- Xaris
- Jul 25, 2006
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Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry
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sounds good to me OP. black skin white masks seems interesting
i've been reading Studs Terkel's Hard Times which is a collection of oral interviews and recounts of the great depression. some good stuff and some guys are very cspam, but i don't know if it's really something worth discussing
quote:Judge Samuel A. Heller
Retired.
I SAT in the Morals Court for a year or so. One day I had twenty-three defendants, prostitutes. About five or six visitors attended. They were obviously slumming. I said to them: “It’s fortunate that we don’t have people here to come to revel in the misery of others. I’m delighted that sensitive people of your type are here.” (Laughs.)
The girls were all broke, not a penny among them. I thought the visitors were touched. One, the daughter of a former mayor, said, “I want to donate $25 for handkerchiefs, so the girls can wipe away their tears.” Handkerchiefs!
In the Thirties, I sat in many police courts. Monday was usually the most crowded day. Most of the drunks were picked up on Saturday night, and kept in jail over Sunday. This police officer was walking up and down with a biily. He hit them in the shins: “Stand up, you’re in a courtroom.” I said, “Get out of this court and come back without the club.” He said, “They’ve got to respect the court.” I said, “Do you? How dare you bring a billy into this courtroom?”
One of the fellows was bloody. He said the police hit him. This same officer said, “He was talking against the Government.” I said, “He’s not an enemy of the Government. You are. He has a right to his opinion.”
Those forty men were terror-stricken, standing in line. I said, “Are you afraid of me? Would you be afraid of me if you saw me on the streets? Please relax.” I saw some of them I had discharged scrubbing floors. One was washing an automobile. He said the captain told him to do it. I told the captain to pay this man fifty cents. Since when is he entitled to free labor?
Some men I had already discharged were being lined up against the wall in the back of the room. I discovered that a railroad agent was telling them: If you don’t work for us out in Dakota, the judge will send you back to jail. I said, “Get that man.” He ran out.
I called the railroad office. “There’s a man making an employment agency out of my courtroom. What’s his name? I’m issuing a warrant for his arrest.” They didn’t know, they said. So I threatened to issue a John Doe warrant and arrest whoever is in charge of that office. If it’s the president of the company, he’ll be arrested.
The man showed up the next day. He said the police and the other judges always let him do it. That’s how they got day laborers. They’d send ‘em out west for six or eight weeks and let ’em bum their way back.
There was a judge in those days who had fun with drunks. He’d say, “Hold up your hands. Ah, you’re playing piano.” Some of them had the shakes. I said to him, “My God, what are you doing? These people are scared stiff.”
These same judges who had fun with the wretched, oh, did they humble themselves in civil courts! They’d look at the names on the legal briefs. If it was a big firm, oh boy, did they bow! A lot of votes there from the bar association. These same judges, who were so abusive to the poor, were so scared here. You have a chance if the person coming in is as weak as you are—or as strong as you are. There are rights. Everybody’s got rights on paper. But they don’t mean three cents in actual life.
While sitting in the Landlord and Tenants Court, I had an average of four hundred cases a day. It was packed. People fainted, people cried: Where am I going? I couldn’t bluff them and tell them to make an application, there’s a job waiting. I was told my predecessor had taken down their names and qualifications. He promised them help. On my first day, I came across thousands of cards in filing cabinets. I told the clerk I was going to examine these files to see how many of these people got jobs. My mistake. Within twenty-four hours, all the files disappeared.
A woman with three children, one in her arms, walked all the way downtown. No carfare, no defense. Oh, they were all desperate and frightened. When I’d come in, they stand up. I would tell them: Will you please sit down, so I can sit down?
These defendants all had five-day notices: if you don’t pay rent in five days, suit to dispossess is started. There is no legal defense. Out of a job means nothing, sickness means nothing. I couldn’t throw these people out. So I interpreted the law my way: five days was the minimum. No maximum was set. I gave everybody ten days. Of course, I offended the real estate brokers. I made them still more angry by allowing an extra day for each child in the family. Finally, I was giving them thirty days.
