Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-23
Speaker Heckled by Mistake.

1 of tine debate on the resolutions came
| when owen Miller of St. Louis asked
for recognition, and launched into 4
speech the opening sentences of which
were Immediately misunderstood and
Missed. Mr.. Miller announced that he
was probably the only wage Garner"
present. meeting with cries of NO
No. and going on to say that he
spoke for the American Federation of
Labor and had taken part in con-
vention of that organization in San
Francisco which had dealt with the
subject of increased military prepared
ness and at which there had been made
statements that the munition makers
of the country are back of the cry for
increased military preparedness.
Kisses, shouts OF Name one cut
that out" 1T isn't true and SO on
arose all over the hall. and Mr.. Miller
had difficulty in making himself under
stood. with the result that Mr.. Menkin.
the president of the Security League,
shouted at the audience:
He is not indorsing those Statements
He is only repeating what has been
widely said We will let him go on,
and we will give him more than his
allotted time to do it in, if he Desires
Disapproval Turns to Applause.
The members of the convention,
which packed and jammed the ballroom
of the hotel. then began to applau I'D
Mr. Miller. and it turned out that he
wished to advocate government owner
ship of munition plants to counterfeit
the idea that muntion makers can
bring about war. an idea, it seemed,
which was shared to some extent by
Mr.. Menken, the president Of the Or
ganiZation, who had introduced reso-
luton along those lines himself in the
resolutions committee, but which had
not been reported out.
MANY of the American people, Mr..
Miller said. ARE under a false i'm
preston a S to the attitude of organized
labor toward this question. We are
for prepa redness: we are for every
thing that you who are better off In
this worlds goods than we are are for.
and if our sons are called upon to shed
their blood in a common cause for the
country the only thing we want is that
our sons shall stand side by side and
shed their blood equally with the sons
of the rich, and not be so placed as We
were during the civil war, when, under
the draft act, a man could buy sub
stitute. We are ready to meet you
and meet you on a fair and square
basis.
Mr.. Miller was loudly appla uded.
Bernard ]. Rothwell. representing the
Boston Chamber of Commerce. intro
duced and the convention passed an
addition to the resolutions providing
for government regulation of the
amount of profits in industry and COM
merce in time of war. which was heart
lily applauded by those present, many
of whom are manufacturers. p. H. w.
Ross of the National Marine League
proposed a resolution, which was laid
on the ia BILE. advocating the widening
of coastal waterways and canals to
permit battleshps to move freely for
the protection of American citizens"
There was an informal idea that such
a resolution might seem to give the
approval of the convention to some
particular waterways project prof.
ects, and it was laid on the table on
the publicly stated ground that it is
best to leave details OF increased mill
tary preparedness to those charged by