want very much of it. (laughter and applause) The liberty bonds that you are expected to buy are the fetters that chain you to the war chariot. When you buy a liberty bond you invest in the war debts and you are going to insist when the war is over that those debts be paid. The liberty bonds are not sold only in the United States. Similar bonds are sold in other countries. Why? Because the people are threatened to repudiate the war debts and in order to avoid and obviate that it is necessary that every man woman and child buy a liberty bond. When you buy a liberty bond you have $50 or a hundred or five hundred, whatever it may be, invested in the war debts. When the war is over you want your money back but who is paying the liberty bond? The people of the United States. Whose bonds are they? 477 The people's bonds. The people sell themselves their liberty bonds and pay themselves three and half per cent for thirty years and at the end of that time they redeem their own war bonds. (laughter) Besides what does the war cost? Secretary McAdoo in Chicago, the other night, told us it is going to cost about sixteen and a half million dollars a day, sixteen and a half million dollars a day? About sixteen and a half cents for every one of the hundred million inhabitants or about 82 cents for every family in the United States. That is the price that we are going to pay for liberty, a little over $77 a year. Now, let me submit to you, would it not be more reasonable and a saner proposition, and a more humanitarian and Christian proposition, if every living being in the United States paid sixteen and a half cents per day for one year and that we send that to Belgium, if we are to rescue Belgium and keep our men at home. We will keep the flower of manhood in the United States and at the same time rescue Belgium and keep the homes happy and contended. (applause) It wouldn't require that much. $10,000,000,000 a year we are to pay, and if we don't buy the liberty bonds, why, the president of the Central Trust Company told one of the salesmen, "when you approach a man and he doesn't buy one, knock him down 478 and make him buy it." The Chicago Tribune told us so at least. Six teen cents per day for every one of the 100,000,000 inhabitants,-82 cents per family per day for each one of the 100,000,000 inhabitants, or according to Secretary McAdoo and his estimate is not exaggerated, perhaps under-estimated,-$10,000,000,000 per year. Would it not be far better, would it not be a more reasonable proposition, wouldn't we be doing the greater service to humanity and to ourselves if we collected that fund and sent it to Belgium to rescue Belgium and kept the future of our government here at home, rather than to send them to the trenches, to have their arms and their legs and their heads shot off and their bodies shot to pieces? A. O, but of course again we are dreamers and fanatics. We should always remember that we are fighting for democracy. We are fighting for the freedom of the world, and when we ask for some of that freedom here to begin with, to establish some of that democracy, some of that freedom on the borders of our own country, then we are charged with and indicted for conspiracy; we are charged with treason; we are charged with every hideous crime that can be invented. There is but one way I again repeat out of this crisis and that is by the 479 complete solidification, the complete unification of every man and woman, irrespective of religion, to organize in that one grand movement that has for its aims and its objects the end of capitalism with all of its hideous consequences, wars included, and the establishment of an industrial social democracy where men will not be reduced to tramp to work across the highways in search of some master to give him the right to live; where women will not be torn out of the home and thrown into the sweat-shops and the factories and the mills and where children will not be stolen from the school-house to be ground into glittering gold for an idle aristocracy. The end of capitalism and the ushering in of that greater and grander day, the industrial and social democracy is the mission and the hopes and the expressions of the socialist party and in your behalf as well as in behalf of that movement I appeal to you to put your application for membership with the local organization and become one of the active soldiers in this army for the common good. 480 Cross-Examination by Mr. Stedman. Blackhawk Park is just outside of Rockford; it is a wooded elevation of land. I saw Germer once or twice while he was speaking. Mr. Wade Talcott directed me to go there. He is connected with the Department of Justice. It was in the afternoon. There was no disturbance there, it was a peaceable meeting. JOHN E. FERRIS, a witness on behalf of the Government, testified as follows: Direct Examination by Mr. Fleming. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and operate an Intelligence office for private individuals in my own name. I was formerly connected with the Bureau of Investigation for the Department of Justice in Milwaukee for a period of six months, August, 1917, to March 29, 1918. About November 10th I met Victor L Berger in his office in Brisbane Hall, the office of the Milwaukee Leader. I was accompanied with Mr. Ralph Izard agent in charge of the Milwaukee office bureau of investigation U. S. Department of Justice. We arrived at Brisbane Hall about 4 o'clock going to the main office of the Milwaukee Leader. Mr. Izard stated to Berger we had been requested to call by the U. S. Government. We were invited upstairs to his office and closed the door. Izard stated to Berger that he called to ascertain who was responsible for articles that had been appearing and were appearing in the Milwaukee Leader and what his (Berger's) connection was with the paper. Berger replied he