The Weekly People's Forum from Lawrence, Kansas • 1

WANTED, BONDSMEN. FOR WORKERS IMPRISONED NINETEEN MONTHS WITHOUT TRIAL. -WRITE THE FORUM .1 0 fill Entered aa second-clasa matter March 8, 1919, at the post office at Lawrence, under the Act of March 8, 1879. VOL. NO.

jy LAWRENCE, KANSAS, THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1919. SOVIET ESTABLISHES SCHOOLS, THIS IS NOT DARK RUSSIA, C-B- HARMAN EDITOR. A YEAR. to go on a hunger strike for better food conditions, which last-ed five days. few new blankets were given them as a result of this.

Promises were also made for new and cleaner bedding but to date those promises have not been kept. Better food was served for a short time but this quickly drifted back to the old status. Conditions are now as bad as ever. Torture and Useless Investigation Some time ago an attempt was made to have these men removed to a more sanitary jail. The one at Winfield, Kansas was selected, but there sheriff there demanded 65c per day.

feeding them. The government pays only 50 cents per day. The I. W. W.

offeredto pay the difference of 15c, but then the federal authorities gave the lame excuse that Winfield is too close to the oil fields and there might be a jail delivery. Now it is a matter of fact that Wichita is ten miles closer to the oil fields than Winfield, and the authorities never had any trouble while the I. W. W. prisoners were confined at Wichita and they were in jail there for fifteen months.

That was not the reason for the prosecution's excuses at all. The real reason for this dickering around seems to bo to slowly torture the men to death. It is plain and can be seen. The Sedgwick county jail at Wichita is even worse than the one in Topeka. For about fifteen months various I.

W. W. prisoners were incarcerated there on the Wichita indictment. Because of the intolerable and filthy' conditions, the men set up a vigorous protest which resulted in many investigations, and the final removal to other jails. The Wichita jail was con-Anderson article continued from other galley, demned and denounced by Judge Bird, Assistant District attorney Elcock, a delegation of club women from Buffalo N.Y.

and a prominent business man of Wichita, Winthrop D. Lane, a sociologist connected with the editorial staff of the survey, and J. F. Fishman, inspector of prisons for the department of justice. The latter was appalled at the rotten conditions and filth he discovered there, and stated that it was the worst lie had ever seen.

Mr. Fishman ought to know, because he has inspected jails from coast to coast for years, and yet Sedgwick county boasts of its vast recources with the most horrible jail in the state. The Shawnee county jail has also been subjected to investigations on several occasions. Once by Judge Gerber of the district court, another time by Inspector Fishman. Both denounced and condemned the jail as unsanitary and unfit Mr.

Fishman made his report in April, a corroboration of which can be found in the columns of the Topeka Capital April 2219. On May 29, '19, 'three U. Sr jail inspectors again looked over the Shawnee county jail, but they only walked around the outside of the tank. Undoubtedly what they saw from the outside was enough. The prisoners invited them to inspect the inside quarters, but thy declined the invitation, and on passing out, one declared that if he were shut up there he would tear the pktce down.

The fact remains that these men are still in the grip of vindictive prosecution and confined in a medieval chamber of horrors. One of the men was a physical giant nineteen months ago, today he is a human wreck. Last winter a government doctor recommended fresh air for him and tha U. S. Marshal's attention was called to it, but for an answer he stowed him away in Kansas' filthiest dungeon.

Another of these, -men is mentally unbalanced. And do not forget this these men are not convicetd of any crime! Under the law a man is held to be innocent until proven guilty. These conditions would be disgraceful to the community which kept its condemnded criminals in such a place! Then what must said when men arc held almost two years in such a place BEFORE they have even been tried on the charges against them? The nine I. W. W.

prisoners now" confined in the Topeka jail are every day enduring a living hell. They, with nearly all of the Wichita defendants have been in various Kansas- jails for nineteen months without trial. What are YOU going to do about it? Are you going to allow this condition to continue? Remember, these men are victims of their class loyalty. They are in jail because they are members of a union! It is the duty of every lover of Liberty and Justice to protest against their being held in this filthy csspool, mis-called a jail. Let the Governor of Kansas and the U.

S. attorney general know what vou think about it-not tomorrow These men are suffering there TODAY-NOW, WHILE YOU ARE READING THIS those men are still suffering At night, while YOU are sleeping in a comfortable bed, THEY are tossing on a VERMIN INFESTED, DIRTY STINKING cot. This is not the story of atrocities committed in far-away Armenia or Belgium, about which you can ease your conscience by dropping a few coins in some contribution box! This is the UNITE STATES, the country for whose actions, YOU as a citizen are responsible. WHILE YOU HOLD YOUR PEACE YOU ARE HELPING TO TORTURE THESE HELPLESS VICTIMS. Not the Turk not the Hun, but YOU are one of the ipersons responsible for this outrage! If you do not believe the stated here, all yOu have to do is go to to the capital of yo- instatedemand entrance to that jail itwill speak to your heart stronger than words of mine can express.

