The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-25
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 way.
 The only book in English on the sub Ject that know anything about is Sab otage." by Emile Pouget, translated rom the French. with an introduction by Arturio M. Giovannitti, dated August. 1912, Essex County Jail. Law renee, Mass. From this l judge that his views on sabotage had led him into conflict with the law. and that he wrote his preface while ponderIng over the miscarriage of justice in America.
 The publishers note by Charles H, Kerr Is Illuminating as showing the opin- ion of one in sympathy with the move- ment. He pays his respect to the na- tional convention of the socialist party of America in 1912 for providing that any member who opposes political ac- ton or advocates crime sabotage or other methods of violence as weapon of the working class to aid in it's emancipa- ton, shall be expelled from membership In the party" There was referendum vote on striking out the word .sabotage'
 
 Glovannitti on fire and evidently safe within Jail he turned bitter pen against the sociaIistic reactionaries who were afraid to hitch up with violence to carry out their programme Here IS how he unburdened himself In hls enforced re- treat. We find that whilst m the jaws of no state in the unIon Is sabotage a the socialist party, first in It's national convention at Indianapolis and next by referendum vote, finger-p printed and ber- liioned sapotage amongst crimes and made il a capital offense aganist It's canon laws, punishable by immediate expulsion from the rank and file." 1 give tms at the outset so that you will not confuse sabotage with socialism.
 What. then, is sabotage? Sabotage is, according to the man writing from with-N in prison walls: {a) Any conscious and willful act on the part of one or more workers. intended to slacken and reduce the output of production in the industrial field or to restrict trade and reduce the profits in the commercial field, in order to secure from their employers better conditions or to enforce those promised or maintain those already prevailing. when no other way of redress is open.
 (b) Amy sklllful operation on the ma chinery of production intended not to de- stroy it or permanently render it defec- tive but only to temporarily disable it and put it out of running condition in or der to make impossible the work of scabs and thus to secure the real stoppage of work during strike"
 That Is his idea of the mission of sab- otage. He claims it is not destructive, that it has nothing to do with violence. either to property or life. To him It Is nothing more than the chloroforming of the organism of production. In his hands it is intended to be but the "knock-out drops" to put to sleep and out of harms way the ogres of steer and fire that watch and multiply the treasures of King Capital. Evidently the New Eng land judge who sentenced him to im- prisonment, was not in sympathy with any such ideas if put into practice.
 It was the Lawrence strike that brought sabotage to the front in America, but in the five or more years since then it has lifted it's head in other parts of the country The vaporings of frothy- mouthed foreign agitators go unnouced until they seek to translate their subver- sive doctrines into deeds as did Giovan- nitti. There Is no place In our American life at this critical hour for aliens. sewers of suspicion against the government, dis rupters of the established order of things. and agents provocateurs who seek to in- flame class against class. just had to get this out of my system. l now con oteurs.
 They come out boldly and say: we are going to take over the industries some day. for three very good reasons: Be- cause we need them. because we want them, and because we have the power to get them. After this very direct and sim pie pronouncement there ought not to be any misunderstanding as to the goal the saboteurs arc seeking. The question of whether they will be "ethically Justified" or not is causing them the loss of no sleep They quiet their consciences by claiming that they will but be overthrow ing the "scoundrelly morality" of the capitalists. They boldly admit that their | attitude Is indefensible before the capi- talists' code of ethics. In a nut shell 1t ! means that they are enemies of society as 1t is at present constituted. 1 Hear this plea. You can imagine how ] in the mouth of an agitator 1t has power to stir those who have sought America as an asylum. but are using 1t to plant l upon It's shores the bitter hate brought l from old world countries where labor is often ground beneath the heel of pitiless ] masters. "Now that the bosses have suc- ceeded in dealing an almost mortal blow l to the boycott, now that picket duty Is l practically outlawed, free speech throt- 1 tied, free assemblage prohibited and ln- 1 functions against labor are becoming epi- i Lemic, let's resort to sabotage. It's the l only way to harass and worry the bosses 1 into submission and give us a chance to confiscate the property of the employ 1 ers."
 | It may be the virus of prison life is at work and that the writer dips his pen in