In a special issue, the Daily Worker opened its pages to readers among New York City taxi drivers to write in of their experiences, where aside from long hours, constant stress, little pay, and the rude and drunken customers, some of whom are trying to rob you, the drivers had to deal with police harassment, the blacklist, shakedowns, fake unions, and an utterly corrupt city hall working at the behest of the cab companies.

‘Blacklist, Police Terror, Low Wages and Long Hours Rule Lives of Taxi Drivers’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 5 No. 161. July 9, 1928.

YELLOW TAXICAB DRIVER PICTURES SCAB CONDITIONS

Says Workers Ready For Action

(By Taxi Correspondent.) I am a driver in the Yellow Cab Corporation and I want to say that there has been a good deal of resentment in the ranks of the drivers of this company because of the impossibility of making a living driving for this scab firm.

Yellow taxi drivers get 40 per cent commission on the dollar, providing they work six days. If a driver works 5 days he gets 35 per cent and if he works 4 days 33 1-3 per cent. Drivers working for the independent fleet owners get a flat rate of 40 per cent.

Under Thumb of Police.

There are in this city 60,000 taxi drivers and the job of each one is under the thumb of the police department. Licenses are revoked and suspended at the will of Police Commissioner Warren or his subordinates.

Taxi drivers are bulldozed and overworked as few other workers are. The taxi driver is a piece worker. At the end of the week (which often means seven days) of long hours, nagging by passengers, police, and company inspectors, the driver is lucky to have made $35. All the money that a driver takes in is not clear. If he is arrested and fined for speeding–and the nature of his work compels him to speed–he has to pay his own fines The general public is not aware of the struggle of the taxi driver in order to make a living. In the winter time, after hours of driving in near zero weather, the strain coupled with the cold, becomes unbearable. Taxi drivers suffer from Colds, constipation, frozen feet and other difficulties. Newspaper stories favorable to the taxi drivers are not mentioned by the daily press. They fail to mention that as many as eleven taxi drivers were murdered in the past five years, by passengers who hire the drivers’ cab in order him into a side street, steal is day’s “bookings” and cab and then give him the “works.”

Some Life.

Taxi drivers are forced by police regulations to accept any call. A driver is never sure that he is not picking up a drunken and abusive customer or perhaps a criminal. The driver must post a police, criminal identification card in his cab, giving his name and number and photograph so that he can easily be reported by any passenger–or framed up.

If the driver should lose this card and many times they are stolen from their frames in the cab, he forfeits his right to earn a living for a period ranging anywhere from five days to 2 months and sometimes he has his license revoked. Taxi drivers want the licensing department made independent of police control. At the present time any patrolman can act as inspector and demand his bit of graft on pain of reporting a driver for a petty or imagined offence.

To be reported means license suspension or revokation and inability to earn a living for the time, so that drivers give the cop a ride and slip something soothing into his hands.

Individual cab owners have three organizations, the Amalgamated Broad Street, and the Independent Taxi Owners’ Association. These organizations take into their ranks driver owners and furnish legal aid insurance; but there is no union of taxi drivers.

The lot of the taxi driver is a hard one and the only remedy is organization along trade union lines.

“OLD TIMER.”

DRIVER INJURED AS PRIVATE CAR CRASHES TAXICAB

New Ruling Prevents Compensation

(By Taxi Correspondent.) This will give you an idea what we taxicab drivers are up against Last Thursday about 4:15 p.m. a taxicab was struck by a private Buick touring ear at 47th St. and 6th Ave. The two men passengers of the cab and the driver were tossed about and injured. The officer on the beat nearly got his and the cab was a pretty mess.

Then it was found that the driver of the Buick had no current chauffeur’s license and was driving his car on a license which expired June 30, 1928. For this serious offense he merely got a summons from the cop for “not having a license,” even though he had disobeyed an officer’s signal and had overrun a red light.

Another Story.

Now if a cab driver had done this he would have been asked to drive to the nearest police station where he would have been put in the coop for “reckless driving” in addition to the charges mentioned above. He would have had his credentials “lifted” and after a trial in the traffic court he would have been chased to the Hack Bureau to meet “Czar” Ruttenberg who runs this industry for Tammany Hall and the Yellow Taxi Corporation.

