RADICALS: Color-Blind

Red is a color which causes much colorblindness. Some see it everywhere. Some see it nowhere. Those who have seen much red include numerous patriotic organizations. They also include the American Federation of Labor and other ” regular ” labor bodies. The latest to emphasize its membership in this group is the United Mine Workers of America. That organization published a series of six articles attacking ” the Red Menace.” Many charges, general and specific, were made against radical organizations.

The Charges:

¶ The Communist régime at Moscow is seeking the overthrow of our Government and institutions, and the establishment of a Soviet Dictatorship responsible only to Moscow. To this end the Communists aim to seize all labor unions, notably the United Mine Workers, the American Federation of Labor, the Railroad Brotherhoods, by “boring from within,” and through them to take possession of the country. ¶ Agents of Gregory Zinoviev, President of the Third Internationale, have three times tried to stir up revolution in this country— in the steel strike of 1919, the switchmen’s strike of 1920, the railroad and coal strikes of 1922. To this end millions of dollars have been sent to the U. S. from Russia. Much money has been collected from labor and from the general public under the guise of ” relief ” but actually for communist propaganda. ¶ The Herrin massacre (of June, 1922) was planned six or seven weeks in advance by the Reds and engineered by 67 Lithuanian Bolshevists who had bored from within the local union and by 19 others imported for the occasion. William Z. Foster and other radicals directed the plans from Chicago. Communist leaders ” twisted ” a telegram from John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers of America, to make it seem to encourage the attack on the mine. ¶ The Red plans are forwarded by the Communist Party of America, an ” underground” organization formed secretly under the leadership of Jakor Davidovitch Janson, alias Charles E. Scott, a member of the Pan-American Bureau, the supreme agency of Levin and Zinoviev in this country. In a meeting at Overlook Mountain in the Catskills on May 15, 1921, Janson formed this Party by amalgamating the Communist Party and the United Communist Party. The consequent organization has an organization of 1,000,000 members, direct and auxiliary, and is connected with 45 national organizations and 200 locals. The whole group are controlled by a system of ” interlocking directorates” in which 52 persons hold 325 posts. The members of the group include the Workers’ Party of America (known as the “legal party ” — surface prototype of the underground Communist Party, the Trade Union Educational League (headed by William Z. Foster and attempting to bore from within the A. F. of L.), the Friends of Soviet Russia (controlled by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America), the American Civil Liberties Union (an “intellectual” group, of which Roger N. Baldwin is Director, alleged to have lent money to the Communists).

The Answers. As soon as these charges were made public denials began to be heard. The answers were chiefly of two kinds: 1) those from the press and coal operators who asserted the United Mine Workers were trying to secure a reputation for patriotism and wash their hands of the Herrin affair; 2) those from persons accused by the articles of communistic affiliations. Two specimen denials:

¶ John C. Brydon, Chairman of the Bituminous Operators’ Special Committee, declared as regards the Herrin massacre that the Coal Commission had declared there was no evidence of Communistic activity at Herrin, that the men tried for the crime were not Lithuanians but had such names as ” Clark,” ” Mann,” “Killer,” “Grace.” He added: ” The United Mine Workers of America raised a defense fund of $800,000 to secure the acquittal of the indicted men.”

<¶ Roger N. Baldwin of the American Civil Liberties Union said: ” The latest discovery of an imminent revolution in the U.S., dug up by the national office of the United Mine Workers, is the same old line of bunk handed out by the National Civic Federation for the last four years . . . We are not Communists. We are simply believers in unlimited free speech as the only guarantee of orderly progress.”