New-York tribune., 1918-05-04
No Passport for
Maurer to Visit
Workers Abroad
Nearing, at Conference of
Radicals, Charges State
Department With Bias
M;litarism Condemned
Ae..r.War Reconstruction To
Re Discussed at Peoples
Council House

Almost the first news heard by the
,.,...tes to the National Conference
: psconstruction after the war, which
~.s opened by Socialists and other
..a;eals at the Peoples House. z
r.c Fifteenth Street, yesterday for
three days session, was that the
Gate Department had refused pass
,orts to Europe to James II. Maurer.
usurer had been elected by the
,sa;ca! labor clements to confer with
,.sieal labor leaders in the Allied
.o,ntries. He said he had intended to
visit England, Ireland. Switzerland,
France and Italy with view of find
inc out what labor in those countries
shorcht of proionging the war"
The denial of his passport followed a
limo battle between officials of the
STATE Department and Louis P. Loch-
var secretary of the Peoples Coun-
ii 1876 West Thirteenth Street, who
Ind been charged with the formaities
n getting the document. Maurcr
!. nresident of the Pennsylvania State
Teseration of Labor. A year ago he was
,snked among the avowed pacitists, but
since then mad been working for "eco-
nomic construction after the war"
Twelve letters were exchanged be-
tween the State Department. and
Iochner, and the efforts to to get
Maurer a passport involved the at
tention of r. w. Flournoy, jr, of the
Bureau of Citizenship; Breckenridge
Long. Third Assistant Secretary of
State; Frank L. Polk, counsellor of the
State Department, and Alvey A. Adee,
Second Assistant Secretary of State, all
Of whom wrote letters.
When the 200 delegates to the con-
ference assembled yesterday they
waited eagerly to learn whether sue
cess had crowned their efforts "to put
Maurer across" After Algernon Lee
had called the session to order he in
troduced DR.. Scott Nearing to explain
the business before the conference,
Most of Lochner's letters to Wash
ington. Or. Nearing explained, were
to show that American workingmen
wanted to participate in the Inter
Allied Labor and Socialist Conference
held in London, "as labor in all the
other Allied countries had done"
The final rejection of Maurer's ap-
plication was contained in a letter
from Mr.. Polk, who said:
Because of persent conditions, the
department is issuing passports for
European countries only in cases of
necessary service. AS it does not ap-
pear that Mr.. Maurer's mission falls
within that category, the department
is obliged to decline to grant him a
passport"
"Yet," said Dr.. Nearing, "the Ameri-
can Federation Of Labor has sent del
egates abroad and those delegates are
now being royalty entertained by the
British government Had Mr.. Maurer
gone he would not have been enter
tained royalty by the British govern
ment, for his mission was to consult
with the workers, not with the govern
ment
Since Italy and France permitted d
labor there to send delegates without
restriction as to the body to which they
belonged, We in this country feel that
We have been shunted off. We thought
that the next best thing would be to
hold this conference, and thus give a
voice to labor's efforts to gain recog-
nition IN those great economic changes
which are to come after the war. We
need to act because the reactionaries
taxing advantage of the emotional
times, are conducting a drive to put
over mllitarism after the war"
"; Nearing pointed out that Charles
!. aalllnan, of the American Union
Against Militarism. and Isaac Mcbride
q the Peoples Council, had been sent
Washington to lobby against uni
sersal military training.