Why does the taxi driver meet with so much discrimination by the police and the courts. The answer is simple. He is unorganized.

Organize.

There is only one way to beat this game and solve the hundreds of problems which are facing us drivers: trade union organization Three are plenty of freak organizations in our trade now, but the real thing is yet to come. Let’s get together in one, big, powerful trade union of all the drivers. Will some of you who read these lines, write to me about this in care of The DAILY WORKER, the only paper which will give us drivers a real break.

“MACK.”

DRIVER EXPOSES EDITOR BROWN

Shows Taxi Editor Is Tool of Tammany

(By Taxi Correspondent.) There are tricks in all trades but I guess the politicians in this game have learned more than their share.

On April 30, 1928, the great “champion” of the taxicab drivers Mr. H.A. Innes Brown, editor of the “Taxi Weekly,” announced that he would form a new Hackmen’s Political Party. In the May 7 edition of his paper Brown announced editorially that “the Taxi Weekly is backing the Hackmen’s Political Party because it believes that it is only by political activity that any progress and prosperity can be brought to the rank and file of the industry under present conditions.”

First Attempt.

Well, we can all look back and remember the “Square Deal Auto League” which came out in 1925 with the announced purpose of “a square deal” for the hackmen provided they supported “Our Jimmy,” meaning the light-footed, light-headed, Tammany Hall, cake-eater The “Square Deal” outfit was headed by Philip J. O’Brien, a one-time president of the Amalgamated Taxi Association. O’Brien was ousted from this office by the membership for good reasons.

An active campaign was carried on among the taxi drivers. Offices were maintained in the Times Square district at 43rd St. and Broadway. The votes of the hackmen were swung for “our” Jimmy but after election it was discovered that “our” Jimmy forgot “us.” Did the drivers get the square deal as per promise. Well, you know what the chicken got! And how!

Tammany Blessings.

Here are some of the “blessings” which have come down from the Tammany heaven to the hackmen: stricter police control, increasing police oppression and discrimination against drivers, “Czar” Nelson Rutenberg and badges that fall apart, suspensions, increasing revocations of licenses, and greater and greater difficulties in making a living. So when Mr. Brown talks to us about the benefits of his new political party, we ask him: What progress or prosperity did the rank and file receive when we took a dose of political activity as per the dose of “Doc” Brown the last time? Also what assurance have we when we take another shot of his “dope” that we won’t find ourselves after the election out in the cold again. What is Brown’s program for solving low wages, discrimination, the blacklist? Just whom is Brown planning to support in the election? Let Mr. Brown answer these questions.

TAXI FLEETERS USE ILLEGAL BLACKLIST

An organized conspiracy on the part of the big fleeters under the domination of the Yellow Taxi Corporation to force out thousands of drivers from the industry among other means by the maintenance of a secret blacklist has been uncovered through the efforts of The DAILY WORKER with the assistance of a number of hackmen.

Documentary evidence, part of which is herewith produced, is now in the possession of the DAILY WORKER showing that the Greater City Taxi Owners’ Association, Inc., of 1841 Broadway, a bosses’ anti-union, labor-hating organization is now sending out regularly a blacklist of names of taxi drivers whom for one reason or another the bosses are seeking to drive from the trade. Thousands of names of “undesirables” are now on this list, it has been learned. Additions are made each month. In most cases these are drivers who either refuse to be speeded up or “assert themselves” against the bosses.

The letter below sent to one of the members of the association enclosed the June list on which are printed over one hundred new names whom the fleeter is instructed, indirectly of course, not to employ.

Same Gang

The Greater City Taxi Owners’ Association is dominated by the Yellow Taxi Corporation, a Morgan-controlled, open-shop concern which is directly connected with the Tammany Hall machine and its police force in New York City.

