Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

LEWIS;099 XI:lz55
Lewis: Well, in the neighborhood, as far as political,
he got a lot of boys jobs in the city down there - in his
office and other jobs down there and different places.
Like all politicians - highway departments and things like
that, lot of that. and . . .
[END TAPE I1 SIDE I; BEGIN TAPE I1 SIDE 21
Lewis: . . .I get my job by being elected,
Hawes: What 1 wonder is: who supported Robey from Hampden?
Who were the people?
Lewis: Oh* all of us old-timers supported, but we never had
enough vote to carry the district for him.
Hawes : What about the businessmen?
Lewis: Businessmen all liked Frank. Businessmen only got
one vote; in fact today in the late years there's very
few businessmen live in Hampden. And one t ime every merchant
on 36th Street all lived in Hampden. Now you don't have
that.
Harvey: What effect do you think the m ills and Poole and
Runt - the other industries - have on politics around here?
Lewis: Well, that was never talked; you never heard people
in the m ills, the bosses or anything at all, talking politics.
mid the big bosses - see, old man Bowersox down here, he
was one a£ the overseers in the mill and he was Catholic.
He was Catholic, I just happened to think; he was one of the
only ones I remember was a boss.
HaWeS : That was Mt, Vernon.
Lewis: Well, Bowersox - no, he had Druid M i l l and Park M ill,
and he lived right there at Buena Vista Avenue. Big house