was editor in chief; that he wrote most of the editorials; that he was responsible for all matters,__news and editorials, that appeared 481 in the Leader. Izard said: “You appreciate the purpose of our call," and said: "Then you assume all responsibility for matter that appears in the Leader or has appeared? Mr. Berger said: "I assume all responsibility for everything news, editorials and advertising matter." (Whereupon was tendered and received in evidence on behalf of the gov ernment Exhibit No. 47, being the following articles from the American Socialist under date of May 26, 1917: Article from p. 1, col. 4, entitled "Wake Up America"; advertisement from p. 1, cols. 1 and 2, entitled "Fifty Thousand Copies of "The Price We Pay' Sold"; article from p. 1, col. 3, entitled "Going Into Debt"; two paragraphs without heading from p. 1, col. 4; article from p. 1, last col. entitled "Democracy and Humanity" by Adolph Germer; article from p. 4, col. 2, entitled "Plutes Fear Stickers.") To which offer the defendant by counsel object on the ground that said exhibit is incompetent immaterial and irrelevant and remote, which objection was overruled and to which order of the court the defendants were allowed an exception. 482 GOVT EXHIBIT NO 47 American Socialist May 26 A Rush of orders for "The Price We Pay" four-page leaflet began as soon as the announcement of its printing in leaflet form was made. They began coming in at the rate of ten thousand a day by the time the issue of May 19th reached the comrades. A second edition will soon be necessitated, if this rate keeps up. Everywhere comrades who have already received and use it report that its reception by non-Socialists is tremendous. The leaflet creates little short of a sensation. "This is usrely a great piece of literature," writes J. C. Chenoweth, Shelbyville, Ind. He orders 200. "Brimful of good things and truths that must appeal to any one with common sense," writes Mrs. William Vermuth, La Crosse, Wis. "Send me a dollar's worth of Irwin Tucker's Price We Pay. It's splendid." writes Emil Limbach, Pittsburgh. "Comrade Tucker has told the truth uncompromisingly," says A. S. Hodge, Mishawaka, Ind. "Stupidity, yes stupidity is our greatest enemy," write Alex van Gundy, of Cheyenne, Wyo. "Starve them a while longer and they will wake un." Mrs. Amanda Montgomery writes that she is scattering "The Price We Pay" along an automobile trip thru Kansas and Oklahoma. N. Gramm, Harrisburg, Pa., writes for one thousand copies. "I think that is the very best argument against war which I have ever read, and should be read by every worker in the world," he writes. "This is absolutely the best article of its kind I have read and I will do my are to have it read by others," writes B. Leknes, a bank cashier of Russell, inn. He orders one thousand copies. Local Maywood, Ill., orders a bundle of 2,000 copies. Price: 20c per 100; $1.50 per 1,000. Order now from the 3 West Madison Street____ "And I'm going into debt!" Going Into Debt. Chicago, Ill. There is no more universal confession than this at the present time. The business of going into debt is more universal than the business of urder. A few million soldiers are engaged directly in the killing business. illions of men, women and children are marching toward the poverty line, hile nations verge on bankruptcy. Let us sum up the case of one man as it was told to the editor of this paper: "I have a family of five children. I am a passenger brakeman on the ennsylvania Railroad and I earn $100 a month. And I'm going into debt!" This man does not waste his money. terature and distributing it among his month means he earns $1,200 a year. age of the American worker. His only luxury is buying Socialist fellow workers. One hundred dollars This is more than twice the average Yet, while its workers are individually going into debt due to the high cost f living, the national government scolds and frets because these same workers ill not share in the greatest debt of all, the first $2,000,000,000 of the 5,000,000,000 so-called Liberty Loan of 1917. "Failure to subscribe the $2,000,000,000 required would be a confession of ational impotence," is the plea that Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo sends ut to the nation. The people do not want to pay for this war any more than they want to nlist in this war. The subscriptions from the masses to the loan have been s meager as the volunteers for the army and navy. This is not a confession of the national impotence of the people. It is a onfession of the failure of the capitalist system of society. The people do not lack intelligence. Their actions would indicate they are etting more intelligent. A government that permits its powers to be usurped by money czars, esulting in the impoverishment of the many by the few, cannot expect aid nd co-operation from the governed. A poverty stricken people, daily going deeper and deeper into debt, cannot possibly buy war bonds, regardless of whether they would like to do so or not. The capitalist system of society in the United States is today reaping the arvest of years of merciless exploitation of the people. And it is useless for McAdoo, or any one else in Washington or Wall Street, o cry out, "We must oversubscribe this loan as an indication that America s stirred to the depths in the cause of freedom." There is no doubt that America is stirred to its depths. It has been stirred or a long time over the increasing cost of bread and all the necessities of life. t has been stirred by the autocratic attempt being made to force conscription pon the nation. It is stirred to the depths in the cause of its own emanci-ation. The future, the very near future, alone will tell how much America has been tirred. And when America is aroused it is not impotent, as the present exloiters of the masses will learn to their sorrow. Wilson