New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1918-12-21
AMNESTY FOR POLITICAL
PRISONERS.

Mote: The following has BET
sent to the President. 1t is d
sired to back the appeal with
many signatures as possible.
interested, get your friends
sign ct once, and forward to u
ton Sinclair. Pasadena. Californl
Addresses Of all signers must
given.
Nov. 18th, 1918
(Armistice Day.
President Woodrow Wilson
Washington, D. c.
Sir: 1t has been your forum
this day to be able to give to tn
American people the gladdest tic
ings in their history, perhaps tn
gladdest tidings ever given t
mankind. The last stronghold O
oppression and enslavement j.
Europe has been broken, and tn
pathway of justice and freedom
is clear before the peoples Of tn
world. For the part which vol
have played in this accomplish
ment, the undersigned pay to YOU
a tribute of gratitude, which WE
believe that men through all time
will continue to acknowledge.
But upon the completeness OF
our satisfaction there is one sha
dow on account of which we now
petition you, requesting an act
of enlightened generosity, which
will do more than anything
else to complete the joy Of all low
ers of social justice in this great
hour. There are now in Jail or
under sentence in America some
thing over a thousand men and
women, with several thousand
more under Indictment, for VIOLA
ton of the laws forbidding prog
uganda against the war and the
draft. We are not referring to
persons convicted Of acts Of vio-
lence against the government. or
of plotting with the enemy, bnt to
those persons who from religious
or humanitarian motives have felt
to speak or to write
against this war. Their judgment
seemed to us mistaken, but We
know that their sincerity and IN
tegrity is beyond question-some
Of them have been our friends
and associates in past times, so i
we are able to understand their
point Of view They had been
agitating against war-all war
and they were caught in a despe-
rate emergency, which comman-
led them to reverse the convic-
lions of a lifetime. That there
should be many who could not
make this change was. humanity
Ipeaking, inevitable; and as re-
nit many honest and jealous
dealists are now in Jail, the vic
imk Of q prison system which all
enlightened Americans know TO
,e q relic Of barbarism and a!
hame to our country. Some Of ,
hem have been given sentences
i shocking severity-twenty,
ven thirty years. Never at the
height Of its insolence, never
against its most dreaded enemies,
lid the German Autocracy ven-
nre anything so extreme as that
he sentence Of Karl Liebknecht ,
o four years is contrasted with ,
hat Of Rose Pastor Stokes aud
eugene v. Debs to twenty years,
md this contrast remains as al
horn in the conscience Of everyl
LIBERAL in America. It drives into
opposition and rebellion thousandsl
4 men and women who would
otherwise gladly support your .
=
policies; it increases enormously
he bitterness Of the class-strux-
BE now going on in our midst,
md 7 brings to despair many Of
. who are laboring with all our
'orces to avert from America the
lind Of social cataclysm which
las befallen unhappy Russia.
therefore we implore you, Mr..
resident, to exercise at once the
'ower vested in you by law. to re-
nove this blot from our national
HELD.
With the surrender Of the last
tronghold of the enemy, the last
'ower which can Of its own selfish
I'll disturb the peace Of the
'orld. there is gone the last reason
hat could by any possibility just
" the holding Of pacifists and
nti-militarists in Jail. The per-
ors who now wish to keep them