The Weekly People's Forum du lieu suivant : Lawrence, Kansas • 3

Home Pkene West 1337 711 Centra! Avon 1 TAILORS Hjrra, pants POLITICAL VERSUS DIRECT ACTION By W. J. Adames, Editor and Manager Railway Carmens' Jnl. We are hearing much about reconstruction nowadays. We were told that as a result of the war just ended a new world would be the outcome.

We were told that it was a war to -make the world safe for democracy, but while we were making the world safe for democracy, vested interests of this country have been making the United States unsafe for The day following the signing of the armistice and-scar CLEANING, PRESSING AND REPAIRING All Work Neatly Doe KANSAS CITY, KANSAS. cely before the ink used in attaching the signatures thereto was dry President Barr, of the United States Founders': Association, addressings convention of that organization in New' York City, asserted that in order for American" business to compete with European business it would be necessary to go back to pre-war conditions, the ten and twelve hour day and WORKING MEN DEPORTED ASSASSINS ALLOWED TO REMAIN In the Kansas Star of recent date there appeared two different I consider very important matters of the day. One of the articles stated the whereins and outs of the Black Hand society that infests the Italian element of the of Kansas City, The article went on to explain how many killers and extortionists the police of the city had rounded up; and stated that many of the suspects under arrest were known to be members of the- Black Hand society, which means that they had men in custody who were known members of a clan who waylay citizens of the United States at leisure, day or night, and with sawed off shot guns and other deadly weapons, sneak out of ambush and kill their victims when and where they please. And the same article went on to say that the police department of Kansas City Mo. were helpless, and unable to go farther because of lack of prosecution by former victims of this gang, because of fear, and therefore would be compelled to release them.

The article also stated that a representative of the United States government, an immigration officer had been called in and consulted as to the advisability of deporting these gangsters as undesirables. After consultation this gentleman decided that the government could not take a hand in the affair, because only undesireable3 were subject to deportation. So that is an admission on the part of the United States government if von nlease. that men mav come here from a foreign the wages existing before the war, and that organized labor had better make up its mind to accept these conditions. It is statements such as these that encourage anarchy, chaos and destruction instead of reconstruction.

There are two ways of bringing about reconstruction. One is through the process of evolution, agitation and intel THE STRIKE SITUATION IN KANSAS CITY, MO. Dear Comrades and BMher Workers; Many of us have gone thru long wearysome strikes and kave seen the union men and their families suffer. Others airways have to suffer with them. Why? Because the employers' association under one head one big union of employers, when ene craft strikes, they raise the cost of living from 10 to 20 per cent.

Then they begin laying off men in other industries. Cost of living being so high they know some of these men will go back as strike breakers or Also some of these men will take the strikes' jobs- These employers are shrewd. Most these industries are open shops. They won't lay off the union men in these industries-because they know well these union men will not take the place of other union men as strike 1 1 11 i 1 i I 1 1 ill ligent education and the other by sudden revolution. The safest, surest sanest way, however, is thru the medium of the former process, as history demonstrates that no lasting re forms have ever been secured but thru education and evolution.

i. Revolution may tear down and clear the ground, 'but it VWJ country, take a sawed off shot gun, load it with buck shot; lie in wait in alleys, behind bill-boards and trees and shoot the life never builds. It leaves no construction mark on the social or- If we take up English history and look at the out break out of people, and remain withm the United btates so lar as the imrmVratioTi authorities are concerned, and yet they are Wat Tyler in 1381, during the starvation period after the not undesirables who carry on this murder-f est at will. Black Death, or if we consider the rebellion of Jack Cade in Now turning to another page ot the same paper tnere second ar tide in biff black attractive type, 540, after a century of exhausting wars, or if we examine tke jocial ferment which coincided with the commonwealth, we ihall be convinced that no settled order of society is brought ibout by violence. "All they who take the sword shall perish "An Alien Special Reaches Chicago." A special train carrying a bunch of "undesirables" headed for New York to await deportation arrived from the Pacific coast.

In the "Crowd were by the sword" is an unbreakable law as much today as when it was first communicated. three women. This hunch had committed no crinfe. nor had they violated breakers, but tney do know that tne man wno nas not tne nerve, the principle, the human intelligence and self respect to stand up like a man this is the sort to lay off because they will make good scabs. Then the employers pay these men who have been laid off in one place, the same wages the strikers were getting, and in addition a three to five dollar bonus.

They 50 in droves and work as These men do not seem to care for any thing but the bonus. Here in the street car strike there is enough to prove that I am right. Some people have lost their lives others are crippled for life. The public is suffering from sickness caused by rotten service. Incompetent finks are ruining the cars.

Then the business mens' association and curb stone politicians together with the daily press put tit all kinds of falsehood. How can we always stand this? The K. C. railway co. put up a wail to the' public that the went broke their contract.

