Mr. Cunnea: There is another matter, the red and yellow cards. The Court: I want to ask about the yellow cards. As I recall it, they tr an adjournment there at the meeting at the time the card was distribut Mr. Fleming: That was not my understanding. I would like the Co to hold that in abeyance until to-morrow morning. 849 The Court: Subsequent to the reading of the card to the jury, it came out cross-examination that the meeting had concluded, that there was an adjonment, and the people were passing out, and some one passed out these cards. Mr. Fleming: If that is the situation, we do not want that in the record. Mr. Clyne: That does not go as to both cards. Mr. Cunnea: I think so; but however, you are running your chance. The Court: The motion is to exclude these two cards, and each of them, 2 instruct the jury to disregard them. I will pass on that with the motion also disregard the Bleisschmidt record, the Draft Board record. Bring the other matter to my attention, as to the regulations, as to the Draft Board proposition | and look at the witness' answers on the handing out of the cards after 1 adjournment of the meeting. Bring in the jury. 850 J. E. HARRIS, a witness on behalf of the Government, recalled for frther cross-examination by Mr. Cochems: You showed me since I was on the stand a copy of a clipping from the M waukee Journal of December 11, 1917, and I have had occasion and opportunit to read it. I would have to look over the article again to be able to answer the exact question whether the Milwaukee Journal assailed the Leader ar denounced subscribers as well as advertisers in the Leader as enemies of the Government. My recollection is that the article merely asks the question aren't these people traitors; it doesn't state that they are; that is my recolle tion. I was in the employ of the Journal on December 11, 1917. When I looked over that clipping I did not exactly understand the question. The Journal is not friendly to the Leader; I don't know that I would say it was hostile, exactly. It is opposed to the attitude which the Leader has tak to the war and towards the Government in the prosecution of the war. I not get the exact meaning from the article that it assails as disloyal any one who subscribed to or advertised in the columns of the Leader. (Thereupo on request of counsel examining the witness read the article in question, ertitled It is Disloyal to Support Disloyalty;" which article in substance state that about October 3rd the post-office department entered an order barrin:] from the mails The Leader, the Milwaukee organ of the German socialis party, thereby stamping The Leader as a public enemy; that an appea 851 was taken to the District Supreme Court, which sustained the action of the post-office authorities. The article then asks, can loyal citizens ex tend their support to The Leader, support it without fostering the spirit of dis loyalty, embarrassing the Government; can they countenance disloyalty ar still remain loyal? Further asks whether subscribers and advertisers of Mil waukee can patronize said paper without being disloyal, whether such patronage is fair to Milwaukee, to the nation and the cause for which it is fighting; even though it pays to advertise in The Leader the wise and patriotis course in time of war is to support the Government in the case of enemies at home as well as beyond our borders; that it is possible some of Milwaukee's business men do not known what The Leader is or how hostile to the nation's cause. It is the Milwaukee organ of the German Socialist party, which party in convention shortly after the beginning of the war adopted a platform d claring the war a crime and pledging itself to continuous, active and public opposition to the war and to mass movements in opposition to the nations army and against the war. Victor L. Berger, editor of The Leader signed this platform, and The Leader has published many pages in furtherance of the seditious declarations made in said platform. The Leader's course has be one of obstruction and defiance to the Government and hostility to the r tion's cause. In upholding the barring of The Leader from the mails the S preme Court of District of Columbia has upheld the Government's order. 852 The Leader stands forth branded as a public enemy. No loyal citiz should continue to support it). The Witness (continuing): The Journal is not a democratic paper; I he lieve in its political affiliations it is independent; that is what it claims to be, I believe. It supported Davies in the senatorial campaign; I believe he was Democrat. The Journal is in competition with The Leader; it is an afterDon paper; how much competition I don't know. I would not give to the 'ticle just read from the Milwaukee Journal the meaning that it criticizes › disloyal any one who subscribes to or advertises in The Milwaukee Leader. I have looked through the files of The Leader during April but was unable find any article I could positively identify as the United Press article which said became the incident of some criticism by Mr. Berger, the publication it. It may have been a message of Philip Sims that got into The Leader rly in May; Mr. Sims was one of the special U. P. writers. I have no definite collection of the article, whether it was a ridiculous or sane article on the war. Redirect Examination by Mr. Fleming. The fact that the Milwaukee Journal has made assaults upon Victor Berger nd the Milwaukee Leader, or that the Milwaukee Journal assumed to be competitor in the advertising field with the Milwaukee Leader, would not ake the slightest difference in my testimony. Thereupon the Government again rested its case. Thereupon the defendants renewed their motion to exclude the evidence id direct a verdict of not guilty which was overruled and to which an exception was allowed to each of the defendants. 