Montana news., 1907-07-25

PIOJeCt may pe aSsuieu'
Alleging that Mrs. Lena Morrow
Lewis, socialist speaker who has
been doing soap-box stunts on Cam
pau square for several evenings, de-
famed and ridiculed the United States
army and navy, Chief Boatswain Is
Mate +. R. Bitters, in command of
the naval recruiting office here, sought
the arrest of the speaker Monday
night. He states that he intends to
proceed against the woman if there is
any law that prohibits the use Of such
language.
The defamatory utterances are al
legged to have been made Monday
night during an address on the subject
of "Social Parasites" It is claimed
that Mrs. Lewis, in the heat Of her
speech, referred to the army and navy
as being made up of the scum of the
| earth and charged them with being
under the control of the capitalistic
class.
The officer sat at the office window
and the words of the speaker were
waited into the open window. The
| first sentence caused the bristles of
the officer to rise on end and the next
set him going with every ounce of pa
triotism at the boiling point. 1t did
not take long for him to do something.
Turning to Stanford Prise and Roy
Buchanan, members of the navy, he
ordered them to go across the street
and listen carefully to what Mrs. Lew
is said and to remember every, word.
The men obeyed orders and then under
the command of their officer they pro-
ceeded to headquarters, where the case
was told to Lieutenant Hurley. That
official, being somewhat patriotic him
self, was also riled over the affair, but
was forced to refer the members of
the nations finest to the prosecuting
attorney.
Not being able to stay in the office
and listen to the talk, the officer
closed the office, and went home, but
expressed himself as wishing that he
was empowered to take the matter
into his own hands.
He laid the matter before Prosecut-
ing Attorney Mcdonald Tuesday morn
ing, but he was unable to issue war
rant as the state laws do not have
jurisdiction in the matter. The officer
called on Assistant United States At
torney Clute, but the only law that
would reach the case was the alien and
sedition law of 1898, which expired
from its own limitation in 1891.
| Mrs. Lewis denies the she made
such wholesale denunciations of the
personnel of the army.
In her own report of her speech she
claims that she had made reference
TO the fact that it was harder to get
recruits for the army at present than
it had been ever before, because men
were beginning to recognize certain
conditions. These conditions, she
claims to have described as follows:
"The army is used to defend the
capitalists against the laboring classes.
None can deny that the scum of So
ciety is joining the army, because they
prefer to do nothing on $13 per month
rather than labor for some one else
But there are exceptions to this and
there are good men in the army and
these are getting their eyes open. If
! it ever comes to a crisis in this coun.
try they will probably follow the eT.
: ample of their comrades in Germany
! and refuse TO shoot down the working
classes of their own or any other coun,
try.n
Mrs. Lewis and several of the So
cialist leaders of the city had con
ference with the prosecuting attorney
this morning and he stated to them
; that no action would be taken. Thi:
. was Immediately after Mr.. Mcdonald
had had a conference with the navy
officer.
II