New-York tribune., 1919-04-06
We Shall Not Rest Until
Doctrines of Russia Are
in Operation in America,
Debs Adherents Declare
General Strike Is Urged
Agitators Call for Walkout
on Day Leader Is Sent to
Jail for Ten-Year Term

eve shall not rest till the Soviet
Republic of America is established"
To a little knot of 800 East Siders
who had gathered in Rutgers Square
yesterday to demand the release of
Eugene V. Debs," Fred Biedenkamp, of
the Brotherhood of Metal Workers,
flung forth the phrase. 1t came almost
at the beginning of the meeting and it
Set the kay for all that followed
what we want to talk about now"
cried Joseph Coldwell, state secretary
Of the Socialist party in Rhode Island,
& man convicted under the espionage
act, but now out on bail pending ap-
peal, what We want to talk about now
is Russianizing the United States"
Flag Called No Protection
A little later he added:
I'VE, the workers, have fought for
every country and have no country.
The American flag is no protection to
the workers. 1t protects those who
own property under it. We want flag
that will protect the working class. We
want dictatorship Of the proletarat."
1T would be we'll for you to take
your eyes off Russia" counselled Eliza
beth Gurley Flynn, speaking of radi-
Gals now serving prison sentences, "and
think about yourselves"
There are only three classes in
Russia to-day" declared Harry Whit
sky, Of the Jewish Protective League.
"the workers, who have their cards, and
eat; the Red Guard and Red Navy,
whose members have their cards, and
eat; and the bourgeoise, who have no
cards, and get left. And that's what
we're going to have in this country"
General Strike Urged
interviewer with these pleas was the
reiterated demand for a nationwide
general strike on the day that Eugene
Y. Debs, foremost Socialist leader in
this country, enters upon service of the
1O-year prison term imposed upon him
"On that day." shouted Coldwell,
"put YOUR hands in your pockets and
keep 'em there till the capitalist class
sets Gene Debs free"
Under the slow drizzle seeping in
from the north, the little throng set
up cheer at that. 1t cheered, too,
and applaUded at every recurrent men
ton Of the need for a Soviet regime
In the United States. And it cheered
occasional derisive references to Mayor
Originally the meeting had been
planned to have mammoth proportions.
Four platforms were to be IN continu
Gus session, and Scott Nearing. Judge
Jacob Panken, ex-Representatlve Meyer
London and Jim Larkin were to have
been included among the list of spell
binders. They were absent. The
speakers who did appear, though, did
all in their power to make up for the
missing ones, and disparagements of
Allied Intentions and Of democracy as
it is applied famed through the after
noon with a candor that has rarely
been heard here since the espionage
act first went into effect
'We Want the EARTH
"The only time we'll get democracy
in this country" said Beidenkapp, sis
when we say TO the capitalists, Either
them on the same road the Kaiser has
taken But don't get so selfcentred
that you think it's only America we
want to bring real democracy to. 1t
must be for the world We want the
earth--and sooner or later we're going
to get it,
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn declared
that the United States is tagging be-
hind every other nation in the world
IN granting amnesty to political pris-
oners, or whom she said there are now
over 1000 in jail, and she urged her
hearers TO make the release of these
people the burning question: of East
side agitation. On the same subject
Coldwell said:
THE Attorney General Of the United
States says that these people are not
political prisoners. Blu. if they're not,
then they're prisoners Of war-pris-
oners OF capital. SO let's get capital
FOR as long az one member Of the work
Ing class Is in jail we're all slaves. We
must free ourselves"
biedenkapp, speaking of Mayor Hy-
lan's stand against foreign -languauge
meetings in this city, said:
"H Mayor Hylan thinks he's going
70 stop Bolshevism by such tactics, he's
got another guess coming. And
warn him and all such that If they
force us out Of the open air into the
snb-cellar, things will be a thousand
times more dangerous for the capital
iss class"