And still the recruiting officers will come; seizing age after age, mounting up to the elder ones and taking the younger ones as they grow to soldier size;

And still the toll of death will grow.

Let them come! Let death and desolation make barren every home! Let the agony of war crack every parent's heart! Let the horrors and miseries of the world-downfall swamp the happiness of every hearthstonse!

Then perhaps you will believe what we have been telling you! For war is the price of your stupidity, you who have rejected Socialism!

II.

Yesterday I saw moving pictures of the Battle of the Somme. A company of Highlanders was shown, young and handsome in their kilts and brass helmets and bright plaids.

They laughed and joked as they stood on the screen in their ranks at ease, waiting the command to advance.

The camera showed rank after rank, standing strong and erect, smoking and chaffing one with another:

Then it showed a sign: "Less than 20 per cent of these soldiers were alive at the close of the day."

Only one in five remained of all those laddies, when sunset came; the rest were crumpled masses of carrion under their torn plaids.

Many a Highland home will wail and croon for many a year, because of these crumpled masses of carrion, wrapped in their plaids, upon a far French nillside.

I saw regiments of Germans charging downhill against 360 machine 360 gun fire. They melted away like snowflakes falling into hot water.

The hospital camps were shown, with hundreds and thousands of wounded men in all stages of pain and suffering, herded like animals, milling round like cattle in the slaughter pens.

All the horror and agony of war were exhibited; and at the end a flag was thrown on the screen, and a proclamation said:

"Enlist for your country!" The applause was very thin and scattering; and as we went out, most of the men shook their heads and said: "That's a hell of a poor recruiting scheme!"

For the men of this land have been fed full with horror during the past three years; and tho the call for volunteers has become wild, frantic, desperate; tho the posters scream from every billboard, and tho parades and red fire Inflame the atmosphere in every town;

The manhood of America gazes at that seething, heaving swamp of bloody carrion in Europe, and says "Must we-be that!"

You cannot avoid it; you are being dragged, whipped, lashed, hurled into t; your flesh and brains and entrails must be crushed out of you and Doured into that mass of festering decay;

It is the price you pay for your stupidity-you who have rejected Socialism!

III.

Food prices go up like sky-rockets; and show no sign of bursting and oming down.

Wheat, potatoes, corn, are far above the Civil War mark; eggs, butter, neat-all these things are almost beyond a poor family's reach.

The Attorney General of the United States is so busy sending to prison men who do not stand up when the Star Spangled banner is played, that e has no time to protect the food supply from gamblers.

Starvation begins to stare us in the face-and we, people of the richest nd most productive land on earth are told to starve ourselves yet further ecause our allies must be fed.

Submarines are steadily sending to the fishes millions of tons of food tuffs; and still we build more ships, and send more food; and more and hore is sunk;

Frantically we grub in the earth and sow and tend and reap; and then s frantically load the food in ships, and then as frantically sink with them— We, the "civilized nations" of the world!

While the children of the poor clamor for their bread, and the well to do make their heads and wonder what on earth the poor folks are doing;

The poor folks are growling and muttering with savage sidelong glances, an are rolling up their sleeves.

For the price they pay for their stupidity is getting beyond their power to pay!

IV.

Frightful reports are being made of the ravages of venereal diseases in the army training camps, and in the barracks where the girl munition workers live.

One of the great nations lost more men thru loathsome immoral diseases than on the firing line, during the first 18 months of the war.

Back from the Mexican border our boys come, spreading the curse of the great Black Plague among hundreds of thousands of homes; blasting the lives of innocent women and unborn babes.

Over in Europe ten millions of women are deprived of their husbands, and fifty millions of babies can never be;

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Of those women who will have their mates given back to them, there are twenty millions who will have ruined wrecks of men; mentally deranged, physically broken, morally rotten;

Future generations of families are made impossible; blackness and desolation instead of happiness and love will reign where the homes of the future should be;

And all because you believed the silly lie, that "Socialism would destroy the home!"

Pound on, guns of the embattled hosts; wreck yet more homes, kill yet more husbands and fathers, rob yet more maidens of their sweethearts, yet more babies of their fathers;

That is the price the world pays for believing the monstrous, damnable, autrageous lie that Socialism would destroy the home!

Now the homes of the world are being destroyed; every one of them would have been saved by Socialism. But you would not believe. Now pay the price!

V.

This War, you say, is all caused by the Kaiser; and we are fighting for democ racy against autocracy. Once dethroned the Kaiser and there will be permanent peace.

That is what they said about Napoleon. And in the century since Napoleon was overthrown there have been more and greater wars than the world ever saw before.

There were wars before Germany existed; before Rome ruled; before Egypt dominated the ages.

War has been universal; and the cause of war is always the same. Somebody wanted something somebody else possessed, and they fought over the ownership of it.

This war began over commercial routes and ports and rights; and underneath all the talk about democracy versus autocracy, you hear a continual note, an undercurrent, a subdued refrain; “Get ready for the commercial war that will follow this war."

