Trouble in Tampa

One night last November a detail of Tampa, Fla. police raided a committee meeting of radicals who were busy promoting "the unemployed struggle." Six agitators were carted off to headquarters, questioned, released. Thereupon a masked mob promptly picked up three of them, whisked them away to a swamp outside town, beat, tarred, feathered them. Hospitalized, one of the agitators named Shoemaker subsequently died. It was widely reported in Tampa that police had been members of the masked mob.

Since the history of the class war is studded with such affrays, most likely the howl sent up by liberal and radical organizations would have soon died in an ineffective sob. But it just happened that the American Federation of Labor selected Tampa as its 1936 meeting place. And it just happened that at the present time, Labor's conservative William Green would like to salve his radical membership. Upshot was that he and Socialist Norman Thomas went into a huddle and the Mayor of Tampa gave Police Chief Tittsworth "indefinite leave of absence" to "investigate the case." First, six Tampa police-men were suspended. Last week they and two other suspects were indicted for second degree murder for participating in the Shoemaker flogging.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.