Jobless Invasion

In the past two years angry unemployed have besieged the Legislatures of Texas and Illinois with demands for more & better relief. Two months ago members of the Workers' Alliance, No. 1 jobless union, marched into the Wisconsin Capitol, spent ten days in the Assembly chamber, were finally put out by police. All last week members of the Workers' Alliance squatted in the New Jersey State House at Trenton while the Legislature was in brief recess. Reason: New Jersey had run out of State relief funds, and 270,000 jobless had been turned back to local authorities to be cared for.

Year ago, after Republican Governor Harold G. Hoffman took office, a sales tax was imposed to provide relief revenues. Within a few months it grew so unpopular that it was repealed. The New Jersey Legislature which met last January could not agree on another form of relief taxation. So last week, after every cent of State money not legally tied up for other uses had been spent, the Legislature decided to knock off for six days.

As the members of the Assembly filed out of their chamber, some 20 members of the Workers' Alliance charged down from the gallery. Ray Cooke, jobless actor and national treasurer of the Alliance, announced: "There will be no violence. We are all peaceful, but we propose to stay here." By nightfall 50 men, women & children were encamped in the Assembly chamber. Bread and meat were brought in, and sandwiches were made on the clerk's desk. A coffee urn was set up under a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. John Spain Jr., Workers' Alliance organizer, took the chair as "Speaker." "Assemblymen" made speeches demanding relief.

For the next six days the mock session went on continuously. Alliance members slept in their chairs or on the floor. The number of demonstrators increased to 250 and the "Assembly" appointed two "sergeants-at-arms" to keep the children from romping too noisily around the Speaker's desk during speeches. A delegation had a friendly interview with Governor Hoffman, demanded the immediate reconvening of the Legislature. The Governor asked the Legislature to do so. The Assembly leaders agreed, then lost their nerve. Instead, a handful of Assemblymen and Senators gathered informally at Newark for a club conference.

One morning, with the obliging permission of the State House custodian, the demonstrators moved their blankets and belongings over to the Senate chamber so that the Assembly room could be used for Civil Service examinations. Later they moved back. A onetime Assemblyman named Theron McCampbell, now an independent candidate for the Democratic nomination for U. S. Senator, appeared uninvited on the rostrum.

"Economically you are a lot of children," he declared.

"Booh!" chorused the "Assembly."

"If I offered you work," shouted McCampbell, "you wouldn't take it. That's why I'm ashamed of you as citizens of New Jersey."

Two State House policemen hustled McCampbell out of the chamber before there was trouble.

In answer to demands that he borrow money for relief or use State funds appropriated for other purposes. Governor Hoffman issued a statement pointing out that he could do so only in case of "invasion or insurrection." Promptly the mock Assembly adopted a resolution :

"Be it resolved: That the group of citizens now invading the State Assembly chamber in the State House at Trenton do hereby inform the Governor of the State of New Jersey that an insurrection is in progress. ..."

When the legislature finally reconvened one night early this week, many a member brought his family and friends to see the fun. Besides sightseers, hundreds of jobless had arrived by truck and automobile, jammed State House corridors and the streets outside. From the Assembly floor to the galleries docilely retired all the demonstrators save five led by Ray Cooke. Authorized to state their case, Leader Cooke was promptly shushed when he cried, "I say he's a liar," at an Assemblyman who had charged the demonstrators with being "professional agitators."

The Assembly passed a resolution censuring the State House guard for permitting the "vulgar and burlesque" demonstrations of the week, requesting Governor Hoffman to prevent their recurrence. Assembly and Senate both passed resolutions requesting the Federal Government to return for relief funds $20,000,000 collected from New Jersey taxpayers. Then, unable to think of anything else to do, both Houses adjourned for two days, their leaders planning to confer in the more congenial atmosphere of a clubhouse. Encountering no opposition from the State House guard, Leader Cooke and "Speaker" Spain and their followers settled down once more on the Assembly floor.

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