The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-10-30

Four hundred years ago men and
women, youths and maidens were
brought before their tormentors and
questioned concerning their attitude
toward God. 1t was n serious business
to doubt his existence or to be caught
worshipping any God but the God of
the ruling class. What was more, one
had to use the very formulas author
lied by the ruling class.
Comes now the twentieth century
and with it new inquisition. For the
God of their fathers the rulers have
substituted a piece of cloth. This
piece of cloth, which was once a SYM
boil of freedom, has come to be the
symbol of their power over the work
ers. Anything will do for a symbol.
Gessler, the tyrant of the Alps, accord
ing to the old Swiss story, used his
hat Hosting it upon a pole he COM
manded every recalcitrant Swiss to
bow before this symbol and by this
salutation of an inanimate thing to
recognize the rule of the tyrant. what
is your attitude toward my hat?" said
the inquisitor. will you salute it or
will you not?" Here in 1913 they have
changed the wording of the question
into this: What is your attitude to-
ward the flag? Will you salute it or
will you not? We have drawn up
formula which we ask you to use in
this salutation. Did you question the
correctness of this formula?"
Crime of a Teacher.
Thus ran the inquisition in Olympia
on the 18th of October, 1913. The cul-
prit was ]. e. Sinclair. He is a school
teacher. He is also a Socialist. Fur
thermore he writes for Socialist pa
pers. They brought whole bundles OF
these Socialist papers into the inquisi-
torial chambers with them and proved
this writing beyond dispute. They
proved that he had questioned the
formula of the salutation of the flag
which they have made the symbol OF
their power. Also they proved that
this school teacher had stained the
ragged cloth of his trade by taking the
side of the workers in strike. They
even proved that he questioned the
right of the masters to use guns and
pick handles on underfed and over
worked slaves who could endure their
misery no longer They proved that
he had actually been seen on a plat
form encouraging these dissatisfied
workers by word of mouth. He had
also been in parades of strikers. They
also proved that he had been party
to the renting of theatre in which a
man was going to speak for these
strikers.
Exposed Ruling Glass Tyranny
AS though this was not enough to
dam him forever, this recalcitrant ras-
cal attacked the actual power OF the
ruling class as manifest in the person
of an august judge. A copy of So
cialist paper was produced in court
containing an article written by Sin
clair, anyhow he admitted he wrote it.
This article told of parade he had
been in in the city of Seattle. There
were five or six hundred other persons
along with him in this parade, but that
makes it all the worse for Sinclair.
These paraders were making one
grand Joke of Judge John e. Humph-
ries, otherwise known as Humpty-
Dumpty. They escorted men and
women to Jail in the dead of night to
convince the world that the said judge
was not only a tyrant but also a fool.
This article ended with an appeal to
the people to go to Seattle and fill the
iail to make contempt of court con