New-York tribune., 1918-02-18
Continued from page 1


Applause for Germany
III is the only possible peace" he re-
itcrated, Germany and the Central
Powers will fight for generation be
fore they will give up one foot of the
territory they held before this holo.
caust OF horror burst upon mankind. "
And again the audience burst forth
into rcsounding applause.
With this abundant reservoir of
nationalist enthusiasm was man
ifest hatred of "capitalism.'
James II. Maurer. president of the
sylvania State Federation Of
Labor. who has been elected by this
conference as delegate to the forth
coming Inter-Allied Conference OF
Labor at London, and who served as
chairman Of the gathering yesterday
afternoon, sounded the keynote in this
respect in his opening address.
"They tell US there are traitors in
our midst" said he. "and so there are
But who is the worst traitor-the
humble man who speaks out his true
thought. or the man who permits a
locomotive to lie out and freeze up in
the open when one of the great crying
needs of this country is transportation
"This country needs soldiers; but il
can get tne!Ss 1t can get 100000 Of
them right now. and it can get more
if it wants to by changing thc laws
But it also needs food and transporta-
ton; it needs clothing for its soldiers
and ships. If you could hold up all
these things-if you could cripple the
industry OF all the nation-wouldn'
you be doing something in the way ol
a spy?
Tells of Underground Forces
MY friends" he cried, "therc arc
forces at work here now to prevent the
carrying out Of just that part of our
the food shortage? Who has brought
about the coal famine? | tell you, nay
friends. it is the very same people
who proclaim their patriotism from
the housctops and cry, 'Traitor!' al
everybody who in any way opposes
them.
Going into details, Maurcr said q
group of hatters, working for Sl1 q
week when they had been refused an
increase that "as only a fraction OF
what the regular union scale recognized
by the government demanded hae
fcund employment in munitions fac.
with the hat strike was discovered, he
said, they were turned out OF their new
jobs although the munitions plant was
actually advertising for more men al
the time.
He told of iron workers in Reading
who have only worked eleven days sine,
December II because OF lack of fuel te
keep the boilers going, Of machinery
standing idle i'll hundreds OF shops fol
the same reason, of experienced mer
everywhere being turned out to make
way for unskilled boys. of miners work.
ing half-time because the railroads fai
output or even when they do provide
cars leave millions of tons Of Goa
stending idle on the tracks.
Can You think of the Kaiser in his
most diabolical moments Of Internal
nachinGtion connecting anything as
bad as this he demanded. (which is
the work of men who pose as lily-wl,itc
patriots?
"No. you cannot: and want 10 &c
on record as saying that the railroad
officials of this country arc either de
hoerately mismanaging the roads in
order to discourage government own
ershlp, or else they arc playing the
game of the Imperial German govern.
ment at Berlin and it makes no dit-
ference to me which way they chose
to explain it,
in conclusion Maurcr dwclt on the
/ increase in millionaircs in this coun-
try since the war, and charged that
business men knew that Uncle Sam
was not getting the vast sums tha,
have tecn raised through bond issues.
"Now." he said, "theyrc talking abou.
conscripting labor All right: 90 ahead
and let them try it, But let them con
script factories, too
Immediately Amos Pinchot loapcd to
his feet, The only class IN this war