INVESTIGATE! PROTEST! PROTEST! PROTEST! CARES FOR THE MOTHERS By A. Plotkin of, NEW York City Kussia accepted Bolshevism because she had no other alter-' Sf have stayed with Kerensky and Kornilsv meant mat Russia was to be turned over to the capitalists. Bread, peace andland were the age long cries of the Russian people. or this they were ready to give all they had. They realized that a return of the monarchists meant very little of bread, a continuous succession of wars, and the land to be retained by courtiers of the old Czar.

They chose bread, peaceand land under Lemn and Trotzky. Thre were no obstacles in the road of the Bolsheviki from the ranks of the workers. They were too new from the land not to understand the needs of the peasants. The peasants on the other hand were too closely related to the city workers not to understand the hardships faced by the industrial proletariat. The union between the two was a natural sequence.

In addition, Russia had suffered so much oppression at the hands of its industrial and political masters that its factories were organised by the workers into strictly industrial organizations. A craft union, with its varied oppositional interests to other craft unions was unknown. A landless peasantry and a starving proletariat gave united background to the Soviet'repub- industries have not disintegrated. The British White Book states that industries in Russia are 30 per cent less However this does not mean they have fallen off that much in efficiency. It merely indicates that the lack of raw material has forced the closing- of seventy percent of Russian factories.

As to the efficiency of such factories as are in a position to obtain raw materials, the figures obtained show an increase in production for those operated, of ONE HUNDRED PER CENT! Another thing to take into account is that many of the industries operated under the competitive syste mwere run at loss, because one big factory could handle all the production of some things, and in such cases the best factory was kepf running, and improved in efficiency, while all the supernumery factories were closed or used for other purposes. This gave rise to the statement that industries were closed by the Soviets when in reality what was done was to eliminate waste of production, and put those same industries on a basis of efficiency they have.never known before. The first act of the Soviet government was to establish public schools. For lack of. the buildings in which to establish schools at once, tho of Russia were requisitioned for" use of the schoolsMuring week days.

All private schools were abolished, and during the day time all children up to the age of sixteen attend school, and in the evening the schools are full of adult peasants learning to read and write. These men and women are for the first tircie in a position to attain laming, and arc availing themselves of the privilege. The illiterate peas ant of Russia is not in the same catagory as the illiterate class of America. They are peopje often possessing the best and keenest minds, prevented from obtaining any education by the lack of schools, and the necessity of incessant labor of the old Russian regime. Louncharski, the minister of education, in his official report states: "During the last year we have established 7,000 village schools, 3,000 schools of the second degree (comparable to our high schools) and 12 universities." The housing problem wassolved by ordering all houses which contained more rooms than were essential to the privacy of the resident family, to be thrown open to the homeless.

Thus a house containing twenty rooms, with only three occupants had ten of its rooms opened to those who were without shelter. Of course the aristocrats protested, but the Russian sian people were homeless on account of thse same aristocrats government replied that inasmuch as a large portion of the Rus and the policy of exploitation thy have followed, making it impossible for the mass of Russian workers to own their homes, the workers were for the present to be sheltered in the homes of these same exploiters the workers labor having built these mansions in the first place. Institutions for the care of mothers during pregnancy have been opened in all parts of Russia. Prospective mothers may come to these institutions four months prior to confinement, and remain till mother and child are strong and able to return to usual home duties. In our country, the average mother, to quote Judge Ben Lindsay, "has not the rights and care of horses during breeding Russia," where we are told violence reigns supreme, pays more atten-, iion to its mothers and children than dos this country.

But the aristocrats have sent out the story of outrage and pilliage because it was their immense palaces which have been used for these hornes for pregnant mothers. The truth is that the Russian people seem to be success- fully solving their, problems. The great mass is ignorant, it is true, but they are not long going to remain ignorant, with the best 'literature of all countries translated and published at an unbelievably cheap rate, and their free schools fpr all, old and young alike. They seem to be instinctively turning to the weapons best suited to solve their multifarious problems even as America did in "76. And no doubt but that the British public of that time were told as many preposterous lies about the rc- 1 volting colonies of America as the rest of the, world is being told of the Russians who are forming a new and freer republic ifl' than the world has ever yet known.