13 And thereupon the defendants to maintain the issues on their behalf, offered and introduced the following evidence, to wit: EVIDENCE ON BEHALF OF THE DEFENDANTS. DOLPH GERMER, one of the defendants, being duly sworn, testified: Direct Examination by Mr. Stedman. My name is Adolph Germer; I live at 4447 Irving Park Boulevard, Chicago; arried, born in East Prussia, a province of the German Empire, on January 5, 1881; came to this country in December, 1888, with my parents; first lived Braceville, Illinois, with my parents. My father worked there as a coal iner. I went to the public school up to the second grade and later on to a arochial school, started over and went to the third grade; quit school at age leven and went to work in a coal mine at Staunton, Illinois, picking sulphurs r impurities from coal dumped into railroad cars. Six months after that I went > parochial school at Staunton. After that went to coal mine, No. 6 of the Consolidated Coal Co., at Staunton. I was then thirteen, and started in as a rapper, opening and closing doors in the passageways in the mine and throwig switches; continued as trapper about a year; then went to the face to mine oal, working with pick and shovel, and continued at that work three or four ears. My first affiliation with a labor organization was in 1894 with the nited Mine Workers of America, which continued in existence about three 1onths. I afterwards affiliated with the same organization at Mount Olive, llinois, holding various official positions, local mine committee, local secretary, elegate to conventions; later vice-president of Belleville Subdistrict; then secretary and treasurer, the former for one and the latter for four years. 54 Later I was international organizer for the United Mine Workers, and later vice-president of the Illinois district, comprising some 80,000 memers, and a treasury of about a million dollars. The national organization is nown as the United Mine Workers of America, and the Illinois organization s District 12, the states having numbers, states having both anthracite and ituminous coal having two numbers. I attended as a delegate to the national onvention and represented the international organization; was elected as delecate representing that body in 1912. There were 1300 or 1400 delegates; some 150,000 members. I was elected delegate to the World's Miners' Congress held it Amsterdam, Holland, beginning July 8, 1912. One other delegate was elected. represented there the American, Coal Fields, and while over there traveled n different mining and other fields, industrially, including the fields in Gernany, Holland, France, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium and Switzerland. I reurned the latter part of August of the same year. I became a Socialist in 1900 and affiliated with the Socialist Democratic arty, now known as the Socialist party. I first became acquainted with Victor Berger in 1903; knew of him before that as a member of the Social Demo138525-19-VOL 2-19 cratic party. The Amsterdam Congress was composed of representatives from Great Britain, Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. They met in confer ence to discuss their mutual relations, and to try to formulate a uniform program of action and to establish as nearly as possible uniform cord. | 855 tions in the mining industries of the world; questions of war and peace were considered. A resolution was introduced there declaring for a general strike of miners of all countries in the event of war, which was carried I have continued a member of the Socialist party up to the present time. A a representative of the miners I was on legislative committees, whose duty is to endeavor to have laws prepared and passed by the State Legislature covering mining, especially to cooperate with other labor organizations in similar legislation, protecting life and limb and providing for the safety of the miners and health. There is a special provision in the Constitution of this State to authorize legislation particularly for mining. I have acted as an official for the American Federation of Labor only through the United Mine Workers, 8 an organizer, in the fields of West Virginia, Colorado and Oklahoma. I was in West Virginia the time the Senate investigated the situation there, and a Colorado I left shortly before the Ludlow incident; I have been there since My general activities within the Socialist party have been contributing to the Socialist press, helping to organize Socialist locals, branches, served on the Executive Committee, the National Executive Committee, the National Secre tary. I was elected National Secretary in 1916, the latter part of May; have not been elected since then by referendum; under the constitution I am to be elected by the National Executive Committee, and that committee elected 856 me in August of this year. The National organization is subdivided in the states, each state being an autonomous body; within the states there are county organizations, not, however, in all counties; and those county organizations are the branches. In initiating legislation any local or branch can initiate a matter and submit it for seconds, and if it receives the required number it is sent out for a general vote of the membership, and if the majority of the members vote for it it becomes a part of the legislation of the party. The dues in the local organizations in the counties, or units that every ote goes in, vary from 25 to as high as 35 and 50 cents a month. The small body has its chairman and secretary and it finally sells the due stamps to the mem bers. We have no record in the National office of the names of the members. These locals elect a state body that manages state affairs; then the state secretary corresponds with me, which