agitating constantly for the People's Council. sages from her voluminous letters to Lochner: We quote pas From Seattle, August 13, 1917, in reference to the San Francisco meeting of the People's Council she wrote: "The man Thompson you see on the program is a member of the I. W. W. and made a wonderful speech." From Everett, Wash., describing the Seattle meeting where Kate Sadler" a splendid live soul but very radical" was arrested: ".. I leaped on the table and started to speak-most of the crowd remaining. I told the purposes of the People's Council and something about the Russian democracy. Then Colonel Wood of Portland came and I closed. Just then eight policemen came up . . . and declared they would arrest me. A great shout of indignation went up but they seemed very determined. . . . I jumped from the table and a policeman caught hold of my arm. People surged in between us, the hand suddenly loosened and I slipped into the crowd easily and back to the hall, in time to do my usual job of asking for the collection. here is one to be reckoned with. . The I. W. W. situation They are very powerful here, and our meetings were rather swamped owing to the lumber strike. The screws are getting tighter. These are great times for democracy.' . . . By the way get in touch with Lincoln Steffens. From Deer Lodge, Mont., August 22, 1917, to Miss Alice Park of the Woman's Suffrage Party: . The "The situation here is vastly different from the Seattle vicinity. One has to soft-pedal very much. splendid boys who formed the committee had worked very hard and were very anxious. They feared the least. radical remark would upset the apple cart. I made my speech in the form of questions; and so got by with many statements. I am leaving here tonight. see you in Minneapolis." From Butte, to Lochner, August 27, 1917: Will "I haven't done anything to speak of here. The situation is most delicate. Mary O'Neill will handle it. . . . She is very deep in it all here and so is Miss Rankin who, by the way is at her home in Missoula, Mont. Mary is her first lieutenant in this State, and very wise and careful. "Great Falls are planning to go out on a sympathetic strike, and it means careful handling." In view of these letters it can perhaps be said without any exaggeration that Miss Freeman did her bit in the way of spreading radicalism through People's Council propaganda, in this country during the war. 2 Among the agents organizing in the field during the summer of 1917 for the People's Council were Irwin St. John Tucker who co-operated with Mrs. Lloyd in Chicago,' Grace Scribner, of Boston; S. A. Stockwell, of Minneapolis;3 M. A. Brantland, of Ada, Minn.; Thos. Vollom, Erskine, Minn.; Olof M. Grover, Mentor, Minn.;5 and C. A. Ryan of the World Peace Association, Northfield, Minn.,* were also active. One of Lochner's aides who did particularly effective work was James Maurer. He wrote in August 20, 1917, submitting his expense account to the People's Council: "On my tour I spoke at the following places: Chicago Los Angeles 3 meetings 3 meetings 1 Pocatello Salt Lake City. Denver Trinidad Kansas City St. Louis... 2 meetings (Union men only) 1 meeting 1 meeting 2 meetings 3 meetings (1 to Union men only) 1 meeting All told twenty-five meetings. All excepting two were very well attended. Meeting at Seattle was broken up by soldiers, after I had spoken just one hour. The meeting at Pocatello Telegram, Tucker to Lochner, Aug. 21, 1917. June 19, 1917. C. A. Ryan, soliciting funds for People's Council, Aug. 17, 1917. 3 Aug. 4, 1917. Aug. 15 and 25, 1917. was broken up by police and plain clothes rough necks, after that my efforts left good results at each place visited. All other meetings were paid for by Socialists and others, who arranged them. That is, wages and hotel was paid.' "I feel that my tour has done much good among Socialists, Union men and others." (August 21, 1917.) Other valuable Lochner allies of this period who wrote interesting letters were: 1. Mr. Erich C. Stern, of Milwaukee, from whom we quote: "Your telegram received today and so Mr. Haessler and I called upon Mr. Gustav Trostel (brother of Albert Trostel). He said that La Follette's secretary, Mr. Hanna, was in town last week and had collected a considerable sum of money to be used for peace purposes- and had received a considerable amount from the Trostels. Mr. Trostel therefore thought we ought to appeal to others as well as him and his brother. He gave us his own check for $100 for the local treasury and turned over to us $508 from another source for the national treasury. Mr. Haessler took this check and promised to forward the money to you at once. . . . I must confess to being disappointed that you are meeting with so much difficulty in raising the initial $50,000. It seems to me that even $1 membership fees should have made out a very large sum in the aggregate if your membership is as numerous as I had supposed. . . . Do you know what La Follette does with the money he collects?" Lochner in answering Stern 2 said: “I think La Follette is using the money he collects for two purposes first, to ascertain the name of one peace man in each precinct of the Union; second, to enable him to circularize his splendid articles such as, The right of the citizen to criticise the government in war times.'" 