Commercial war preceded this war; it gave rise to this war; it now gives point and meaning to this war;

And as soon as the guns are stilled and the dead are buried, commercial forces will prepare for the next bloody struggle over routes and ports and rights, coal mines and railroads;

For these are the essence of this, as of all other wars!

This, you say, is a war for the rights of small nations;—and the first land sighted when you sail across the Atlantic is the nation of Ireland, which has suffered from England for three centuries more than what Germany has inflicted upon Belgium for three years.

But go to it! Believe everything you are told-you always have, and doubtless always will, believe them.

Only do retain this much reason; when you have paid the price, the last and uttermost price; and have not received what you were told you were fighting for-namely Democracy

Then remember that the price you paid was not the purchase price for justice. but the penalty price for your stupidity!

VI.

We are beholding the spectacle of whole nations working as one person for the accomplishment of a single end-namely, killing.

Every man, every woman, every child, must "do his bit" in the service of destruction.

We have been telling you all for, lo, these many years that the whole nation could be mobilized and every man, woman and child induced to do his bit for the service of humanity; but you laughed at us.

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Now you call every person traitor, slacker, pro-enemy, who will not go crazy on the subject of killing; and you have turned the whole energy of all the nations of the world into the service of their kings for the purpose of killing-killing-killing.

Why would you not believe us when we told you that it was possible to cooperate for the saving of life?

Why were you not interested when we begged you to work all together to build, instead to destroy? To preserve, instead of to murder?

Why did you ridicule us and call us impractical dreamers when we prophesied a world-state of fellow-workers, each man creating for the benefit of all the world, and the whole world creating for the benefit of each man?

Those idle taunts, those thoughtless jeers, that refusal to listen, to be fairminded-you are paying for them now.

--Lo, the price you pay! Lo, the price your children will pay. the death, the blood, the unforgettable sorrow,

Lo, the agony,

The price of your stupidity!

VII.

For this war-as every one who thinks or knows anything will say, whenever truth telling becomes safe and possible again,-This war is to determine the question, whether the chambers of commerce of the allied nations or of the Central Empires have the superior right to exploit undeveloped countries.

It is to determine whether interest, dividends and profits, shall be paid to investors speaking German or to those speaking English and French.

Our entry into it was determined by the certainty that if the allies do not win, J. P. Morgan's loans to the allies will be repudiated, and those American investors who bit on his promises would be hooked.

Socialism would have settled that question; it would determine that to every producer shall be given all the value of what he produces; so that nothing would be left over for exploiters or investors.

With that great question settled there would be no cause for war.

Until the question of surplus profits is settled that way, wars will continue; each war being the prelude to a still vaster and greater outbrust of hell; Until the world becomes weary of paying the stupendous price for its own folly;

Until those who are sent out to maim and murder one another for the profit of bankers and investors determine to have and to hold what they have fought for;

Until money is no more sacred than human blood;

Until human life refuses to sacrifice itself for private gain;

Until by the explosion of millions of tons of dynamite the stupidity of the human race is blown away, and Socialism is known for what it is, the salvation of the human race;

Until then-You will keep on paying the price!

If This Interests You, Pass It On.

Subscribe to The American Socialist, published weekly by the National Office, Socialist Party, 803 West Madison Street, Chicago, Ill., 50 cents per year, 25 cents for six months. It is a paper without a muzzle.

Cut this out or copy it, and send it to us. We will see that you promptly receive the desired information.

To the National Office, Socialist Party, 803 W. Madison St., Chicago, Ill.

I am interested in the Socialist Party and its Principles. Please send me samples of its literature.

Name

Address

City

(Allied Printing Trades label)

_State_.

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The Witness (continuing): This book is the daily Journal of origing entries of the Chicago Arbeiter Zeitung Publishing Company. Page 87 is in my handwriting and shows an order for 100,000 copies of the May leaflet It was called the Proclamation and War Program and delivered to the Ameri can Socialist. Page 89 of the same hook shows an order for 100,000 copies of "The Price We Pay." They were delivered May 26th, the requisition num ber being 5225. Page 89 calls for 100,000 of "The Price We Pay," requisition No. 5321, that were printed and delivered on the orders of Mr. Adolph Germer Page 98 contains an order for 100,000 copies of "The Price We Pay." The usual price for printing is $82. There were about 750,000 copies of "The Price We Pay" printed on orders of Mr. Germer, delivered to him as execu tive secretary. There were about 350,000 pamphlets entitled "Why You Should Fight" printed by us. The orders came in the same way as in the case of "The Price We Pay."

Page 101 shows an order for 25,000 May leaflets and 6,000 16 page bulletin, printed and delivered on June 29th. It was the June Bulletin.

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Cross-Examination by Mr. Stedman.