is my source of touch with the different state organizations and our revenue is derived through dues, as evidence of which we sell a membership due stamp, something like a postage stamp, at five cents per stamp. These stamps are sent to the state secretary, who usually charges ten or fifteen cents for them, and sells them in turn to the loca branch, which sells them to the member, who pays the money and puts the stamps in his book. There were five members on the Executive Committee prior to the early part of this year, and the same number in 1915, 1916 and 1917; there are 857 now fifteen. The duties of the Executive Committee are managerial. to manage the business affairs and to supervise the National organization and office. They met not more than five times during 1916, probably three of four; and this year they have met probably three times. There are fifteen of the Executive Committee now, and they have met once. The country is divided into five subdivisions, a number of states in each, and there are three members elected from each subdivision. The Executive Committee in 1916 consisted of Morris Hillquit, of New York, a lawyer; Victor L. Berger, Anna A. Maley John M. Work and John Spargo. Mr. Hillquit has been a member of the National Executive Committee for years, and International Secretary, that is he represents the American party in the International Bureau, which is conposed of representatives of the Socialist party of all countries. He was a men ber of the party, to my knowledge, as far back as 1900; my first recollection of Berger was about 1900, when it was a Social Democratic party. I have known Anna Maley for some ten years, and Mr. Spargo probably the s length of time. He served on the committee until the latter part of May 1917, when he resigned; there was a movement to initiate a call for votes to remove him, I can't recall from what local it came, and he resigned the latter part of May or the first of June of last year. I can't recall the exact da when his successor was elected. Seymour Stedman was elected in his 858 place. The Constitution was then changed so we had a committee of fifteen. The present committee took office the 1st of July of this year. have now named all the persons who were on the Executive Committee up to bruary of this year. The office of the National organization is at 803 West adison Street, located there about four and a half years. The National >mmittee in each and all instances is elected by the members. We have e subdivisions, East, Middle East, Central, West, South.-Northwest. At esent the members in each of those divisions elect their representatives; each ember has a vote to nominate. The National Committee now is composed of Morris Hillquit of New York; mes O'Neill, of New York; Abraham Shiplicoff, of New York; George H. obel, of New Jersey; A Wagenknecht, Ohio; Frederick J. Kraft, New Jersey; ctor L. Berger, of Wisconsin; Seymour Stedman, of Illinois; John M. Work, Illinois; Fred Holt, Oklahoma; Dan Hogan, of Arkansas; Stanley J. Clark, Texas; Emil Herman, of Washington; L. E. Catterfeldt, of Kansas, Walter omas Mills, California. Our present offices, as stated, are located on West Madison Street, and have en located there four and a half or possibly five and a half years; they face Madison and Halsted Streets; there are eighteen rooms; the name of the ilding is Mid-City Bank Building. There are some inside rooms, too, between the halls. The building is L-shaped; part of the rooms are on Madison and part on the Halsted Street side; four of the rooms are towards the rear; three toward the south and one towards the west part of the ilding. 9 I have worked in a mine all told about fifteen years; was secretary of the >cialist party in April, 1917; there was a convention at that time composed delegates of the different states in the Union, in some states elected by ferendum and in some by the state committees or executive committees; in e latter states there was a very small membership, perhaps 100 or 200 embers. The convention was held in St. Louis, and there were between 190 id 200 delegates present. The principal topic of discussion was the war, and ey adopted the proclamation and war program; a platform was adopted at the me time, of which I have a copy here. Under our constitution resolutions or onstitutional amendments are submitted to the membership for a vote, and at is what was done with this resolution. Nothing else was adopted with gard to the war. The minority program was not adopted by the convention, ut submitted by signatures of one-fourth of the delegates, as provided by the onstitution; so that there were two programs or resolutions submitted to the embership. The call for that convention was sent out the early part of [arch; it convened April 7th, last year. My salary as secretary at that time as $28.00 a week. The majority and minority reports were submitted; the vote was 21,000 for the majority, and as I recall and 3,000 against it; and a little over 3,000 for and over 4,000 against the minority. Some who voted for the majority did not vote on the minority report. I had o vote in the convention. 