Pay the Man

Mrs. Elsie Phillips, shabby and 56, sat on the porch of her dingy Los Angeles home, and wept.

Eight years ago, Mrs. Phillips sent a radio to be repaired. The bill came to $8.90. Mrs. Phillips refused to pay--she thought it was going to cost only $1. She sent her 20-year-old son to get the radio back. But John, an easy mark for a fast sales talk, came home with a new radio, for which he had agreed to pay in $1.25 weekly installments. The radio-shop owner, chubby A. M. Pearson, got Mrs. Phillips to sign the contract.

When Mrs. Phillips fell into arrears on her payments, Radioman Pearson went to court and got a judgment which ordered her to give back the radio and pay him $81.50 in court costs and collection fees.

Mrs. Phillips gave up the radio, but could not pay the rest. In August 1943, Pearson had the city marshal sell off Mrs. Phillips' assets--her house and lot--to satisfy the court order. Pearson was the only bidder, and he offered $26.50. A year later, as required by law, the marshal delivered the deed to Pearson. During those twelve months, Mrs. Phillips could have kept her home by paying the $26.50 plus a $25 marshal's fee. She says nobody told her that.

Last week Pearson had the unrepaired radio, the "new" radio which he sold her son, a still unsatisfied claim for $55, and the house and lot. (He was willing to let Mrs. Phillips stay on--at $10 a week rent.)

He also had a few bruises to show for it. Los Angeles newspapers played up Mrs. Phillips' story. At week's end, four men, armed with pistols and iron pipes, walked into Pearson's shop. They wrecked the joint, beat Pearson vigorously about the head and body, sent him to the hospital with concussion and a lamed arm.

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