Fourth Deputy police commissioner Nelson Ruttenberg, “Taxi Czar,” and Tammany henchman has used the power of his office to suspend drivers for little cause or none at all, in conjunction with the same scheme, it is believed. The Tammany controlled police force keeps cab-drivers other than those of the Yellow Cab Corporation off Fifth Avenue and other desirable cruising streets and localities. Scores of drivers have had their licenses revoked for no greater “crime” than that of asserting their rights in the face of some Tammany Hall cop.

A copy of the letter containing the bosses blacklist is printed below:

Greater City Taxi Owners Ass’n, Inc.
Mr. O. Blume,
1841 BROADWAY
31 East 133rd St.,
New York City.

Dear Sir:

New York, N.Y.
June 22, 1928.

You will find enclosed Drivers List for the month of June, which you should add to the names heretofore furnished you.

Please be advised that the Directors have decided that on and after July 1st, 1928, it will not be necessary to collect dues at the rate of 50c. per car per month, but all members are requested to pay up their past dues to June 30th, immediately as the treasury of the Association is in need of funds to meet current obligations.

You may hear certain false rumors that the Association is about to disband, but this is absolutely not the case, and the work will be carried on as heretofore. Please continue to send in your chauffeurs’ reports, and you may expect to hear some definite news with regard to the Compensation Law affecting taxicab operators using Association Day Cards very shortly.

Very truly yours,

GREATER CITY TAXI OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION, INC.

M.H. Lowitt, Secretary.

POLICE TERROR RULES TAXIMEN WITH IRON HAND

Tammany Shown As Tool of Big Fleeters

(By Taxi Correspondent.) Some time ago new traffic laws were introduced in the city and since then the lot of the taxi driver has become even worse than it was before.

According to the new regulations issued by the police department parking is prohibited on Fifth Ave below 59th Street from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. During the 1025 I.R.T strike, emergency regulations prohibited parking from 4 to 7 p.m. But due to objections from the Fifth Avenue Merchants’ Association a change was made, resulting in the “No Parking” rule beginning one hour later every day.

No Relief.

The new regulations will not and has not relieved traffic on that avenue, as the heavy traffic begins about 3 p.m. At that hour all the brokers start on their way home after a “hard” day’s work on the floors of the stock exchange in Wall Street. Pierce Arrows, Rolls Royces, Packards and other high priced cars are parked at the curb on Fifth Ave., while their owners are shopping or having tea at the club, making the task of the taxi driver one which is a strain on his nervous system.

Another difficulty which they must face is the Fifth Ave. buses According to the franchise issued to the Fifth Avenue Coach Corporation no more than two (2) buses are to be permitted on the avenue in one block. Yet 12 and 14 buses are often seen crowded together in one block.

Always Blamed.

Whenever a difficulty arises the taxi driver is the “fall guy” for he is the one who is always wrong all attempts being made to satisfy the Fifth Ave. Coach Company or the Fifth Ave. Merchants’ Association. All at the expense of the taxi driver.

While there is no city ordinance which prohibits taxi drivers from cruising on Fifth Ave. the Tammany cops stationed on the avenue have for the past four years been handing out summonses to taxi drivers so unfortunate as to be caught there.

H.A. Innes Brown, the editor of “Taxi Weekly,” knows of these abuses, such as the discrimination against the taxi driver on Fifth Ave. and the violation of the franchise issued by the city to the Fifth Ave. Bus Corporation, but not once has he raised his voice in protest against these conditions. Why should Brown, self-styled “champion” of the rights of the taxi drivers, raise his voice against the Fifth Avenue Coach Company? Brown’s paper is the advertising medium of General Motors, of which it is said the Fifth Avenue coach is a subsidiary. Nearly every week the “Taxi Weekly” runs full page ads of the General Motors.

The above enumerated regulations are carried over as part of the policy of Former Police Commissioner Enright, who served under Mayor John F. Hylan.

Fake Campaign.

When the present mayor, James J. Walker, was a candidate, his taxi friends in the industry carried on an extensive campaign among the taxi drivers, promising them “justice” and a “square deal” if he was elected. They went so far as to organize the “Square Deal Taxi League.” And also to publish a small paper called “The Square Deal,” which called on the taxi drivers to rally around “Our Jimmy.” As bad as Red Mike (referring to Hylan) was, our Jimmie is worse. That’s what we get for voting for these Tammany fakers. But never again. N.M.P.

