Collection: Books and Periodicals

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Title: A Hundred Years of Rip and Roarin Rough and Ready By Andy Rogers (1952)(Hathitrust) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Notes: Duplicate of Pamphlet (PH 9-10) # of Pages: 117 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Printed or handwritten: All typed text Date Scanned: 2024-07-21 21:46:59 Scanned By: Dom Lindars Scanning Equipment: CZUR Book Scanner Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:28 Last Updated: 2025-04-23 00:20:23

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 117  

it would be necessary to belong to a union. REFUSED TO “BUY” JOB Then started one of the strangest crusades of the West. Single-handed, that carpenter started out to battle the allpowerful system in his home county. He has been dubbed a communist and also an agent for “capitalistic organizations seeking to destroy unionism.” Regardless of the hatred he aroused among some he went on. He interviewed hundreds of men and obtained scores of statements of injustice done the victims of that system. He presented his case first to one official, then to another. Enmeshed in strangling red tape, he tried to break free. He took his records to the Department of Justice. He received assurances the case would be investigated. An investigation: was made. PERSISTS SEEKING ACTION Time after time, however, Rogers called at the offices of H. H. McPike, local United States Attorney, and on the Gmen of the department’s bureau of investigation, to learn whether action would be taken. Always he was put off. Once he wanted to sign complaints against the bosses himself, but was dissuaded. He didn’t rest with seeking to interest the Department of Justice He wrote to the Federal Secret Service, presenting his case and his evidence. He communicated with the Treasury Department, the Department of the Interior, the Board of Labor Review, California’s Senators and Senators from other States, and Governor Merriam. He wrote President Roosevelt. Tre beseeched Mrs. Roosevelt to interest her husband in the situation. Always he was greeted with silence or shunted from one official to another. When Federal investigators did come to the scene he took them around and tried to arouse a real interest in the case. A county official told The Chronicle on> of the investigators was “so drunk I wouldn’t talk to him.” Another agent, after a cursory inquiry, told Rogers: “I don’t see anything to: this.” There for the agent to discover, however, was much of the startling evidence obtained by The Chronicle in its current investigation into the San Mateo relief situation. CONTEMPT THREATENED At one time Rogers was warned by the Federal officials that any attempt to present the matter to the Grand Jury or seek to interest that body in the case would subject him to contempt of court procedure. But Rogers carried on—just a common citizen fighting corruption, neither communist nor capitalistic tool. Many men in San Mateo county and officials he had contacted in San Francisco are frankly amazed at the man, at his perseverance and courage and determination—for there was no material reward awaiting him even if successful in his crusade. He undertook what many considered a hopeless fight. He succeeded in _ interesting others. Many men of prominence and influence in the county joined him. ; Some of them dropped out of the fray, but Rogers struggled on. He works when he can as a carpenter. When unable to get work he travels the countryside, interviewing men on relief and getting their stories and trying —ever trying—to interest officialdom in the injustices. He won’t rest until there is complete justice for the men and women on relief in San Mateo county. Reprinted From The San Francisco Chronicle of January 14, 1936. The oot of Our Preserit Day Evils Google 7