StarBulletin.com

Back in the Day: July 12, 1949


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POSTED: Sunday, July 12, 2009

”;Back in the Day,”; appearing every Sunday, takes a look at articles that ran on this date in history in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Hawaii's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. The items appear verbatim, so don't blame us today for yesteryear's bad grammar.

Broom brigaders boo Meyer

In a stormy meeting at the YWCA this morning, Hawaii PTA Chairman A.W. Meyer denied accusations by women of the broom brigade that the PTA had tried to bargain with the ILWU for food supplies.

Amid boos and shouts of “;Down”; from about 100 broom brigaders he announced that women of the PTA executive committee had been asked not to march in the brigade.

Mr. Meyer called the Broom Brigade: “;The best tools the Communists want.

“;As long as you try to remove the leaders while the strike is going on,”; he said, “;you are prolonging the strike.

“;You couldn't do a better job for the Communists if you were trained right in Moscow,”; he said.

Today's meeting grew out of a PTA gathering at which Henry Schmidt, ILWU strike director, was invited to speak.

Schmidt refused to attend after broom brigaders walked in on the meeting.

Referring to the meeting at which Schmidt was to have spoken, Mr. Meyer said the PTA had been trying only to help the governor's emergency food committee.

Mr. Meyer took full responsibility for Mr. Schmidt's invitation, saying he had arranged for the meeting by radio telephone from the mainland.

As he spoke, one woman rose and asserted that there were communistic influences within the executive committee of the PTA. The charge was promptly denied.

Mr. Robert D. Fischer of the PTA addressed the meeting next. Before he finished most of the remarks for the floor had been quieted.