From 'Militant!.
Nearly 230,000 welfare recipients, most of them children, are on the edgs of starvation in this Midwest metropolis, while the state legislature wrangles over now restrictions in the public aid laws, Failura to eppropriate needed emergency funds has hald up raliof checks since the first week of May and left thousands of families helpless in the face of eviction and utility—tsrmination notices, Spectres cf the Great Depression hovered c yar Chicago as urgent appeals for food donations went out via radio,TV,church pulpits and welfare organisations. YWhon the results proved pitifully inadequato government food surpluses of dried beans, corn meal, flour, butter, lard,dried milk and canned hash were requisitioned for allotment at hastily designa tod distribution contres to families with chij}ron.
Howsver, unbelievable official bungling led to chaos of scandalous proportions as thousands of recipients milled about anxiously for. many hours in frort of closed distributicn centres. The Mayor ordered extra trucks, but forgot to get drivers. Trucks wore despatched to the wrong warshouses, chased in all dirsctions by relief recipisnts sent e to load then,
As limited quantitios of soms food items finally became available, families wero Paquired to accept a whole month's supply of whatever came in. Some stations doled out only:bags of flour and corn moal while others distributed butter, lard and dried beans. No baby food was available for the thousmds of infants on the roli®f roils Special recipos required to propare.difficult to cook foods never arrived, Violence flarad intermittently as frustrated and humiliated throngs of food’ aeskors, most of thom-Dearop grawiresantiib sioccwe and difficult, Moanwhilo, the Democratic working majority in the Illinois Houses of Representatives, as well as Democratic Governor Kerner, have capitulated at avery stage of the dobate which has hold the legislature deadlocked for more than two months. The Republican majority in the state Senate, demanding that ceilings be set on the amount of relief paymonts, has witheld approval of the emergency fund required by the Illinois Public Aim Commission(IPAC), These ceilings would, in the case of large families, push their tudget below licents per moal per family member,
When Arnold Maromont, a Democratic industrialist,newly chosen as TPAC chairman, accused the Republicans of 'racism' and 'Hitjorien' they promptly withdrew their senate confirmation of his appointmont. The Democratics gave their tacit consent by abstaining on tho vote.
Meanwhile, the victims of povorty in Chicago, one of the world's richest cities, romain ill-fed, ill-clothad and ill—housed, One silver-haired social worker, surveying the crowis of hungry men womon and children, burst out with tears in his eyes "This is just like the 1930's,"
Reactions varied among people directly affected. A 38 year old Negro, who was formerly an unskilled construction labourer until a back injury foreed him out of this lina of work, said grimly "My children are going to oat. I'll sse to that—- oven if I have to go to gaol for it", A man in his fiftios, thrown on the human Ssrap heap after ysars of work in ths stockyards, sand now living alono in a one room flat in the Negro ghetto, will have exhausted his moagre groceries by next week. Ineligible for surplus food because hoe has no children, he said: "There's probably some things in tho garbage cans in the alley I can pick up". ... ay ne rs,
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