What about the franchise the treet railway company had with the people for 30 years a 5c fare and a universal transfer? The K. C. Post comes out It is demonstrated drematically in the French and is even more evident in the Paris commune of more any law but must be deported as undesirables, or people not i ii recen date. Allattempts to reduce social inequality by force are fore-doomed to failure. wanted here because they were dangerous, says me govern input.

The onlv charge nref ered aerainst any one of the entire The strong hand of the law is raised in self defense. It group was that they were dangerous in as much as they were members of some radical organization and were sowing seeds puts down these outbreaks with the strength of its diciplined jower and social problems remain unsolved. Violence not only of unrest, discontent and so they must oe oeportea. Now Mr. Reader, vou have the contrast in a nutshell.

I errif ies authority, but it rouses the high temper of all in pow- jr. It alienates those who are well disposed to reform. It de am not pretending to defend or criticise, I merely point out the whys and wherefors the. difference between those who are wolpome here and those who are not. These must be absolu stroys the materials out of which a re-organized society can be with big head lines "The street car' union has struck against built.

No readjustments of the rewards of labor, such as advocates, is possible until two conditions" are fulfilled. One is that the larger number of the people must have been educated to desire them. A state of mind must be created which the community and the public." What a lie! They went out strike for the award the war labor board granted them. That was what the strike was for. And the K.

C. Star which nee. fought the street railway like demons, turned a complete summer-sault and went to the other side. Why Because the employers association has threatened fa withdraw their bier advertising from that paper. Some heroes, eh? Some will evoke costly and absolute loyalty to principles.

The other that those in authority who are usually stronger minded and stronger willed are prepared to acquiesce. te facts, because the representatives of the United States government say so. In other words men may arm themselves and walk out in the street and -shoot their fellow men and go unmolested, but if he labor in a coal mine, saw mill or rock quarry from daylight til dark for starvation wages; and attempts to protest the treatment arid asks for better that man is singled out as a danger to the an undesirable, and deported He is loaded- aboard a train, bound with shackles and rushed across the continent, and then across the sea.1 Where is justice, liberty, democracy and freedom? -There is and can be none as long as such' methods as these are tolerated by the American people. Put your ear to the ground and listen for there is a storm brewing. Harry Sullivan I I I I.

Tv. hia arfiVIe comrade Sullivan asks why ffun men, whom We have a weapon firmer set and better than the bayonet weapon that comes down as still as snowf lakes fall upon friends to organized labor! Comrades and fellow workers, you will always have my support because I have nothing in common with the capitalist class. -1 am a union man from the top of my head to the soles my feet. the sod yet executes a freeman's will. And from its force no bolts or locks can shield it is the ballot box.

d.J. LiaVlS. Force and violence never has and never will be a remedy. Neither will Syndicalism or so-called "direct action." What is syndicalism or "direct action," Let us analyze it T8. rrun ir iVOAO PITV HAO PftHPANY inru xvin oxvo vii vkj knnw to he'siich.

are allowed to remain in this and see. It is a theory and a mode of action. The theory, broadly stated, is that the workers should own the materials with which theywork and the tools which they use. The mode of action is the combining of all the workers so as to secure country, while men and women are being deported who have done nothing but try to jrouse the laboring people a sense of the wrongs being perpetrated against them. Could it be this end and to exclude any employers or, overseers npt IS BIGGER THAN THE COUUTS Altho the supreme court has ruled that the gas consumers need pay no more than 30c a thousand for gas, the gas company ignores the.

order and still collects 80c. The city has a contract for 30c gas. The courts have upheld the price, but the gas corporation is bigger than the supreme court of the land, and still exacts the excess charge. Such things as these put the direct actionists in action. We ordinary mortals are 1.

-j ui Iotit THia wooHViv io-nore the courts and in the craft. Its point of attack is first against those who own the lands and the forests, the quarries and the mines, for these that" big business thinks it will have neea 01 tnese same gun men later oh if they do not get all of the restless deported in fact, to use in suppressing the native born agitators who cannot be deported? We merely ask the question. What do you are the basis of all other materials. This mode of action leads to, "the general strike" on the part of all workers, until the means and the materials of labor shall be given, into their think about it? hands. In blind anticipation the advocates of Syndicalism imagine WHERE ARE OUR PROTECTORS J.

that the entire body of workers can be aroused, and kept in IN THIS 11UUK ur nnnu i Pnnri otov went mi He a tiound a few days ago, from 35c idleness, and thewhole stream of wealth that supplies men's to 40c. And this af terall the increases heretofore Five cents wants stopped, without crushing and starving the workers themselves. on a 35 cent price is almost a fifteen per cent raise. tfcia intense? The war is over. Spring is here.

