New-York tribune., 1918-05-08
Radical Societies
See Death Blow
In Sedition Bill
Leaders Fear Measure
Passed by House Will
End All Propaganda

Fear prevailed in radical organiza-
tons yesterday that the government
intended at once to stop their activities.
The Immediate cause of the appre-
hension was the final passage by the
House of Representatives of the bill
which gives the postal authorities
power to withhold the delivery of mail
addressed to any person or organiza-
ton. This action, which followed close
~ the passage by the Senate of the
bill outlawing the Industrial Workers
OF the World, has convinced the rad
icals that Washington intends to stop
Immediately all forms of propaganda.
Almost all the anti-war propaganda
spread over the country originates in
New York, where the headquarters of
more than dozen national radical or
carnations are located. They depend
for their existence on the use of the
mails, and when once their mail is cut
OF they automatically cease to exist.
May Hit Socialist Groups
Viz ACSlOCIC SlSIS C!lc ttlnGLN
ment to the espionage law making the
postal authorities dictators of the mail
We are as good as done for" said a
prominent radical official yesterday.
"It won't take the postmaster week
after the law goes into effect to deprive
us of our mail. Every other organiza-
tion will suffer likewise, and as the So
cialists have not yet modified their
anti-war platform adopted in St. Louis
last year it is more than likely that
mail to Socialist groups soon will be
cut off,"
Ever since the German offensive in
France began the erstwhile pacifist or
carnations have practically abandoned
their campaigns for IAN carly peace"
and have confined their agitation to
opposition to proposed universal mill
tary training-which happens to CO.
inclde with the views of President Will
son and Secretary Baker. The American
Union Against Militarism, 70 Fifth
Avenue, which opposed CONSUMPTION be-
fore it became law, reorganized to
light military training. The union has
used the mails to spread anti -militarist
propaganda throughout the country and
has kept Charles T. Hallinan at Wash
ington as its lobbyist.
Peoples Council Active
A similar attitude has been taken by
the Peoples Council, 1873 West Thir-
teenth Street, of which DR.. Scott Near
ing is chairman except that this or
ganization has recently devoted it's prop
aganda to discussions of "reconstruc-
Inr, FEor, I1,0 L
has been devoted largely to propaganda
at the peace table when the war is
ended"
The British Labor party's "terms-o Of
peace" platform and the Inter-Alled
Labor and Socialist Conferences pro-
gramme, adopted in London last Febru-
ary, have been widely circulated by the
Peoples Council. The council appoint
ed James H. Maurer, president of the
pennsylvania State Federation of La
Dor, to represent it at the conference
but Maurer was denied passports by
the State Department.
Several other organizations have been
paying large postage bills to dissent
nate propaganda.
Other Bureaus Affected
Among these are the Civil Liberties
bureau, ~ Fifth Avenue, of which
Roger N. Baldwin is chairman, and the
Bureau of Legal First Aid, of which
Fannie M. Witherspoon is the direct
ing head. These bureaus have for
months been active in furnishing legal
aid to men who have had to hire law
yers because of their objection to serv-
ing in the army or navy. The bureaus
have retained the services of lawye rs
in various cities.
- The League for Amnesty of Political
Prisoners, 80 Union Square, maintains
a propaganda for "the release of polit-
ical prisoners after the war" Emma
Goldman and Alexander Berkman, the
anarchists, are counted among the "po-
litical prisoners"
In the same building, also, is "Young
Democracy" which is devoting its prop
aganda against universal military
training. Its leaders are two women
who were members of Henry Ford's ex-
peddltion to Europe-Rebecca Shelly and
Lalla Faye Secor.
~e1