30 In regard to the operation of my office, the mail is opened by a mail clerk nd routine matters are referred to my secretary, Mrs. Brown; matters of eneral policy of the organization are put in my basket, and those that do not equire my attention she takes care of. Then the mail clerk sorts the mail nd sends the literature orders to the literature department, the American ocialist to that department, and divides the mail through the different departents. Our mail at that time, including the paper and other mail, was beween 200 and 300 pieces a day. We had correspondence from State Secrearies and rendered service to them; for states with small memberships we ften mimeographed letters for them, which was the regular course, and we harged for the service. That has been the regular course ever since I have een in the office. I never saw the letter referred to in this case as being mimeographed for a arty named Dillon, State Secretary of New Mexico, until it was called to y attention in court here the other day. We have foreign departments, in which are a number of persons called transator secretaries who translate the official documents of the party to the Federations, which are composed of foreign speaking Socialist organizations, 61 like the Finnish speaking people, who have a translator secretary who acts for them and carries on their work, publications, etc., and is located t the National Headquarters, likewise with the Scandinavians, containing Swedes, Danes and Norwegians, they have a Socialist organization of people who peak that language. The Finns have several papers and cooperative stores; hey have a large membership in the east, in Massachusetts, and in Minnesota and Michigan. The Scandinavians have a paper and a secretary who is b cated in the National Headquarters. That is true also of the Germans; als the South Slavic, generally known in the papers as the Jugo-Slavs or South Slavs; the Bohemians, Italians, Jewish, Lettish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, an Russians have offices at the National Headquarters. The Polish, Esthoniats and Ukrainians do not; we have no direct control over their department; it they violate the policies of the organization, I report the matter to the executive committee. 862 We also have the Literature department and the American Socialist. We handle literature dealing with Social matters; publish some pamphlets 2 booklets; are agents for other publications, books, etc., and sell them to the State organization, county organizations, local branches and to individuals, members and non-members; perhaps two hundred different kinds of literature From April 6th up to February of this year various persons were in char of that department, including Mr. Tucker, Mr. Bronstetter and Mrs. Huds Sherman was the shipping clerk. Tucker was in charge, as I reed. from sometime in June until the latter part of July or August. Their duties were to push the sale of, obtain and put in stock literature There was also the Young People's Department; its members are full fledged members of the Socialist party, but non-socialists are also admitted: they do not vote on the constitution or policy of the party or resolutions. William F. Kruse was Secretary in 1917 of the Young People's Organization; they have a constitution, age limit of 18 to 30, and a membership of 3,000 to 5,000. It is located at our office, but operates independently. William F. Kruse was ser retary in 1918, and from April to February; his office was in 409 and had been in 419 from January 1st. Mr. Tucker, who was organizer for the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, had a desk in Mr. Kruse's room. Room 419, to which Mr. Kruse's office was moved, is on the south wing of the building, facing towards the west, across the hall. J. Louis Engdahl was editor of our paper, the American Socialist, in 1917, and was since its establishment in 1914 or 192 He did not make the policy of the paper, just edited and published it. I wrote articles at times and gave them to Engdahl. The St. Louis War proclamation and war program was published in leaflet form, about 750,000 of them. I attended the meetings of the executive committee. We published and circ lated "Down with War" and "The Price We Pay." The executive committe adopted resolutions from time to time and published resolutions wi reference to the war. The committee took up the question of the de fense of non-registrants; the object of the defence fund was to give lega defense and secure fair trial of those indicted for distributing our literature: none of that fund was used to defend non-registrants or deserters. 863 A search warrant was sued out and executed on September 5th of last year: the Deputy Marshall took charge of the office; Mr. Plummer and Mr. Gunter, the United States Marshall, the former purporting to represent the department of Justice, took charge. This is a copy of the warrant (Producing a document which was marked Defendant's Exhibit 5 for identification). Pursuant to that warrant they took charge of the office for three days; they took our cash book, ledger and journal, cash book contained our receipts and expendtures: the ledger our various accounts; those books contained all our finalcial records, money received for subscriptions, donations, advertising, dues, literature and everything. They had those papers three or four days; they also had correspondence, mimeograph scrap books, literature, sample copies of literature and books, files of the American Socialist, mailing list with 80,000 names. The cash book, journal and ledger were returned in abo three or four days; the other papers they still have. The statements of the executive committee were published in pamphlet form and circulated. The government took the records of the executive committee and they have t been returned. 864 (Witness reads from Proclamation of the National Committee of Agust 12, 1914, and Resolution of National Committee on Immedia Action of August 14, 1914, as follows:) 865 The Socialist Party of the United States hereby extends its syr pathy to the workers of Europe in their hour of trial, when they have been plunged into bloody and senseless conflict by ambition-crazed monarchs designing politicians and scheming capitalists. We bid them to consider that the workers of the various nations involved have no quarrel with each other, and that the evils from which they sufferpoverty, want, unemployment, oppression are inflicted upon them not by |