The Washington herald., 1917-08-17
The |. W. W. Incubus.

70
The country is ripe and ready for
the significant announcement made
by the Department OF Justice yes
terday.
1t Is the forerunner of a new and
sterner treatment of the serpent of
disloyalty coiled near the heart of
the nation-a serpent which has rails
ed its head higher and higher, and
hissed with more assurance. because
it has been unmolested up to the
present hour.
There have been threats against
the 1. W. W., but no action. The
country has been inclined to grum-
Bile over the Federal governments
inertia in the face of an obvious
danger. Happily, the Department of
Justice has not been idle, but has
done excellent work under cover, and
It is about ready to strike.
The I. W. W. clearly is a by-pro-
duct OF German intrigue, evidenced
by the peculiar nature of their activi-
ties since the war began. Where
are their agitators active? In gene
raj industries? Not at all. They
are placed where they can do the
most harm-amid the harvest fields.
trying to foment strikes to prevent
the harvesting of crops; in the lunt
Der camps, where spruce is cut, the
spruce which Is the only wood that
can be used in the manufacture of
aeroplanes; in the coal mines and the
oil fields, both producing war re-
sources.
In a brief time there is going to
be a tremendous police haul of pro-
German intrigants in the United
States. There will be a great hue
and cry about Czarism and all that
sort of thing; about the suppression
OF the right CT free speech guaran-
teed by the Constitution, about mill
tarism, autocracy. etc. Various plot
ters, fomenters of sedition. sewers of
discord, who have thought them
selves quite secure from discovery or
molestation, are going to find an iron
hand clutching them by the neck, with
a hard-and-fast case made out against
them by Secret Service agents. There
will be a wild squawk from them.
crocodile tears from their sympa-
thizers, including the German Amer
lean editors-among whom are to be
included Willie Alsorandolph Hearst
and then, as 1t is seen that the gov
ernment is in deadly earnest and will
tolerate no more nonsense, silence for
a while.
The 1. W. W. announces a general
strike in Washington. Oregon, Idaho
and Montana on the very day that
the Department of Justice made a
preliminary statement of its policy.
The strike is made conditional on
the acceptance of demands which it
has made. and which follow:
Release of all I. w. W. members
now in custody; a ten-hOur day in
the harvest field; better sanitary
conditions; no discrimination against
the organization; various locals to be
allowed to conduct business with
out interference"
The strike call then says that for
the last few weeks a systematic per-
secution has been carried on against
our members. Halls have been closed.
Our members have been thrown into
Jail by hundreds and held there with
out trial and without any charges be-
ing preferred against them. The
treatment accorded our fellow work
ers in these places is nothing short
Of barbarous"
Even II all these charges were true
(Which they are noD they would not
justify the calling of a strike which
is a menace to the national welfare
Any man who knows the transgres-
sions of the l. W. W. knows that if
they are occasionally the victims of
mob violence, they are simply reap-
ing the harvest they have sowed.
And if the 1. w. w, or any other
organization under the American flag,
dares to lift its head to hinder the
prosecution of the great war task we
have undertaken it cannot ask fcs
tender mercies or special considera-
ton. Any organization which fiirts
with pro-Germanism. or accepts Teu-
ton sold' can hardly expect mercy
from the nation.
IT,