Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-06
Escaped the "Bland Hand"
Special Correspondence Of The Star,

tLe manchester OF fOldQQ, mas
within the last twelve months
changed from prosperous man
ufacturing center to q shambles.
1t Is not an exaggeration to say that no
man is safe here. be he Russian, Jew, Cos
sack, workman or government official. Inc
streets are more dangerous than were those
of Paris during the reign Of terror. So re-
CARELESS, in fact, have the Inhabitants be-
come Of the value of human life that most
of the great mill owners, cotton spinners
and manufacturers have fed, leaving their
splendid residences a prey to the mob, who
take a savage delight IN destroying the
work Of lifetime.
This time, moreover, 1t Is not a case OF
employers ill-treating their men and suffer-
ing the consequences, nor of brutal Cos
sacks prosecuting peaceful citizens. The
responsibility for Lodz lies with the Polish
workmen themselves, who keep up a con-
tinual bloody feud, numbering all who do
not think with them, torturing women and
children because they refuse to tell their
husbands and fathers secrets and lynching
those who dare to speak against the present
terrible state of things. Every day and
many times a day funeruis are to be seen
vending their way toward the cemeteries
funerals Of victims who have been shot for
nothing worse than their political opinions.
Even the mourners run the risk of being
fred upon by the dead mans enemies; so
his friends surround his coffin, loaded re-
volvers in hand, ready to shoot at any who
attempt to rush it. If they did not take
these precautions, so terrible has the hatred
between the socialists and ant-sociaists
(patriots) become. the dead mans polti-
cal enemies would seize the coffin, break
it open and drag away the corpse before
the eyes of the bereaved relatives. Shots
are fired on the professions in the church
yard while the priests are saying the pray
ers for the dead; the ambulance is well
known at LODI funerals as the hearse. The
things which happen there read more like
hideous tales of the fierce middle ages than
the annals of a European city in the TWEEN
tieth century. So chronic have scenes Of
butchery become that the Polish newspa-
pers have set aside separate column for
reports from this unhappy town. perma-
nently headed Bloody Louz," "Blood-stain-
ed Lodz' and THE Reign Of Terror in
Lodz," according to the taste Of their re-
spective editors.
The world at large on hearing Of all this
naturally will csk how such a state of ter
rorism and murder came about 1t may be
said, then, that the first fat lay with the
socialists, who began killing their non-so-
ciaistic compatriots a year or so ago. Dur
ing the month Of January, 90. they deter
mined to organize a general strike on the
same lines as that of the preceding autumn.
The non-socialistic workmen remembering
the horrc-s of the last strike, were as de-
termned that no repetition should take
o;,
the strike failed. There were small ones
here and there, but many factories, even in
Lodz. We kept at full work. The socialists
swore they never would forgive their oppo-
nents and passed sentences of death against
them; they have been passing them ever
since, with the addition that the non-social-
lists, tired of being murdered wholesale, pass
sentences, too.
Happily, this awful feud Is chiefly con-
fined to LODI. where the socialistc element
has always been strong, and where the
population is almost entirely Industrial;
otherwise the state Of the kingdom of Po-
land would be absolutely unbearable for
any but hardened assassins.
When a well-known anti-sociallst-a man
who has waged var against the assassns-
goes out he is escorted by bodyguard of
friends, who hold their revolvers in their
hands. He dare not enter cab or a car
alone. for the chances are ten to one that
his fellow passengers are in the pay of his
enemies and ready to murder him at the
first opportunity. A man who dares to put
an end to a strike by arranging conditions
of work pay with the foremen and man.
ayers is sure to be shot at. and the wonder
is that men are still to be found who will
risk their lives at such dangerous work.
X
The socialists method Is very simple
They possess a committee, known as the
BLACK Band" whose whole duty is to pass
and execute death sentences upon their DO
Htical enemies. They have their spies in
all the factories and workshops; they also
receive letters OF denunciation, which are
left at a certain low pot house. The BLACK
Band msets at various Other low pot
houses two or three times week The
place OF meeting Is always being changed
and so well is the secret kept that the
police, IN spite of several raids, have no,
yet been able TO catch them red-handed
One OF the accompanying Illustrations shows
one of their old haunts which was fred at
and finally entered by a patrol. But the
birds had flown into the darkness Of the
night. and avenged themselves by shooting
the policeman who headed the raid
Suppose that "A" 4 mill hand, is not of
the same terroristic opinions aa the other