The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-09-22
FALSE sPokEsMEN

1t appears from the press reports that the
mittee of union labor which intruded upon
President wilson's day of rest to the of
the worlingman upon his attention really to
ask him to open the Jail doors and free convicted
criminals. says the Washington Post
This is not the cause of organized labor and
workingmen should not permit themselves be
made the dupes of the radicals who defy the laws
of the republic from behind the mask Of union
labor.
What was complaint which the committee
brought to the president at Seattle? Were more
wages, shorter working hours or better working
conditions the theme of their plea? No:>these may
have touched upon incidentally, but their
principal demand was that the president extend par
don to the men whom they called political pris-
oners"-that is to those who serving
because anti-Americans they afoul of the
laws of the land.
First they asked for the release of Mooney,
ing time for throwing bomb into preparedness
parade San Francisco, resulting in the death of
several people. MONEYS case has run the gaTnut
of the courts and of the executive pardonng power,
and those charged with the enforcement of the law
have been convinced of his guilt.
They demanded the release of Debs, whose Of
Tense in violating the espionage act they argue
greater than the offense committed by
italistc profteers during the Yet it is a
matter of record that Debs used his influence as
radical obstruct the draft admitted 1t in
court and gloried in his attitude. To condone
his offense would be set naught the laws n
acted for the national defense
The committee, it is stated, also desire the re-
lease of three local who serving terms in
prison for "seditious conspiracy" In short, they
with the president declare general amnesty
Tor those prisoners of the Debs- Berger Mooney
brand who have been caught in the laws net. This
they construe the of organized labor y
1t is the duty of conservative and sensible labor
organizations promptly and emphatically to repu-
diate the demands of the Seattle committee. Vio-
lation of the law is not labor's program; there is
nothing in between the sterling sturdy,
intelligent workers of the United States and the
Americans who seek to tear down and destroy
the institutions of freedom. The former include
the who answered the call the colors and
went to France to fight the nations battles; the
latter are made up of the men who Jagged at home,
obstructing the nation in its preparedness.
Once and for all organized labor should cut loose
from the bolshevistic macontents who using the
unions merely as a shield for their anti-American
propaganda. Many of the stronger and l.
sentative organizations already publicly gone
on record against the l. w. w. and similar propa-
gandists, thereby adding to their prestige and
gaining friends and supporters for their But
the movement should be made unanimous. The
| traitors should be smoked out. Honest workingmen
struggling for their rights in the turmoil of dis
turbed social and Industrial conditions should not
be handicapped by advocates socialism, bolshe-
vism and plain treason.
Those who would open wide the Jail doors
to the criminals who have flouted the laws of the
nation would take away the guarantee of life and
liberty. They are destroyers not builders. They
divorce itself effectually from association with
this element thus win the unanimous support
and sympathy of every patriot right thinking
man.