TAXICAB DRIVER BABES NEW TRICK

‘Hackmen’s Political Party’ Exposed

(By a Taxi Correspondent.) I have been a taxi driver for nearly twelve years. It is no exaggeration to say that conditions are worse in this trade today than at any, time that I can remember Many times I have asked myself the question, what is the reason f this? No doubt other drivers ask the same question.

Well, I’m not saying that I have the answer. But we can learn from examining some of our “friends” in the industry.

The most interesting thing about the very bad conditions in our trade is that more than any where else there are dozens of schemes on foot individuals and organizations offering to help and to fight to correct these evils. The one I want to talk about here is the “Taxi Weekly,” a trade paper run by a man called H.A. Innes Brown.

Would-Be Politician.

In addition to editing the paper Brown is also now trying to build up a Hackman’s Political Party. He claims to have enrolled nearly 8,000 cab drivers in his scheme. Even if he has one-third that number, this shows you what the taxi men have yet to learn.

Brown doesn’t give any aims or program for the party he is running He has held no open meetings. No officers have been elected. No one knows just exactly what his game is, any more than his statement that it is “for better legislative and administrative treatment of the taxicab man.” He gets the men to send in their names “in secret.” They pledge themselves to vote in some sort of vague “primary to be held by this party.” What kind of game is this, you will ask. Well, it isn’t hard to understand.

Brown, Union-Hater.

Brown came to New York from Boston where it is said he was officially connected with the Mogul Checker Cab Company, one of the open-shop, union-hating fleeters of that city. In 1923 we find him in the employ of the Mogul Checker Cab Manufacturing Corporation of New York with offices at 59th St and Broadway. Among other things he was at that time editing the “Checkerboard,” the official scab paper put out by this concern for distribution among the drivers of the city. When the taxi drivers employed by the Mogul Checker fleet owners went out on strike in the summer of 1924, Brown was a man to be reckoned with. He had previously received a good training in the spirit of strike-breaking in the U.S. Army from which he was discharged as a captain.

When the three thousand drivers went out, Brown is said to have been the man that fought against the Brotherhood of Taxi Chauffeurs, which sought to make a settlement with the bosses of the Mogul cabs.

Next we hear of him as editor of the Taxi Weekly, at 8 Columbus Circle. The new union because of the inefficiency of its officials and for other reasons had gone out of existence. But during the summer of 1925 Jack Cohen, Czar of the Funeral Drivers Union, Local 643, started a campaign to organize the taxi drivers. To help him he took under his wing a certain Jack Truhaft, a Bronx taxi driver and friend of Brown’s.

Birds of a Feather.

Cohen and Truhaft in their union activities collected, it is said, as much as $7,500 from the drivers a $5 per head. The game lasted about three or four months. No meetings were held and no accounting was ever given as to what happened to the money. My own $5.00 is still there too!

The next thing we find Truhaft as circulation manager of the “Taxi Weekly” under Brown. You will still find him at the same job. Draw your own conclusions.

Space does not permit to give more recent history of Brown, his favoritism of and connections with the Yellow Taxi Corporation. Some other time.

Just to end up with his trick political party.

In the Taxi Weekly of April 26, 1926, which I have saved, we read a very interesting letter sent to Mayor Jimmie Walker, by H.A Innes Brown:

“Sir:

Tammany Tool.

“During the democratic primaries in 1925, this paper supported you against Mayor Hylan, from the first moment your name was mentioned until you obtained the nomination in the election a few months later it also championed your cause…” (etc., etc.)

In this week’s issue of the Taxi Weekly we see a big headline: “Hackman’s party may sway Smith’s election.” The plot thickens as they say in the movies. But you don’t have to be any smarter than a fool to see the ears of the democratic donkey sticking out of this Brown-Tammany Hall scheme to turn over the votes of the taxi drivers to Al Smith, friend of the traction gang. Here’s hoping The DAILY WORKER puts up a real fight for the cabmen.

(Signed) “O’Ma.”

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.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n161-NY-jul-09-1928-DW-Q.pdf