The word "Arbeiter" translated means a working man, laborer, and “Zeitung' means newspaper, journal. There are two accounts in this book, one with the Chicago Socialist and one with the American Socialist. The Ci cago Socialist is run in our books as a separate account and paid for by the county office. The National Edition is paid for by the National office. And delivery is made of the Chicago edition upon order of the county office, and the National on account of the National. The two are separate institutions so far as our transactions with them are concerned.

IRWIN FRED WEBER, called as a witness on behalf of the Government. having first been duly sworn, testified as follows:

Direct Examination of Mr. Fleming.

I live at 554 North 9th Street, Reading, Pa. I have lived there one year in December. By business is electrical contractor, for about three years. I am 24 years of age. I know William F. Kruse. I knew Kruse a year before he became National Secretary of the Young People. I am state financial sec retary and treasurer of the Young People of the State of Pennsylvania. I have served in that capacity ever since the state was organized. I had a communication with William F. Kruse during the year 1917. The letter dated Thursday 29 1917 which you show me is my letter, to which I received a reply from Kruse. The original letter of reply is either lost or destroyed. The copy you show me is a copy of the letter I received from Kruse, the original of which is lost. There is no signature to it. I arrived in Chicago on Sunday. I saw William F. Kruse in the evening. I was called here as a Government witness. I saw Kruse before that in 1916. I saw Kruse when he made his lecture tour through the East herein the spring.

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(Whereupon letter bearing date December 3 was tendered in evidence by the Government.)

(Objection by defendants jointly and severally as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial; overruled; exception.)

(Whereupon said letters were received in evidence and marked Government's Exhibits 19 and 20, and are in words and figures as follows, to wit:)

The Court: It is conceded by counsel for defendants that so far as the copy is concerned it is a copy of the original letter.

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GOV. EX. 19.

Thur. 29, 1917
Reading, Pa.

Dear Comrades:

Enclosed you will find $5 check for which please send Morris Wolf 803 Fourth St., N. Braddock, Pa. 100 Federation stamps at once.

Bill I am very busy here at present some or a good number of our best comrades have bin taken away. My good friends and some of our best comrades Burdtt Stine whome you know and Comrade Harold R. John formerly of Phila are now at camp. Burdtt is a prisoner he will not drill or put a suit on.

I wish our convention was here so I could give this Job up to some one else who could tend to it better than I can. Not that I am tired of same but because Local work here in party and on State Committee take up the greater part of my work. Also my little business (Business get that) keeps me going doing my own bookkeeping and work. So you can nearly see where I get off at. Virginia and wife in good health and all happy.

I am

I have sent the 100 language federation due stamps to Comrade Wolf as per request and receipt for your $5.00 will be sent you by our order department. I can well appreciate that you are very busy with both party and economic work but still I would that you or your comrade secretary might drop me a line once in a while. Furthermore, I do not remember receiving many due stamp orders from your state of late. What's the matter witth all your leagues, dead? I am sorry to learn that Comrade Stine is at the camp but still I am just a little proud of the fight he is putting up. I do not know where it will all come out but another Yipsel, Otto Wangerin of St. Paul, Minnesota has been sentenced to fifteen years military prison for taking the same position. Some of us will have to stand the gaff I suppose and we have yet to see what the coming generation will say to the identity of the real heroes of the world war.

I am very glad to note that wife and little one are in good condition and send them both my best wishes. The news that they are healthy and happy is welcome here and I trust that the time will never come when you have to write anything but the same cheerful news. With best wishes to all, I remain

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Yours for comradeship,

National Secretary, Young Peoples
Socialist League.

WK/AK

369

Cross-Examination by Mr. Stedman.

I don't know any of the defendants except Kruse. I never corresponded with any of them at any time in my life. I received from Kruse one or two letters a month. During 1917 I never received any communication from Kruse with reference to avoiding the draft or registration. There are about 64 members to our organization.

ANNA B. CAMPBELL, called as a witness on behalf of the Government,' having first been duly sworn, testified as follows:

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Direct Examination by Mr. Fleming.

I live at 6139 South Paulina Street, Chicago; employed with the Quartermaster's Corps, at 39 South Wood Street. I do typewriting and general clerical work. I have been employed there six weeks. Prior to that I was employed by Morris & Company stockyards, as general bookkeeper. I worked there one month. Prior to that I was employed for six weeks down in Macon, Georgia, while visiting my sister there while her husband was in Camp Wheeler. Prior to that I was employed in the National office of the Socialist Party 803 West Madison Street, Chicago, from July 1910 until August of 1918, as a stenographer. When I first went there and during the year 1917 I had charge of the mimeograph room and mailing list of the American Socialist and later on I did the bookkeeping for the paper. By. mimeograph work I mean stencils were cut and they were run off in the department under my direction. I kept copies of those stencils and pasted them in a book (which book is referred to by the witness). This book bears my own name, Anna. It is a letter book. That book (Book "A") contains copies of letters, articles and