Out of the agony and suffering in Russia will come a resurrected people and nation. write us. help is needed on the bond of men imprisoned nineteen months with out a trial. THISIS KANSAS TODAY A MODERN TORTURE CHAMBER! The Shawnee County Jail, at Topeka, Kansas By C. W.

Anderson Since that sudden mania for locking up all class-conscious" workers which siezed upon the Capitalists in 1917 much has been said about the rojtten conditions existing in many jails. One of the worst, the Shawnee county jail in Topeka, Kansas, has probably had less publicity given it than airy other. For the past year or so there has almost continuously been confined there a Jew members of the Industrial Workers of The World. At the present writing there are nine of these men 1 Unbelievably To one who has never seen the inside of the Shawnee county jail, a truthful description of, the place would be almost unbelievable. This jail was built some thirty five or forty years ago, and still has the sanitary equipment, (or lack of it) prevalent in jails of that time.

The lower compartment of the, tank, the part the t. W. W. are in now, consists of ten cells-and a corridor The dimensions ofvthetcells are 7X7X7, and the corridor is about 35X7 feet. The floor is about three or four feet below the level of the street.

Two of these cells are used for toilet and bath purposes. The others are occupied by prisoners. It happens quite often that there are a dozen or more inmates in this section. There is only the one toilet seat and one bath tub for the use of these men, and prisoners with venerial diseases, are thrown indis- criminately in with the healthy ones. The toilet is old fashioned and not provided with a.

allowing the poisonous fumes to come back into the sometimes so strong as to causeone to vomit. Especially is this true in the morning. Dungeon Darkness The tank" is dark as a tunnel and in the day time it is nec-, essary to keep the single 32 c. p. electric light turning, as well as at night.

There are four 36X30 inch windows on each side of the building that have wire and frosted glass panes, thru which hardly any daylight filters. On real clear, bright days one is lucky to get as much as three or four hours time by which to be able to read by the daylight, but even then to do so one must, stand near the bar cells. During cloudy days one has to have matches or lighted "canBlesto get about. Vermin Infested Bunks The bunsk are swung to the walls of the cells with chains, and a turn or two by a restless sleeper, causes a screeching, sound which tends to arous the others. These quarters are literally over-run and alive with bed-bugs, roaches and large beetle bugs, and the vermin has become so thoroly attached to the place that it would be an utter impossibility to clean them out.

The mattresses are about an inch thick, and are black with dirt and slick with grease, And this does not half tell it they are rotten the odor issuing from them would drive a scavenger from a decomposing carcas. The blankets until recently, were worn out and filthy. Rotten Food The food what little there is of it is served TWICE IN TWENTYFOUR HOURS. Once at 9 a and again at 2 The principal articles of diet are rice and beans.The rice (with out cream or sugar) usually constitutes breakfast. Beans and cheap stews are served so often fpr the 2 o'clock meal that one can hardly remember if any thing else is everdished up.

The "kept press" sometimes publishes, stories of how well the prisoners are fed, and of delicious fcot biscuits being given them. During court sessions a biscuit or two may be served, as well as some fairly good but this rarely occurrs, sessions are short and far between. The biscuits, when they, are served, are about the siz of a silver dollar' and guran-teed not to cause In a period of four or five months it has been known to have nine biscuits served. sAs a whole it is a starvation jail. Jailers Old Fossils Two old jailors in the last stages of senile decay, are con jail.

They remind one of two old worn-out watch-dogs, and there is nothing that either of them would not do for a pat on th head from his master. They are ever ready to do, what they call their duty, which is to make life as miserable as possible for the under them. But time will soon remove them. Bedlam And Foul Odors The continual banging of footsteps on the steel" floors is deafening. An inmate goes to bed nerve-racked, only to be wakened in the morning by the same nerve-racking noise.

In time this is bound to cause a nervous break-down. At nine p. m. the prisoners are locked in their cells, to remain there till 7 a. with only a one-gallon can as a toilet receptacle.

The stench arising from these cans is horrible and nauseating. The government doctor makes quite frequent calls, but medical science is powerless against such conditions. Pills arc about the only medicine, handed out. The Shawnee county jail is not a jail it is a cesspool It is not even a decent habitation ofr the vermin which swarm in the place. When men have been confined in such conditions for nineteen months, their physical condition is weakened to such an extent that' their incarceration is not merVpersecution.

IT IS SLOW MURDER! The Hunger Strike Recently the prisoners confined there were forced Let us have a thousand names signed to the bonds of the men held for nearly two years in jails of Kansas with out a Blake a strong protect against such "pre-revolutionary Russian" methods. -Write at once if you will help!.