Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-31
STIR HEARERS
WITH SPEECHES
SOCIALISTS HOLD GATHERING
AT SIMPSON
Call for Money for Aid for the De-
fense Of the lncarcerated Lead
ers Meets With Generous
Response

Iuere WIS d SILK nat at the SOCldllSt
mass meeting in Simpson auditorium
last night. 1t came with a white velvet
opera coat. Right behind them was an
old shawl. The wearer of the silk hat
was pompous, pushing and lordly; the
old woman in the worn black shawl
was timid, apologetic and frightened.
One stalked to q good seat: the other
timidly followed as far as the front of
the rostrum, and there suddenly real
izing her aloneness in that gathering
stood still and trembled until someone
saw her dlema and found her a place.
If the Socialist leaders had planned
the entrance of these three they could
not have more forcibly brought to the
minds of the assemblage the grotesque
contrast between the two extremes of
existing society.
One wore the badge of arrogant capt.
talism; the other was cringing labor,
fearful to ask its own. One had come
to mock; the other to pray.
If the meeting of the labor unions
month ago in the same place, called to
protest against the arrest and impris-
onment of Haywood Pettibone and
Meyer, could be called revolutionary
and infammatory what shall be said
of this meeting last night? IF the first
audience was stirred to the depths, this
was carried to the very heights of emo
tional expression by the thrilling ut
terances of the speakers boldly de-
nouncing the capitalist mine owners
responsible for the arrest and imprison-
ment of the federation leaders. 1t was
an audience composed chiefly of the in
telligent working class, with a sprink-
| ling of the better-to-do. drawn per-
haps by sympathy, perhaps by curios-
| ity. And in this meeting, as in the
| first. the call for money to aid the de-
fense of the incarcarated leaders in
the courts OF Idaho met ready and
generous response.
The speaker of the evening was N. A.
Richardson of San Bernardino, grad
uate of the Kansas College of Agri-
culture, author of 1.-The Introduction
to Socialism," the most widely circu-
lated of any pamphlet ever published
in this country; for fifteen years prin-
cipal of the San Bernardino high school
and three times Socialist candidate for
congress from his district.
Rev. Frank Wheat, former editor of
Common Sense, presided, and Arthur
Morrow Lewis, Casper Bauer and Lena
Morrow Lewis also made addresses.
Mr.. Lewis created no end of amuse-
ment by requesting the reporter of
certain paper. If he were present, to
take note that the suit of clothes he
wore was not the same he had on at
the previous mass meeting. The refer
ence was obvious to all.
Mr.. Richardson said in part: There
is nothing surprising to me in the ar
rest and imprisonment of those Colo
RADIO miners. Nor would there be in
their murder, if it helped to achieve
the ends of their capitalist enemies.
In the worlds history as written
there have been three methods Of
exploiting human labor: First there
was chattel slavery, then serfdom, and
chattel slavery, then serfdom, and
now we have wage slavery.
'In all the ages of the world govern
ment, religion and institutions have
grown out of and been dependent upon
| one or the other of these methods of
exploiting labor.
ut has been the mission of humanity
to be born into the world simply to
be exploited by the governing few
| There Is no other future for the man
born in America in the laboring classes.
| All he can expect is enough to live by
| the sweat of his brow and to propagate
| the species there will never be any
thing else for him until he rises and
takes what belongs to him.
Upon mans right to exploit the
labor of his fellows is this govern
ment based and the institutions under
| I.
| to enable the few to live off the many.
I'VE do not go to the capitalist class
and say: We want you to change your
methods of exploitation; but we say
We demand that you shall cease to
exploit us wage slaves
Skirmish Line Out
"The fact of the case is. comrades
the fight is started in Colorado and
the skirinish line is out. Capital Is
taking its stand to maintain its rights
to live by the labor of others. The
Labor party and the Socialist party
are coming to the front. The fight is
on between the men who say Our
right to exploit shall not be ques-
toned and the men who say Your
right to exploit shall be swept aside
If an attempt is made legally to muir
der those men, and if the fact becomes
cognizant to the people of this land,
it is the duty of every man in the
country to protest with his body and
with arms if necessary, and say, You
shall not do it,!
The speeches of Mr.. Lewis and Mr.
Bauer were along the same lines. This
is the last address of the former before
leaving on a lecture tour of the middle
| n