Friends of Conscription J. P. Morgan. And so you approve of the plan, J. P., Cold steel against tender young flesh, J. P., And how goes the battle to-day, J. P.? How many blind eyes lifted up to the skies And how many curses of hate, J. P., And the war that comes after the war, J. P., But what is our life or our death, J. P., And what are our tears and our moans, The grief-stricken mother, the life without light, LYDIA M. D. O'NEIL The July Leaflet "Why You Should Fight," by Irwin Tucker, is now ready. e want a man or woman, boy or girl, in every precinct of every county to disibute these to Every Voter. Whether a party member or not. Wrap Your ime Around A Dime, Send It In, and get 100 copies. Send two dimes, get To hundred. Send Seventy-five cents and get One Thousand. Be a Lightarer! Address The National Office, Socialist Party, 803 W. Madison St., hicago, Ill. Will you please advise the public in one of your editorials why it is that e government permits the sons of wealthy men to get commissions in the rious reserve corps, such as naval, aviation, etc., so that they will be kept this country; while the poor will be sent abroad?" asks a reader. Because is is a rich man's war but a poor man's fight. Open gambling houses, immoral resorts and illegal sales of liquor are only me of the temptations offered naval recruits stationed at Newport, R. I., the ost fashionable and exclusive watering place for the idle rich in America. he vices of the rich are being visited upon the poor forced into uniform. 15 (Thereupon there was offered and received in evidence as Government's Exhibit 57 article from the American Socialist entitled "Organiation Leaflets Popular" and "Buy a Liberty Bond" issue of July 21, 1917. nd the same is in words and figures as follows, to wit:) over the objection of ounsel for the defendants, to which an exception was allowed. 516 GOV. EX. 57. Organization Leaflets Popular. Send me The American Socialist for one year, I think it is a great paper Have been reading my neighbors' papers and leaflets. Send me the mont organization leaflets. Boost the Socialist Party, is my slogan '”—Edgar Fog man, Indiana. 66 The American Socialist has been good from the first, but it is getting bette every issue."-J. C. Harkness, Washington. This is the time to grow, and we are growing," says Comrade Nelson Bil ings, of San Francisco, as he orders a bundle of July leaflets. 66 Keep going, we're on the way to victory," says M. M. Floren, Dell Rapids S. D., as he orders a bundle of July leaflets. 66 People in this community are beginning to look for some light-after e nomic depression. The stomach seems to be the dominating source of brais supply." A. C. Brookey, of Pittsburgh, makes the above comment when sending in an order for July leaflets. Wrap your name around a dime, send it in te the National Office, and get 100 leaflets." "Buy a Liberty Bond." "Get a real one-not the bankers' kind. The bonds the banks are offering you are Slavery Bonds; they bind you to the chariot wheel of Morgan forever "Send a dime for 100 copies of By Ralph Korngold. June Leaflet of the Socialist Party. The Real Liberty Bonds. Send 2 dimes for 200, 3 dimes for 300, 75 cts. for one thousand. Every one delivered to a neighbor means a Bond to Liberty and Future Peace. 517 THE SOCIALIST PARTY WILLIAM MACK, called as a witness on behalf of the Government testified as follows: Direct Examination by Mr. Fleming. I live at 1326 North Harding avenue. I lived in Chicago 12 years; now em.. ployed at Troy Machine Laundry; employed as such for the last week. Prich to that for Chas. E. Reed & Co. machine work. I was born in Austria, came to America in 1900; became a citizen in 1916. Reside in 35th Ward. Member of the Socialist party for nine years. I have been secretary of the Ward branch: at present I have no office with the Party. I know Irwin St. John Tucker. Me: him in July, 1917. I was instructed by the branch on the last Thursday of July to purchase 10,000 leaflets entitled Why you should Fight" by Comrade Tucker. The following Saturday, July 30th, I went to the County Office, sa Tucker personally; I asked if he had 10,000 copies of "Why You Should Fight he didn't know but said he would see and later said "Yes" so I made a de posit of $4. The charge was $7.50. I received 10,000 copies of pamphlet ef titled "Why you should fight." The next week I brought the quota te 518 each of our precinct workers and distributed 250 in my own precincts, helped in the distribution of the American Socialist after its suppression doing my share, delivering them usually Saturday afternoon. Recross Examination by Mr. Cunnea. I usually got the papers Friday evening, and distributed them Saturday and Sunday. The paper bore the date of the Saturday of the week but went to press days before that. We received the Chicago Section of American Socialist Redirect Examination by Mr. Fleming. (Exhibiting American Socialist to the witness.) On the second page there was a sheet like that. J. E. HARRIS, called as a witness on behalf of the Government, testified as ollows: Direct Examination by Mr. Fleming. I live at 216 Martin street, Milwaukee; employed by the Milwaukee Journal For the last year and a half as newspaper man. Before that I was with the Milwaukee Sentinel for about a month, prior to that with the Milwaukee Leader from December 14 until the last of May, 1917. I served in the capacity as copy reader, reporter as managing editor. I had been managing editor about a year at the time I severed my relation with the Milwaukee Leader. Mr. Fleming: Q Why did you leave the Milwaukee Leader? 