About that time a group of real estate men invited me to lunch. Each was introduced: this one was five thousand tenants, that one, eight thousand. There were about sixty thousand tenants represented—if I may use that word—by these few men. After the meal, the man who had cordially invited me, suddenly became hostile. The others smiled, as though they knew what was coming up. He said,“I’m going to speak straight from the shoulder. Isn’t it a fact that judges favor tenants because there are more voters among the tenants than among the landlords?” All of them laughed.
I got up and said, “You didn’t speak straight from the shoulder. If you did, you’d have said, ‘Are you playing politics in court?’ Now I’ll answer straight from the shoulder. If I were playing politics, I’d play politics with youse guys.” I purposely used the vulgar expression. “Because you have long pockets and long memories, and you support those who serve you. Who are these tenants who come into my court? They’re destitute, out of jobs, poverty-stricken. When election day comes, one’s out looking for a job, another will sell his vote for fifty cents to buy his baby milk, and most will forget it. There’s no political reward in helping the poor. But what makes you think the man who sits in judgment between the landlord and the tenant must have the mentality of a renter?
“Someday you’ll succeed in intimidating the judge who sits in my place. He’ll have the chance of throwing four hundred families out on the streets of the city each day. When a man is hungry and out of a job, and nobody knows it, he can control himself. But when his few pieces of furniture are thrown out into the street, his neighbors know it. He has nothing to lose. A wise man comes along and says, ‘Idiots, why don’t you organize? Quit paying rent. When you get the five-day notice, ask for a jury trial.’ ”
One of the real estate boys said to me, absolutely astonished, “Can they ask for a jury trial?” So I said to this brilliant man, “What makes you think the right of trial by jury is limited to rent collectors?
“With a jury trial, you can hardly try one—at most, two—cases a day. At the rate of two thousand cases a week, in four months you’d have 32,000 people asking for jury trials. If they closed every court in this state, you still wouldn’t have enough judges to try your case. And then you’d wish there were a man like Heller, who had the courage to tell you: Why don’t you mind your own business and let him mind his business?”
One of them said, “I admire your candor, but you’re not doing yourself any good.” He was right. When I ran for office, the real estate organizations sent out thousands of letters: I have no respect for private property. They defeated me. They keep score. The poor are so busy trying to survive from one day to the next, they haven’t the time or energy to keep score.
There was a man running against me, who said you can evict people without notice, if it’s done peacefully. We agreed to have a public debate. He didn’t show up. In the election—in the very neighborhood where many of the tenants live—he got thousands of votes and I got hundreds.
During those hard times, I learned a good lesson. A good deal of the misery that the poor suffer—and ignorance—is due to the fact that they’re not organized. They’re isolated, brainwashed. I could have remained on the bench until I died. If I could have degraded myself . . . just go along. I couldn’t do it. But I was on the bench for twenty-one years—and that, to me, is a miracle. Xaris has issued a correction as of 03:06 on Dec 2, 2022
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Dec 2, 2022 03:02
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May 19, 2024 22:39
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- Xaris
- Jul 25, 2006
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Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry
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sorry, been kinda busy but getting around to reading this tonight. Just incase anyone is too lazy to files, here's a direct link: http://library.lol/main/BF0A0D88443700BA57A32DA156057F0F
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Dec 16, 2022 04:29
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- Xaris
- Jul 25, 2006
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Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry
|
tangentially relevant but I’d like to remind ppl that zlibrary is back for all your book needs if you need help getting whatever book club book we’re doing. you do need an account though http://singlelogin.me
and thank god. using libgen sucks and sucked even more to try to tor onion link poo poo
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Feb 27, 2023 20:50
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- Xaris
- Jul 25, 2006
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Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry
|
that's good news. i've never had a problem with libgen but maybe it's a provider thing?
libgen just rarely had a fraction of what I was looking for
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Feb 27, 2023 21:02
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Dec 2, 2022 03:02
