The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-05-20
Ready To Try Case of
Rose Pastor Stokes

Kansas City, Mo-, May 2O.--Unitet
States District Attorney Francis M
Wilson and his assistants were bus!
today completing preparations for thu
trial of Mrs. Rose Pastor Stokes, so
Geological lecturer, and wife Of ]. G
Phelps Stokes, wealthy New York SO
cialist, which is scheduled to begin II
the federal court here next Monday
Mrs. Stokes is to be tried under
federal indictment charging her with
violation of the espionage act
One Of the principal causes con-
tributing to the arrest and subsequent
indictment of Mrs. Stokes was the
publication of a letter over her sig
nature sent to Kansas City newspa-
per in which she claimed she had
been misquoted in an interview pre-
viously published by the paper. In her
statement Of correction, she said IN
part:
"a heading in this evenings issue
of your paper reads Mrs. Stokes for
government and against war at the
same time I am not for the gov
eminent. In the interview that fol-
lows I am quoted as having said: I
believe the government Of the United
States should have the unqualified
support of every citizen in its war
aims.
IT made no such statement and |
believe in no such thing. No govern
ment which is for the profiteers can
also be for the people, and l am for
the people, while the government is
for the profiteers. l expect my work.
ing class point of view to receive no
sympathy from your paper, but l DO
expect that the traditional courtesy
Of publication by the newspapers of
a signed statement of correction,
which even our most Bourbon papers
grant, will be extended to this state
ment by yours"
Several lawyers of prominence have
been engaged to conduct the defense
of Mrs. Stokes. Appearing in the
capacity of chief counsel for the &C
cused woman will be Seymour Sted-
man, Chicago attorney and mem
Der of the executive committee of the
executive committee of the socialist
PARTY. s@4
Mrs. Stokes is under indictment on
three counts. The maximum penalty
on each count is fine of $4,000 or
Imprisonment for twenty years or
both.
The trial of Mrs. Stokes will add
another chapter to a career that has
been far out Of the ordinary and that
has on frequent occasions brought it's
possessor into the limelight.
The daughter Of Russian Jews, Rose
Pastor was taken to London from
Russia by her widowed mother when
but child. Her mother supported the
family for several years, then mar
ried again and came to the United
States, settling in Cleveland.
Rose was 10 years old then and
went to work in cigar factory, work
ing long hours, and gradually assum-
ing more and more the financial re-
sponsibility for the ver-increasing
family.
She managed to get an education at
night schools, and through independ-
ent reading. Some. verses from her
pen attracted the attention of a Jew
ish paper in New York and she was
given place on it's staff at what to
her then was munificent salary
SIS week. Settlement work and
union labor organizing at once at
tracted her, and in the course of it
size met j. G.. Phelps Stokes, Yale
graduate, and heir to millions, and
their subsequent marriage was g SEN
sation in social and socialistic cir
Giles, for the young millionaire
espoused the cause of socialism with
as much ardor as his wife. After her
marriage Mrs. Stokes continued her
labors in the sociological field, writ
ing much for the socialistic press, at
tending conferences, and travelling
about the country giving lectures.
When the socialist convention at
st. Louis last year took an attitude
cut of sympathy with the government
and the war, both Mr.. and Mrs.
Stokes, together with a number of
other prominent leaders, formally an
nounced their withdrawal from the
socialist party. Subsequently, how
ever, Mrs. Stokes rescinded her with