Omaha daily bee., 1917-02-19
SOCIALISTS PLEAD,
FOR PEACE ON EARTH
Speakers at Auditorium De.
nounce War as an Engine >
of Capitalism.
NATIONAL SECRETARY HERE

Urging the people not to be stam-
pcded into war, as they were in the
civil war, and in the Spanish-Ameri-
can war, Mrs. Kate Richards O'Hare
of Kansas City made the closing
speech at the Auditorium Sunday aft
ernoon when under the auspices OF
the socialists, some 800 people gath
cred to hear addresses on peace and
war.
The speakers urged that petitions
be sent to congress against war. Mrs.
O'Hare brought to the Auditorium
a copy of Hudson's Maxim's book.
"Defenseless America" She declared
she had found it on the table i'll a
room at the Hotel Fontenelle and that
a copy was on the table i'll every room
there. She pointed out that Maxim
is the inventor of the Maxim gun and
therefore an interested party. She
charged that Maxim knew that the
men who wanted war had the power
to control congress and push The ma
ton into war.
People Against War.
But" she said, "one of the hopeful
signs of the day is that today people
for the first time in history stand up
and raise their voices against it. Even
the schoolboy knows that war is al
ways rich mans war and poor
mans fight. No war has ever been
waged to better the condition Of the
working class. The civil war was a
war between manufacturers OF the
north and the shareholders of the
south. In the south they had black
slaves, and the northern manufactur-
ers had white women and children for
their slaves in the factories, that is all
the difference. The masters on both
sides got to quarreling about who
should have the profits,
And when the war, began the very
first thing the confederate, assembly
did was to pass law that the preach
er who had prayed for war, the edi-
tor who had advocated war, and the
STAKEHOLDER who owned twenty slaves,
need not go to war. Thus the fellow
who had no negroes had to go to
war to fight for the negroes he didn't
have.
Not to Free Cuba.
"In the Spanish American war We
were taught to believe we were fight
ing to free the people OF Cuba. We
fought there TO give Cuba to the sugar
trust and we did it"
Mrs. O'Hare said that war cost her
her sweetheart, who marched away
under the colors, and died from eat
ing the rotten meat sold the govern
ment by packer whose name she
mentioned openly. y
- |. ]. Dunn of Omaha made short
opening address. introducing AdoIph
Germer of Chicago, national secretary
OF the socialists, who presided. Lynn
Thompson, secretary of the Board of
Education of Minneapolis, also spoke
urging the people to sign the petit
tions found lying in the seats i'll the
Auditorium and 'forwarduhem to the
congressman and senator's.
Petitions Signed.
he petltlOnS which were signed by
many and will be forwarded read as
follows:
We, whose names are set below recognize
that the power to preserve the nations
peace lies with the president and congress-
who are the servants of the American peo-
pic, and therefore petition them to take
whatever action is necessary to preserve
that peace. As means to this end we sug-
gest the immediate adoption of the follow
ing program with such legal measures as
may be necessary to put 1t into effect:
l. Postpone until after the war is over
the settlement of any question which cannot
be settled in the meantime by peaceful
means.
2. Keep American citizens off belligerent
ships,
3. Refuse clearance to ships of the Unit I'd
States and other neutral countries carrying
contraband and passengers on the same shin
4. Withdraw protection from American
citizens who jeopardize the nations peace by
travelling as seamen on American or other
neutral ships carrying contraband
5. Keep all American vessels out of the
danger zone
6. Submit the question of declaring war
except In case of actual attempted invasion
To referendum vote Of the entire people
all ballots to be signed, and. in the event
Of the measure receiving a majority of the
popular vote, draft for first service those
whose votes were cast in favor of the dec
laration