician. To Comrade Cejka, the question is very simple, for, as he sees it, nothing is too good for the workers. Cejka was born In Vienna, Austria, in 1881. He has been a member of Machinists’ Local 84 since 1903. For five years he held the office of chairman of his local, was secretary for three years, financial secretary four years. He is now a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor from his local, which he has been representing there for the past three years. He has also been a delegate to the district council of the machinists for four years and is a member of the district executive board. It is no new experience to Cejka to contest for the office of alderman—this is his fifth experience. Not having the backing of a powerful political machine and the money furnished by such a machine, Cejka’s merits have not brought him to the point of sitting in the aldermanic council. However, the workers must realize that the only man who can represent them and fight for them is one who, thru his own experiences, knows what they want and offers them a practical program of municipal measures. Cejka belonged to the socialist party for 15 years and joined the Communist Party on its formation. His trade union record speaks for itself.

NEGRO WORKER IS THE COMMUNIST CANDIDATE IN THE THIRD WARD.

Edward L. Doty, a Chicago leader of the Workers (Communist) Party, candidate for alderman of the .3rd ward, was born at Baton Rouge, La., in 1893, Working people’s children do not often have opportunities for education, and especially for a colored boy. in the far south, education is usually considered a unnecessary luxury. So the young Negro child who was destined to be a leader of his class and race started his education at the age of seven heaving ice as a helper on an Ice-wagon in Mobile, Ala. Capitalist culture is well exemplified by the little seven-year-old boy at work at the first streak of dawn at lifting and carrying heavy cakes of ice, so that the fine southern gentlemen might have their mint juleps at the right temperature.

Packing House is University.

 After working on Alabama railroads, Doty came to Chicago at the age of twenty-one, in 1905, and worked in Chicago packing houses as a steam-fitter, etc., until he was drafted into the world war in 1918. He is now working as a plumber in Chicago, where he is well known and considered a leader among the working people of the south side. He is especially active in attempting to break down the remaining barriers against the admission of Negroes into trade unions. Doty soon developed into a powerful speaker and a skillful organizer. He became a charter member of the African Blood Brotherhood, which sought to bring the black and white workers into co-operation on the class-conscious basis and to win the freedom of the Negro workers from the racial persecutions which are such a terrible handicap to the struggles of the colored workers.

Graduates a Communist.

From the first days that the Communist movement assumed form in the United States, the young Negro leader threw himself into It with all of his heart and brain. When the Workers (Communist) Party was organized he became a member. The peculiar legal requirements of the aldermanic elections of Chicago do not permit the names of political parties to be announced as officially nominated by any party. This is a way of maintaining the pretense that municipal elections are “non-partisan.” Of course, it is a blind to cover the rank dictatorship—the capitalist dictatorship of the city of Chicago. Because of the hypocritical legal rules, the Workers (Communist) Party is not permitted to announce Comrade Doty as its regularly nominated party candidate. The party announces, however, that Comrade Doty runs for the office with the full approval and hearty endorsement of the Workers (Communist) Party, and that he makes his campaign unqualifiedly as a Communist.

VICTOR ZOKAITIS, ALDERMANIC CANDIDATE, ENDORSED BY THE COMMUNISTS IN ELEVENTH WARD

Victor A. Zokaitis, although only 22 years old, has to his credit many achievements as an active participant in the class struggle. He was born Oct. 17, 1902, at South Manchester, Conn. While still attending high school, his views on the class struggle caused him to be suspended several times. In the summer of 1917. when he was fifteen years old; he led a strike of young tobacco workers on Hartman’s Plantation, Buckland, Conn. This tobacco plantation Was owned by the American Tobacco Co., part of the American Tobacco Trust. Thru this strike the young workers won an increase In wages and a reduction of hours from ten to nine per day. Upon leaving high school in his sophomore year, at the age of sixteen, Comrade Zokaitis was employed by Cheny Bros., silk manufacturers, working in their broadsilk weave-room, carpenter shop, and paper box shop. He was fired and blacklisted for attempting to organize his fellow- workers into a union. In 1918 he joined the socialist party and became educational director of the young people’s socialist league of Connecticut in 1919. He participated in the left wing movement within that organization and has been in the Communist movement since its inception. At present he is district secretary of the Lithuanian Section of the Workers Party for the state of Illinois and president of the Chicago Lithuanian Workers’ Educational Society. Comrade Zokaitis has been a member 6t the Chicago Typographical Union No. 16 since his arrival in Chicago in September, 1922, and is an active militant worker in that union.

NOT GRADUATE OF HARVARD BUT MILITANT WORKING CLASS FIGHTER

When asked to tell the DAILY WORKER something about himself so that the workers of the 28th ward might know more about their candidate, Nicholas Dozenberg, candidate in that ward endorsed by the Workers Party, said, “I am not a graduate of Harvard University, but, having been a worker all my life, I guess I know what the workers want.” Comrade Dozenberg was born in Riga, Latvia, November 15, 1882. He came to Boston, Mass., where he lived up to 1921, joining the socialist party in 1906. He was city organizer of that party for three years. He has held a number of offices in the Machinists’ Union, which he joined in 1908. He was arrested for activities in the revolutionary labor movement in 1919 and released when he proved that he had been a citizen of the United States since 1911. Dozenberg was chairman of a railroad machine shop in 1924 and represented his fellow workers at the convention of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad system workers. For three years he represented Local 391 of the International Association of Machinists on the Central Labor Union of Boston. Dozenberg is at present a member of Local 478 of the I.A. of M., having represented that local at the Farmer- labor convention on July 3, 1923, at the amalgamation conference in Chicago, at the council for the protection of foreign-born workers. He is very active in his local union and serves on several committees. We do not believe the workers of the 28th Ward will worry very much about the fact that Dozenberg does not hold a fancy degree from an eastern university. They will judge him by his record in the labor movement and feel certain that when they vote for him and the platform on which he is running, they vote for their own man, a man who is ready and eager at all times to fight their battles.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.