New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-07-20
Baldwin Quits
Pacifist Cell
To Join I.Wl'.W..
Harvard Graduate Ends Ten
Months Prison Term as
Conscientious Director;
'StillAgainst Government
Against <SSocial Reform
Says He Won't Vote and if
Called on Jury You'd Free
Most Desperate Criminal

Most desperate Criminal
Roger Baldwin, conscientious OBJ
jector, left the Essex County Peni.
tertiary, at Caldwell, N. j., free man.
yesterday morning, after doing ap-
proximately ten months "t1me" for re-
fusing to submit to CONSUMPTION.
A talk with him Immediately after
he left the prison showed his attitude
unchanged. He said that if the issue
came up a second time che would do
1t all over again."
Baldwin was the head of the National
Civil Liberties Bureau before he began
his prison sentence and was active in
helping self -professed conscientious
DIRECTORS. When the second draft
came Baldwin registered, but refused
to submit to physical examination. In
court he said he did not recognize the
governments right to conscript him
and was sent to Jail.
Is Met by His Wife
Shortly after 9 o'clock yesterday
morning the large steel gate inside
the prison opened to let Baldwin out
suit and carried number of parcels
and a satchel. The only people wait
ing to see him were a Mr.. Ettinger
and his wife and a Tribune reporter
After he had said goodby to a num-
Der of inmates in the "home" and the
warden, Baldwin went to an automo-
bile, invited the Tribune reporter to
accompany him. and took the road that
leads to Montclair.
"How have you spent the last year
In jail?" he was asked.
Ia
have ever spent" he replied quickly
at has given me a view of the whole
administration of our law In practice
and it has brought me in contact with
. great stream of men going in and
out of the penitentiary in a way that
no reformer or social worker can pos
sibly obtain.
ave not been conscious Of my being
a political prisoner as much as I've
had of being one of the crowd upon
which society puts its taboo"
Baldwin declared he had made
some of the deepest and richest
friendships of my life during the time
I've been in Jail"
Health Has Been Bettered
"As far as l am personally con-
cerned," he said later, al am in better
physical condition to-day than l have
oeen in fifteen years. / have had per-
feet freedom to read books. there was
no censorship of my mail, although, OF
course, there were certain restrictions
but on the whole l have no persona
complaint to make, because l have beer
treated we'll"
HAS your sentence in Jail changed
your opinion about CONSUMPTION; thai
is, would you submit to it now If the
occasion arose for its use?" he was
asked.
81 have not the slightest hesitation
In saving" he replied, chat the events
in the past year have more than justl'
ed the position l took year ago-bS
that I mean this: that I would be op
posed to participation in good war
,r class war, and would most propaoi!
20 to 1ail in Russia, where they have
:onscription. object to conscriptio1
by any government, I don't care whose
it is. l would rather die than subml
to conscription."
"What are your plans, now that yo'
have left jail?" he was asked.
Baldwin answered that he intende
to take three or more months OFT in tn
autumn to join some labor unions i
order to know the labor situation thoi
oughly. He said he believed he coul
pianist and is sufficiently adept
waiting and cooking, experience
gained in jail" to join unions of sue
nature. He said he also intended t
join the culinary union Of the l. W. v
The other unions are affiliated with tn
American Federation of Labor.
~ am going to be-" he said, Sin wins
Is known as the revolutionary labc
movement. I am through with soci;
The world has passed it by, just as
has passed so-called political demo
racy. I am going to do what so-calle
intellectual can do in the labor move
ment and aid in the struggle Of II
workers to control society in the int
ests of the mass"
owe come to the point" he CONT,
ued. where l am through with polit
cal Procedure. l don't intend to voT
any more, nor would I accept jury Sc
vice, and Il forced to would vote
acquit even the most desperate erin
inal in the world, because do not b
lieve in the present method Of metir
out justice.
Is Against Government
Baldwin said ~ am opposed
bureaucracy of state-owned industri
as much as I am opposed to the prese
capitlist system, and l am thereto
not t member Of the Socialist part
No, would I join it, believing as |
about political form. l don't belle
in representative government or cleo
ing men as political protest, becau
they don't stay put"
What form of government are v,
In favor of" he was asked.
Baldwin explained that he believ
In the voluntary cooperation of high
organized trade councils and simil
organizations without compulsion.
I'm my case prison has been a tot
failure, and bears out my contenti
that most men leave worse than VIII
they enter. am leaving more Of
radical than I went in" he said
Baldwin was born in Boston, and
thirty FIVE years old. He said: II 6
graduate of Harvard, but year
has helped me recover from it.