Abstract

Scab City, New Jersey

"Our law is the night stick and we use it," said Mayor Frank Hague, czar of Jersey City, New Jersey and Democratic boss of New Jersey, who is reputed to be a multimillionaire maintaining a duplex apartment in Jersey City's most fashionable residential building, the Duncan Apartments, and a summer home at Deal Beach, and making frequent trips to Florida and abroad although, as far as is known, he has never earned more than $8,000 a year as mayor. His statement, in an exclusive interview printed in the Newark "Sunday Call" of October 5, 1933, continues, "there are no gangs who use Jersey City as a hideout or headquarters, because all suspicious characters are apprehended wherever they are seen, in automobiles, trains, or on the street." What these words meant the author discovered when he spent three days as a guest of his city in the Seventh Precinct jail. The author was watching from a small distance when William Schwartz, a member of the Furniture Workers' Industrial Union, started to picket outside the Miller Parlor Furniture Company, carrying a sign which urged employees to join the union. Seeing a police officer speak to Schwartz, the author crossed the street and asked the officer some questions. Schwartz was arrested. So was the author.