519 Mr. Cochems: Objection as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. The Court: Overruled and exception allowed. You may answer. The Witness: I was no longer in agreement with the policy of the paper. The Court: The fact of his not being in agreement may be stricken out. The Witness: I had discussions with him regarding the matter of handling war news in the paper. The first conversation was at the time I agreed to accept the position of Managing Editor and at various times soon after that. I told Mr. Berger I would accept the position as managing editor and he went over with me the troubles he had had, the fault he had to find with the with my predecessors in that position, with the men who had held he position before me, the substance of which was that the only other two men in the office that he would consider for that position were strongly Pro-Ally or proEnglish, I think he called them, and that he was afraid to trust them for fear things would get into the paper, headlines in particular which were offensive to the friends of the paper, to German friends he mentioned and to his friends. I had definite instructions regarding the matter of handling the war news. We ran a news story covering the operations in the field. The instructions were that the Berlin dispatch was always to be used as the lead of the story. This instruction was given a month after I became managing editor. I carried out the intructions. I gave the desk force and the telegraph editor the same instructions I received from Mr. Berger. A few months before May, 1917, Mr. Berger found fault in the printing in the Leader of a special war story by one of the united press correspondents; it was a separate story from the regular war news. He (Berger) said in effect that the story was unreliable; that it was rot; that it should not have been printed. The dispatch was from somewhere in Europe; it was a signed dispatch of United Press writers. 520 Mr. Cochems: Just a moment. Inasmuch as that appears to be in the files and the exact article is here I ask that the reference be made so we shall know the author of it and the source of it. The Government has that article in its possession and all our files covering that period, I am informed. The Winess: Mr. Berger said we should not have printed it. He instructed me that in the future he wanted to see all copies of those special articles, particularly in case there was anything of the same nature (special war story by one of the United Press corespondents) in them as that article and that they would not be run until after he had seen them. Leo Wolfson was our telegraph editor at that time, City editor Claude Diegle. When I first went to work there war news was handled by Ernest Unterman. I said nothing further to Mr. Berger with reference to the policy of the paper until I left. I never argued the policy with him. Unterman left the paper a short 521 time after I became managing editor. I had several discussions with Mr. Berger over Unterman leaving, during which he repeatedly gave me instructions regarding the handling of war news. He instructed me to put the Berlin dispatches in the lead and be careful that nothing offensive to the German readers of the paper got into the headlines. I remember the St. Louis Convention which convened in St. Louis during the month of April, 1917. I spoke to him with regard to having the Convention covered for the Leader, before he went to the St. Louis Convention; he said he would look after that and that if he did not have time to do it he would get Engdahl to do it. We received the regular U. P. report over the wire, and the reports of the committee on resolution and platform, etc. I presume they came from Mr. Berger or Mr. Engdahl. While the Convention was in session we fur 138525-19-VOL 2-13 nished the majority and the two minority reports on the war platform, one of which was the report subsequently adopted. The report that was adopted was reprinted a week after the St. Louis Convention. Berger gave me the copy when he instructed me to reprint the report adopted. The three other men who were at the desk force and myself took the copy and discussed it we had already read it in the paper; the three other men who were the desk force discussed it and though it over. I prepared a statement which 522 was signed by all four of the members of the editorial staff and pre sented that statement to Mr. Berger, a copy of that statement has been lost or destroyed. I kept it six months. Mr. Fleming: Q Do you recall the substance of that statement. (Objection on behalf of defendants on the grounds it is irrelevant and immaterial, merely expressing opinion. Objection overruled; exception.) The substance of that statement was that we had consulted the federa attorneys and had been assured that the war program was treasonable or so pear it that its publication would probably be followed by prosecution; that anyone having anything to do with its publication would be held responsible. We wanted to absolve ourselves from any responsibility and refused to have anything to do with the handling of it. Berger said that he was the responsible head of the Leader; that no one else would be held if there was any trouble; there wouldn't be any trouble anyway, there was nothing treasonable in that. In the submission of proof to the editor, Berger of course, saw the proofs of everything that went into the paper. Cross-Examination by Mr. Cochems. I was on the editorial staff of the Milwaukee Leader for eleven months prior to our engagement in the war. This talk I had with Mr. Berger upon my being engaged as editor of the Milwaukee Leader was in May, 1916, eleven months before we entered the war. Berger took the position that the Berlin 523 news was the only war news that could be accepted as reliable; that He also reports from London and from Paris and from other points were unreliable and was not to be depended upon. We published Berlin reports and London and Paris reports all together. Berger