In 1906 the American Federation of Labor served notice The packers have an abundance of meat storage. Cattle are that thereafter it proposed to enter upon a campaign to secure justice, through legislation. For many years labor had ap now on grass in the south, ah conaiuons wuuiu pumu uC-crease of price if the law of supply and demand was in effect. do as they please. But you must not say laws are made favor of the rich, or you are liable to land in jail.

1 1 HELP SPEED THE MESSENGER ON ITS MISSION Ccmrades, here is -something great! Something that has filled me with encouragement. In this morning's mail there hasxome to this desk a copy of the Messenger, a Socialist magazine for colored people.and edited by two comrades of that race, Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen. Their magazine is FINE. Every articlein it' is a masterly production, both in thought and construction. No Socialist publication that comes to our desk is better few are as good as the Messenger.

The work its editors are doing is work that is needed badly. If I had wealth, I cannot think of a better work for the cause than to put this magazine into the hands of every colored man and woman who is genuinely interested inihe advancement of the race. Let us do all we can to help. The address of The Messenger is 2307 Seventh New York City. Send a copy, see how good it is, and then get some colored per- WW thic increase pealed vain to all legislative bodies, national, state ana municipal for remedial legislation.

These appeals to a considerable extent had fallen upon deaf ears. It was decided that vigorous action should betaken. As a result of this action Business is lethargic after the war. Wages are coming down vapidly. Thousands are- out oi employment, many cmri are ruined.

There is no general pros- MJm perity to justify an increase tne cost oi me have not the slightest effect Prices are not determined by supply and demand. They are decided by thp trust, which takes all it wants. Bank robbers sometimes leave the silver pick out what they want in kind and amount. f0f0 a tho same Thev'take out of the publiepurse and 11C lil UiJttJ win from the mouths of children their one or two billion just as rr Tl C4-ni n-vtrx 7i Yf 1 1 0 1 1 Tn nVICQG I .1 Tf i I I I III I HIC VU bUUilf HiVcry UaY LUC lltuioao vauj fn protect their ill-gotten war their directors decide. Pt'Afaota ure rlnino' no Q-ood.

Pleadings are of no avail Calling Ulc uapicaiioiio r- i nrofits from an enraged public. They are creating a sentiment American people as a class are orderly and law-abiding and nlead for their ffovernment to do some in hopes 01 preparing uie puuut otiVp for the workintr people. vigorous campaigns were magurated against labors, most conspicuous enemies. In practically every state and municipality efforts were made to have men, holding paid up cards, nominated for election to legislative bodies. As a result many were elected and labor men were quickened throughout the country to the possibilities for labor in the political field B.ut labor was not satisfied.

The conviction prevailed that by adopting the slogan of "calling upon the workers of our common country to stand faithfully by our friends, oppose and defeat our enemies, whether executive, legislative or judicial," many more a uld be electd and inaueiwand power lab', on the political and legislative field increased. At present we go periodically to our legislative bodies with bowed heads and hats in hands asking, or rather pleading forlegislation, and at the best are told that our requests ill receive their serious consideration'and there the matter ends Working men have the chance if they will only avail themselves of it, to use their collective power which they have used' to such good advantage on the economic field to obtain highei wages, shorter hours and better conditions, not only to secure the election of members of their own class to legislative positions, but also to increase.their power and influence for clean politics, good government, just, wise and humane legislation. thing, but nothing is being done. The food administration which did some good has been withdrawn and all. prices are higher now than during the war-which shows there never, was against uu ucuui -With out the lying dailies the voters would be agai.n profiteers; but falsehood and vilification are used to pc-isui the public mind.

a reason for the robberies committed. hn, nnc nffifinl nrotectors in this time of need vv licit; ci i Where is the law? Is it going to fail entirely? Have we such nr.oi.pW that, the on recource aeainst leitai uut- 1I1UU9U1IU oumvuj v.v lawery is violence Are our institutions forcing us to use violence in self defense? Qmn'et. o-ftvernjYient here those food hogs would 11 vv uau uuiiw have their hoarded supply requesitioned by the government-paid a fair price for it and the.food would be obtainable by THE EAGLE 507 Minnesota Kansas City Kansas READY JO-WEAR the people, unaer me ouvie, vi meal can be secured at the govern- The money power is right now lining up public sentiment to wage war against the cause of the common people. "Kept" ment dining halls for 35c, and it is hard to get a satisfactory meal here for that price. wake up, and by jour votes elect those who will install a permanent food commission and establish a' system which will give the people protection from robbers and give them aid in time of need.

dailies are full of false information, coupling the profiteers 'cause with that of the government, and linking perfidy with patriotism. We do not ask for patronage, r' BUT WOULD LIKE IftHEEI ALLTlffi COMRADES AN.