is sending 28,000 soldiers to France immediately. That will be annon fodder for the European "mass murder" machine for a few days. The tears and heartaches of 28,000 mothers left behind by those 28,000 oldier boys going to France will soon change to mourning as the death lists re published. American Socialist May 26 1917 Plutes Fear Stickers. The Chicago Daily News gives front page mention to the efforts of the authorities to stamp out a sticker campaign that has sprung up in a certain section of the city. Ascribing the work to anarchists the paper goes on to quote the stickers: One that was especially obnoxious to the authorities reads as follows: "Let the preachers who pray for war The editors who write for war And the capitalists who make profits on war Go To War But workmen your place is in the workshop" Another of the labels read: "Thou Shalt Not Kill, Dont commit murder and hide your bloody hands under any flag" A third bears the heading “ Wake Up America" and goes on: "Selective conscription Compulsory Service. Militarism in the schools Obey the law and keep your mouth shut. Prussianism overdone Ditto free assemblage And a free press Jails for radicals Machine guns in police stations Imported Chinese labor Good-bye eight hour laws The article goes on to state that five members of an anarchistic West Side colony have been taken into custody, but the officers would not state whether the evidence was strong enough to warrant prosecution. The story is trimmed with the usual embellishments of underground printing presses, free-love colonies and the other trimmings used by the master class to cover an inroad upon the liberties of the people. Wake Up America Selective conscription Militarism in the schools Free speech denied Ditto free assemblage And a free press Jails for radicals Prussianism overdone To hell with the constitution Machine guns in police stations Imported Chinese labor Good-bye 8-hour laws. Farewell steaks and potatoes Democracy And Humanity I.. We Americans have a right to know of President Wilson and of Congress just why we are to pay the price, in treasure and blood, that war entails, Why are countless homes to be draped in mourning and why are fathers, mothers, wives and sweethearts to drench their cheeks in tears and live a life of grief over the loss of the ones they loved? Why are we to have a nation of armless, legless and sightless men as the terrible toll of war? Why are future generations to be crushed with the burdens of a war, the true purpose of which has not been explained? Yet you, Mr. President, with a sufficient number of members of congress have passed a law that mokes military serfs of your constituents and you propose to enslave them to an expedition of murder and destruction. And all this without telling us, except in vague and meaningless terms, what it is all for and how it can be stopped. 483 LORENZO T. PLUMMER, called as a witness on behalf of the Government, testified as follows: Direct Examination by Mr. Fleming. I am connected with the Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice since April, 1917. I know Adolph Germer, J. Louis Engdahl, and William F. Kruse. I first met Germer September 5, 1917. I went to the Socialist Headquarters and served a search warrant issued by Circuit Judge Evans. I said to Engdahl, Germer and Mr. Branstetter it is probable that I will have to testify before the grand jury because of my visit here, I understand you do not deny responsibility for what has been done. Germer said, Engdahl and myself are responsible for the printing and distribution of the American Socialist and that he (Germer) was business manager. Engdahl was the editor. Mr. Germer said Engdahl knows little about the distribution of literature and that he (Germer) is the only one who would be responsible for that. The next day Mr. Fleming and Mr. Furbeshaw came over and I showed them around the offices, in Mr. Germer's room there were a number of matrix of the picture The Horrors of War. I passed one to Mr. Fleming and he turned to Mr. Germer and asked him "Are you responsible for the printing and distribution of that?" Germer answered he was. Mr. Fleming asked if he designed it. Mr. Germer replied, I regret I have not the talent nor the faculty. 484 (Thereupon there was tendered in evidence on behalf of the Government as Exhibit 48 the matrix of the picture the Horrors of War or war poster. Objected to as incompetent. Objection overruled and Exception allowed. (Said matrix was thereupon by the court admitted in evidence and the same is in words and figures as follows, to wit:) (Thereupon there was tendered in evidence on behalf of the Government as Exhibit 48 the matrix of the picture the Horrors of War or war poster. Objected to as incompetent, Objection overruled and Exception allowed. (Said matrix was thereupon by the court admitted in evidence and the same is in words and figures as follows, to wit:) 485 Cross-Examination by Mr. Cunnea. September 5, 1917, I went to the office at 803 West Madison street, about 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The Deputy Marshall had a search warrant. I went over to help, to assist in serving the search warrant. I accompanied the Deputy Marshal. I met with gentlemanly conduct on the part of Germer and others. They showed us everything that was around the place. I went there for the purpose of assisting in the search warrant and not for the purpose of making evidence for the prosecution. (Whereupon there was offered and received in evidence on behalf of the Government as Exhibit 49, an order signed by Adolph Germer to the Arbeiter Zeitung, which is in words and figures as follows, to wit:) Please deliver and charge to our account the following: 4000 Amer Soc dated June 9th ADOLPH GERMER Executive Secretary Please notify us if above cannot be filled as ordered, attention of |