Otto Hall
Source: Comintern Archives of the CPUSA, Reel 130, Document 1688
Date: 1929
Transcription and Markup: Paul Saba
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive. You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Gastonia N.C. 6-6-29
Say Liston old-top – was glad to get your letter steal time somehow, to write oftener. About that prof. I wrote you – he is damn good material and has spread lots of propaganda for us. He has gone to Cleveland where Im connecting him with the district there. School is over down here and most of the students have gone away. Sorry I didn’t get that stuff in time. Hermie hasn’t sent me anything so far. I can build the Labor Congress right here if I had this stuff send me some constitutions also as many as you can spare. They are very much needed.
Now for Jackson, he is absolutely no good. He told me before I left that he wanted to bid me good bye because they were going to kill me down here etc. Tell Owens to be careful not to talk too much around him because he means harm to the Party. I think somebody, that woman he is with is paying him to try to disrupt us.
Now as for Karl Reeve you tell him that I said he was a cockeyed liar if he says I didn’t help. I was right to begin with. Had they agreed on my policy of stressing the economic importance to these whites of admitting Negroes in the union we could have accomplished something long before now. Beal was willing + saw my point. Karl did not want to do this + worked with Johnstone against me. I criticized Weisbords speech because it made social equality the issue instead of making the economic necessity of granting equality to Negro workers the main issue. You get the point? The idea was not what I kicked about but the method of putting it over. Beal himself, this is for Karl, told me not to come around until he could straighten things up after Weisbord’s speech. He got lawyer Jimison, himself a southerner to talk to the strikers on this question and explain the economic importance of organizing the Negroes on an equal basis. Vera Busch did the same thing in Bessemer City. You can’t cram things down these workers’ throats so bluntly considering how much prejudice they have imbibed all during their life. Once show them the economic necessity for organizing Negroes and they themselves will advocate our policy stronger than we will. They are now advocating this policy very earnestly and don’t worry about social equality. They even went so far as to tell the Negroes themselves to come to our affairs + they would protect them. When I came down + met with the strike committee they were eager to help me + volunteered to go around with me + help organize the Negroes. The trouble with Karl is that he did not know how to handle the situation and avoided it all together. He was afraid to even raise the question + wanted me to raise it. He is dumb + very mechanical in spite of the school + I believe that in his heart he is just as prejudiced as these crackers. He is certainly jealous. He showed this by his treatment of Beal. He is also sore because I got elected to the C.E.C. + he didn’t. That’s the reason he’s trying to discredit me. He couldn’t understand how Beal could do so much with practically no theoretical training + he who is supposed to know something couldn’t. He blundered with that delegation to Washington + did the same thing down here. When I get back there I’m going to give him hell.
I hope Otto wakes up and gets himself out of that crack. You write to him, we’ve got to save him at all costs. See that I get some more money immediately, my shoes are out + I am getting as ragged as a buzzard. You know I can’t make any impression on these Negroes unless I look presentable. The Negroes here, in spite of their low wages, dress better than the whites. My main difficulty is to keep clean laundry. If Bob says he is going to send me some money he hasn’t sent it yet. I hope you send those comrades down here soon. Harper will be good down here because he knows the south. He’s not as big a nut as some people think he is. Golden should also be sent down here make him do something else for the party beside attending social functions. If there is anything in him, we can bring it out down here. Take this matter up with the Secretariat. The south must be penetrated. Correct + revise that statement of mine before sending it in will you? I wrote it very hastily + it may not be clear enough.
Now what has been done so far. We have in Bessemer + Gastonia together about 60 Negro members of the union. I am organizing among them an organizers class. I am putting some of them on the strike committee + plan to get them active. Thuy are getting more confidence in us now but it is still difficult to get them to come to union headquarters, this is easy to understand because of the conditions down here. I have spoken to them on several occasions + was well received. Comrades Vera Bush + Beal have been working very good with me. The members of the strike committee have also spoken at these meetings. We went after them, they did not come to us. All the Negro preachers have been bought by the mill owners + are working against us, but we are making progress in spite of them. We need more white organizers down here as well. Beal keeps so busy he is unable to get about much. These comrades had a good issue to make the strikers want to organize Negroes but they didn’t realize it until I showed it to them. They said it would be difficult to show the whites the economic necessity for organizing the Negroes because so few of them work in the mills. It is true that the percentage of Negroes working in the mills are small compared to the whites, but they have the most strategic positions. They work in the picking room + have to prepare the cotton before the spinners get it. The job is so dirty + such low pay that the whites won’t do it. If these Negroes quit, the mill can’t run. The cotton must go through this dept. before the spinners get it. The white workers see the point now, which could have been pointed out to them long ago + are enthusiastic now for their organization.
Now as for myself, I need to come up for a little air. It is hard as hell for me to stay cooped up down here. I have already broken the ice got something started. I think the task I was to do is accomplished and I should go back to the center to help out there. Some of those comrades who are idle up there can be sent here now. I am training local Negroes to help carry on the work + they may well be easy for those sent to relieve me. Please take this up in the Secretariat. Ballam should send me some money he is a liar if he says he’s broke that money for the Negro Dept. is being used for something else. As it is, it is only a paper dept. + is not functioning. I should be there to straighten things out. You have the Secretariat get behind both Browder + Ballam about that money.
My address us 1001 No. York St. Gastonia. A special delivery letter or telegram will get me at that no. but an ordinary letter has to be addressed to Hyland Station Post Office because they don’t send a mail carrier to this part of the “Black Belt.” Write me right away.
So long, Otto Hall