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hinterlands.
PUL's membership was drawn almost entirely from the unemployed sections
of the working class, including a small group from the skilled crafts, and many from
the ranks of the semi-skilled and unskilled. There were almost no professional or
"white collar" PUL members except for the organizers. And the PUL was from the
beginning highly interracial. By April 1, 850 out of 6,984 members were Black, a
proportion the organization apparently maintained as it continued to grow. In
March 1934, Frank Trager claimed that the PUL had "nine or ten Negro locals" and
a number of integrated ones.
The PUL was an activist organization, and it began immediately to publicize
and to implement its program. This program demanded financial relief and
medical care for all unemployed, large scale public works projects, massive
construction of low cost housing, state unemployment insurance and public
employment bureaus, widespread adult education and recreation facilities, and a
mandatory 30-hour work week. Shortly after its founding, the PUL began pressure
and protest on all levels of government over these issues. In mid-February 1933,
the PUL announced it was sponsoring unemployment legislation in the Maryland
State Legislature. In mid-March, it sent a delegation to White House with mass
petitions demanding better jobless relief. In late March, it was forwarding
suggestions on bond issues for relief to Baltimore Mayor Jackson. And in early
April, it held its first march to Annapolis to protest directly to Governor Ritchie
and to urge passage of legislation of the unemployed.
While challenging the existing relief system, the PUL also moved quickly to
insure that those dependent on relief got what they were entitled to. On March 4
the league reported it had already disputed 90 cases with local relief officials and
"in the great majority of instances successful adjustments have been made." By the
end of its first year it claimed that it appealed just over 600 cases to the social
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