1Aug. 15, 1917. 'Aug. 23, 1917. 2. From Mrs. Harriet Thomas of the Woman's Peace Party at Chicago (section for the United States of the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace), who showed what manner of pacifist she was by the following: "At Dixon, Ill., night before last, a People's Council was formed with a signed-up membership of more than a thousand, mostly farmers. They elected their delegate and alternate to Minneapolis and are enthusiastic over the movement. Let the good work go on.' Lochner's answer 2 in which he advised Senator Works for permanent chairman of the People's Council is also illuminating: "At first there was talk of having Rabbi Magnes, but finally the suggestion prevailed of having Senator Works preside for the simple reason that we felt that the authorities would be less liable to stop a man just recently from the Senate. . . His conception of our meeting is that of a movement that will go beyond the war. 3. From Chapin Hoskins, of the Book House, Chicago, to Lochner (August 28, 1917): "So it has been suggested to me that inasmuch as the Book House is one of the few book stores that make a specialty of the sort of books that People's Council members want to and ought to read, it would be a great gain for the cause as well as for me if I carried on an advertising campaign in your bulletin. Some of the directors were very anxious to have me repeat the stunt I pulled off at the Chicago meeting, of having a table of books on display, but I did not think it feasible at a distance from Chicago. Let me say, though, that the eagerness with which people at the Conference examined and bought sensible war literature shows that we really did a service. "If you see things in the same light as my Chicago friends and of course I shall not urge the matter on you, for nothing is further from my wishes than to make money through my connection with the movement an arrangement will have to be made somewhat as follows: I will give my full services to Mr. Fuller for the week and receive proper compensation; I will be permitted to buy adequate advertising space in the bulletin at a reasonable rate; the net result must be that the cost of my trip to Minneapolis will not exceed the value of the advertising to me. "This is rather a peculiar proposition, isn't it? But the fact is, I suppose, that most propositions are as intricate at bottom, but the proposers are less frank about their motives." 4. From J. Muhlon Barnes of Chicago,1 in reference to People's Council propaganda literature: "I am mailing out a mimeographed letter, dated today, to only 400 unions eliminating those farthest removed from Minneapolis. . . . I think I should spend next week there working among the unions." 5. From Fawcett (writing from the New York office of the People's Council of which he was in charge when Lochner transferred his headquarters, the second week in August, 1917, to Minneapolis): "It seems that there is a possibility that Alexander Berkman will be elected to the Assembly by one of the local groups. Also, Miss Secor suggests that Emma Goldman may be present in the same capacity. Mr. Panken is annoyed at this prospect and Mr. Hillquit has been asked to think the matter over, which probably means that the two in question will be asked not to permit their names to be offered as delegates. You know Mr. Hillquit is Berkman's attorney. "Mr. Panken fears are based on the ground that publicity will be concentrated on the presence of anarchists at the convention and that the best purposes of the Council will be lost sight of and injured. "I suppose if the matter is in Mr. Hillquit's hands it will be taken care of correctly. You had better advise me however as to what I might do in case of emergency. I could appeal to Berkman personally if it seemed necessary." 6. A telegram from Congressman Wm. A. Mason dated August 20, 1917, in reply to Lochner's urgent request for him to speak at the September Convention: "Expect to be in Washington then fighting same cause. Some of the official matter turned out by the People's Council office during the first weeks of August, 1917, was as follows: A financial statement from June 1 to August 18, 1917, showing contributions amounting to $29,918.75 and an expenditure of $23,910.44; a bulletin form letter announcing "A mouthpiece for the People's Council" in the form of a weekly bulletin; a second form letter requesting People's Council members who "voted on Barnes to Lochner, Aug. 22, 1917. |