Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1891-03-28

gallery with red banners. On the stage
stood busts of Spies and Lingg, and
across the busts were draped red sashes.
1t was not public meeting. An admis-
sion fee was charged No flags or ban
ners were hung on the exterior of the
hall or building
The managers of the meeting had
secured police officer, at the cost of 50,
to be in attendance so as to preserve
order, The officer saw the red flags,
and at once sent word to his superior
officer, Lieut.. Enright of the Hinman
| Street Station. Soon the Lieutenant
with four policemen in uniform strobe
into the hall. He ordered the immediate
| removal of the red banners and said
| Take those red sashes off the busts of
the Anarchists"
THE hail was crowded with people,
mostly Bohemians. They protested
against taking down the decora ions.
Hot words followed, when in came G.
A. Hoehn, of the Arbeiter. Zeitung, who
| is the candidate on the Socialist ticket
| for West Town Collector. He urged the
excited people to be moderate. He de
manded of the officers by what right
compelled the removal of decorations
The Lieutenant was not present then,
but eight officers in uniform and two
detectives stated that such were their
orders.
'The people angrily refused to have
the banners and sashes removed, but
finally, through the efforts of Hoehn,
they were induced. to acquiesce and
amid sullen silence the decorat tions
we're taken down. The officers left but
soon returned. They We're refused ad.
mission unless they paid the door fee
Finding bluffing of no avail and not
having the required 25 cents they finally
departed.
The exercises then took place without
the decorations. Had it not been for
the presence and discreet counsel Of
Hoehn riot would have ensued. In
the speeches after the departure of the
policemen the officers were roundly
denounced and the present City Admi-
nistration bitterly scored for allowing
what was termed such an exhibition of
intolerance and petty spite to take place
undercover of law
AT THE TWELFTH STREET TURNER HALL.
The colOrs of half dozen nations
Huttered about West Twelfth Street
Turner Hall The Stars and Stripes
were intertwined with all of them. The
great hall was crowded. The Social,
lists had charge of the demonstration.
Husbands, wives, and children all were
present The hall and galleries were
crowded. G. A. Hoehn of the Arbeitp,
Ieitung called the assembly to order and
spoke briefly on the memories of the
day. He then introduced Daniel Del leon,
who was received with storm of ap.
plause.
Prof. DeLeon said in part:
1--WE have met to commemorate an
event that is but one of large number
OF its sort. Inscrutable are the ways of
Providence. 'Tis with tn pangs of travail
the babe is born into this world 'Tis
with the pangs of travail progressive
thought emanCipates itself from the
shackles of the past and from the realms
of abstraction, to leap into the present
and the field Of action. The track of
civilization is marked in human blood.
The landmarks of social progress are
huge hecatombs of human life. Such a
landmark is the Paris Commune, its rise
full of promise and Its tragic end. Yet
are we not come to mourn, but to Cele-
Drate. We wear to-day the festal rose,
not the sombre crepe; we are marshaled
to the sound of cheerful music, not with
the roll of muflled drums; we meet to
shake one another by the hand in con-
graduation, not to cOndoe. And why?
in,
place. presents an object lesson that
eloqueutly points the path of emancipa-
| ton. The lives laid down there were
laid down cheerfully to teach the lesson
| that the class that produces and renders
useful services to society is, under the
present system, as distinct from the
capitalist or idle class as though the
| former were black and the latter white
Of skin; as distinct as was Gurth with
! his iron cOllar-band from his feudaI
lord as described by Scott. 1t taught
| the lesson that, via legislation, Labor
| has nothing to expect from the ruling
or capitalist class and its political par
| ties, but sops which the right hand will
! withdraw faster than the left hand will
| grant; and that, for the rest, the rifle,
| the bullet and the dagger, calumny,
misre presentation, suppression of the
truth, suggestion of the false are the
favorite weapons, as it is fit with a
ruling class that flies in the teeth of
science, and with whom honor is a by
word.
Secondly the Paris Commune is a
monument that marks the close of one
! and the opening of another era. In
structed, tutored and enlightened by
experience, Labor can foresee that the
carnage Of twenty years ago cannot be
repeated. If the murderous class that
lives upon the blood of men, women and
| children in the United States, as else
! where. should again initiate bloodshed