The Raymer enterprise., 1919-12-04
DRAFT STRIKERS
URGES GREELEY MAN

partisan League for this state, bring
us the following and asks us to pub
lish It:
Walter E. Bliss. Greeley attorne,
and member Of the Weld county ad
visory board to the state high cost O
living commission, believes Congress
sould enact legislation giving tn
government power to draft striking
workmen.
I'm a letter to Lieut.. Gov. Georg
Stephan, chairman Of the commits
sion, replying to a questionanire sen
him by the commission, Bliss express
es the conviction that general eco
nomic conditions and not .profiteer
ing is. responsible for the high cos
OF living. He writes:
There should be federal
legislation prohibiting any per-
son or group Of persons from
quitting the employment they
are engaged In. unless they are
physically unable to work or
have other employment to go
to. The law should provide
that they must be actually en-
gagged In other employment
within ten days, or the govern
ment can draft them and place
them again In the employment
which they deserted. or in such
other employment as desired.
They should remain under the
draft for six months, and be
court-martialed for desertion,
the same as in the army
Walter E. Bliss 1t should be re-
membered, is. first Of all, a lawyer
and has lawyers view point. Sec
ondly he has been against all plans
for cooperation and collective bar
gaining by the farmers and the la
borers. We wish to call your atten-
tion to the fact that he is member
Of the Weld county advisory board
to the state high cost OF living COM
In the third paragraph. he is lin
ing up against the constitution OF
the United States. In the second
he states that profiteer-
ing is not the reason for the high
cost OF living
Read the third paragraph care
fully. Did you ever think that such
statement could be freely and pub
licly expressed in the country of Lin
coin and Washington?
Girls in some Of the big depart
ment stores of Denver have up to a
very recent date, worked for as low
Is Sc per week. It costs at least s14
per week for a person to live in Dem
YER with honor and fair degree of
Read the first clause of
that last paragraph above
THE coal operators mine the coal
At a cost OF s1.20 per ton. The pub
lie pays from 1915 to $14.50. The
Denver Express says the reasonable
demands Of the workers could be met
,ut Of the immense profits and the
'oal price to the consumer need not
be raised. Read the first clause of
he third paragraph again. II this
awyer had his way with us we
would envy the eslaved poems of
Mexico"
We are going to ask you to read
he first sentence Of the third para
'raph clear through again, and then
we want to ask you, What would
you do II you were in the workers
placer
According to this lawyer, and
hey all think about the same with
'ery few exceptions, the worker must
De compelled by law to serve, even
.hough his wages be reduced, even
.hough living conditions are unbear-
lble, even though working quarters
ire unhealthy and breed disease, etc,
md II he complains he is to be court
He is to be reduced to
he status OF the old time serf who
'erved under feudal lord.
THE organized farmer would be
'ubject to the same sort of draft.
Are you with this lawyer and do you
concur in his expressed opinion?
America has never seen anything
Ike it--such open defiance Of funda-
mental law, such arbitrary nse of
,ourt machinery. What cards are
he interests and the politicians
to play? There are
grounds for thinking that they plan
fight at this time which will de-
troy organized labor by outlawing
I and bradding 1t as revolutionary.
rhe foolish raids and mass arrests
II hundreds Of people in our cities
ook like part of the plot
"Gompers and other conservative
eaders eviently sense the real dan
ger at last and are holding an extra
ordinary conference at Washington.
They have issued statement de-