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Chicago, Oct. 10, '68 Dear Jack: Thank you for your letter of Oct. 4, also the two paperback books. Recently, I finished re-reading The Disinherited, and I find it bring back to me things I knew about, yet let slip my mind. It brings back those days when I had so much health, so little money, hungry days around Toledo and Detroit, but hope abundant, yet my situation was then bordering on tragic, with two kids and a wife back in Chicago and the whole Depression ahead. And tire 110s put out by Hoover and Co., and the Republicans' thin promises today are just the same. About mid-August, a young Englishwoman, by name Sally Trench, who had a book to her credit concerning homeless men in London and had lost an eye by getting in the way of a drunk a bottle, was here doing some articles on Skid Row for the Chicago Daily News. Possibly she has religious motivation, certainly a kindly-disposed person toward the winos, dinos, etc., and either much courage or deliberate disregard for her own safety. I out-out the News articles and sent them overseas, don't know if you know anything about the woman.. I did hear her being interviewed on radio station WBBM here. I got the impression that she was deeply sincere, though not really understand- ing that quite a few homeless men want it that way..And Madison Street now is even more decadent and more dangerous than ever.. There are now a lot of gaps (something like the bombed-out areas in England after WW 2) where the Soul Brothers had fun with fires last April though certain vacant spots were made by the moving of John M. Smyth furniture store and the hotel that used to be across from the C&NW depot.. I frequently passed the corner of Madison & Halsted and I also used to work near there (on the Milw.RR near Fulton & Halsted), so I knew the district of old. Around Madison & Halsted is where the IWW used to have their hdqtrs, and published English, Finnish & Spanish edit- 1ons of their paper. I wrote to Miss Trench, whose publishers are Haddo & Stoughton, London. She replied with a certain graciousness, so I have sent her a paperback that was re-issued a few years ago, The Hobo, which was a rather thorough study by a man who got his doctorate from the Univ. of Chgo through this work, way back in the 1920's, and I also sent her your book, The Disinherited last Monday. I made the two-hour trip down to our last lodge meeting at 85th and Racine last Monday evening. Our delegate Just back from a month- long convention in Florida, proudly announced that the union had sent a telegram of congratulation to Yer Hare Daley in appreciation of his handling of the Democratic Convention. No surprise to me, much as I was simply disgusted, as the late president of the BRT always worked in the interest of the railroad companies. Members don't elect the leading officers of this union, the delegates do, every four years. This delegate is brother-in-law to Charlie Jiampa, the little Italian I brought over to help you move from Green Street. He in turn is bro- in-law to a city fireman who holds a minob official position in the Chicago Firemen's Union, and you know him. I lost my railroad job in 1928 when I ran against a stooge of the late union president, and the stooge (local chairman) and the president, then gen. chairman, conspired with the railroad company to fire me as an agitator, though an investigation on trumped-up charges of alleged rules violations was the means used. The members of that lodge were up in armw, knowing how crooked that local chairman was and dissatisfied with the general chairman over a long period. The union officials and the company kept me from ever going back to work, even though the union hdqtrs had reviewed the investigation transcript and found me blameless. So, I expect nothing much from the union, though this lodge I'm in has many men who are friendly to me. However, the Michigan Central men in this NYO lodge are outnumbered 20 to 1. The NYC-Penna Co. are now merged and the laughter of Jobs has begun. Where the NYC had 35 engines in yard service last year (3 swan to an engine), they now hav 18 engs. I only belong to the union because of my insurance, and we had to belong under what is known as the union shop, akin to closed shop. After the Depression eased a bit for me (1936) and up to 1955, I refused to be a member of such a lousy outfit. The BRT has the worst reputation on the railroads anywhere, having broken down so many strikes in the past, and OVER