stated to me in substance at the time that the Berlin dispatches were presumably more reliable in their statements because the cables by which the news came had been seized at the beginning of the war, two years before, by the British Government and was controlled by them at the time. That was one of his reasons. claimed that all war news was censored in the interests of the allies. I recall his having said in effect that the war maps always showed that the Allies reports were untrue. Mr. Simonds was my predecessor, A. M. Simonds and his sympathies were with the allies undoubtedly. One of the things Berger objected to in the headlines, was the use of the word "Hun or "Boche" for a people, the German people. Berger said something about the President having asked the people of this country to be neutral both in their speech and their actions. I was not with the paper in 1914 during the fall campaign in which Mr. Berger was a candidate for Congress. I have a distinct recollec tion of one editorial that was printed some time early in the war, declaring that the war was brought about by the Kaiser because the growth of 524 social democracy in Germany had made it necessary to have a war to solidify the people and prevent their becoming Socialists. During the first year, at least, after I was on the paper concerning a great many de nunciations of the junker class of Germany and the Kaiser, capitalists system of control from May, 1916, to May 1917 there was occasionally bitter criticisms of the junkers and Kaiser class and German participation in this war, in the Leader, its editorial columns which were written by Mr. Berger two or three times a month. Mr. Cochems: Q Will you state whether or not at the time that Mr. Berger had this conversation May, 1916, whether or not it was commonly known and acknowledged fact that because of his (Berger's) attitude upon the Kaiser and the German crowd, in a German district, the Fifth of Wis consin, he had sacrificed his chance of a seat in Congress. Mr. Clyne: Objection. The Witness: I consulted with Wheeler P. Bloodgood and through him the Federal District Attorney in Milwaukee. I did not personally see the Federal 1 District attorney. Bloodgood is an attorney in Milwaukee. I have no knowledge myself of any action Mr. Bloodgood has taken in consulting anybody. 525 He was the same Wheeler P. Bloodgood who started the "Next of Kin organization before this time in Milwaukee. I went to see him (Bloodgood) because I had seen his name in the paper as having taken an active interest in some of the patriotic movements that were then being started in the City. I belonged to the patriotic Defense League, the American Protective League. I never took any active part in the American Protective League. I am now on the Milwaukee Journal. I wouldn't say that the Milwaukee Journal has been intensely bitter toward the Leader. The Milwaukee Journal, my employer, since the exclusion of the Milwaukee Leader through the mail, has denounced the Milwaukee Leader. I never said to Mr. Tucker (defendant) on March 29th at the office of the Leader substantially this "I dislike the Germans and all their ways. I am going to quit this sheet." I don't suppose Berger had time to study all the articles, all the proofs, but he was supposed to see them. When he left town he had somebody else to look after them. I don't know whether he saw them all or not. While I was on the paper Mr. Berger to my knowledge never suppressed a London or Paris dispatch. I don't recall the authorship of the supposed article that came from the United Press to which he (Berger) took exception. I think John Spargo signed the minority report of the St. Louis Convention. And we ran that report in our paper and the second minority report also and when Berger returned from the Convention we again printed the St. Louis Platform that had been adopted. To my knowledge we received from Mr. Engdahl no news while he was at St. Louis (meaning St. Louis Convention). It is possible that the news we received from the St. Louis Convention and printed (in the Milwaukee Leader) was the regular stock news, that came through what is known as the Socialist Party Press Service, which serves the Socialist and Labor papers through the country. 526 Cross-Examination by Mr. Cunnea. I knew Mr. Engdahl was a newspaper man. There was nothing peculiar in Mr. Berger saying that Engdahl might cover that Convention. I knew Engdahl was going to attend the Convention, and thought he was capable of covering the Convention. Recross Examination by Mr. Cochems. The Socialist Press Service had existed before the war as well as after the war, before April 6th, 1917. 527 Redirect Examination by Mr. Fleming. Wheeler P. Bloodgood is a Milwaukee attorney. The protest on the printing of the Proclamation and War Program which I presented to Mr. Berger was signed by myself, Claude R. Diegle, Leo Wolfson and W. P. Wyrick. Mr. Fleming: Q Calling your attention, Mr. Harris, to copy of Milwaukee Leader, April 12, 1917, will you state whether or not it carries an article on the Convention by J. Louis Engdahl? The Witness: It does. Recross Examination by Mr. Cochems. My recollection is that Mr. Engdahl was one of the editors of the Socialist News Service. The item referred to is a special dispatch. The signature for each paper is used special to this paper and all country newspapers have special Paris and Berlin dispatches which are general news dispatches, each one (meaning each paper) writes it as though he had a regular fellow on the job. Mr. Cochems: We have no objection to articles from the Milwaukee Leader appearing in evidence and admit their authenticity. (Whereupon there was offered and received in evidence on behalf of the Government Exhibit 58 being an item entitled "Why and What For" found on |