The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1919-10-11

IheSe abuses uiu not ule Wlen thS
war ended. The vicious and un-Amer-
lean espionage act, upon the constl-
tutionality of which the Supreme
Court has not yet had the courage to
pass, is still in force on the technical
ground that the was is not yet ended.
A new and more vicious peace-tlme
espionage act is contemplated, ana
drafts of such an act are now pend
ing before Congress.
The various states, not to be out
done in the orgy of repression that
began during the war, have passed
sundrdy measures, ranging from So
called criminal syndicalist laws to
search and seizure and state eonstab-
ulary acts. All of these are designed
to suppress the activity of groups of
individuals who oppose exploitation
by the private owners of industry,
whether they function through labor
unions, political organizations, news
papers or from the pulpit or platform.
In Pennsylvania, the state authori-
ties invoked an act passed in 1894 to
forbid the organizers of the American
Federation of Labor from holding
meetings or making speeches to or
ganize the workers in the steel indus
try. This circumstance, more than
any other, proves conclusiyely that
the present reign of terror in tn Unit
ed States is not directed at radicals
or revolutionaries, except as first
step. As soon as background of
public opinion is established, the gov
eminent, doing the bidding of Wall
street, is ready to assist in the dis
ruption of the labor movement and
any other force that interpose itself
between the private owners Of indus
try and the swollen profits they are
reaching out for.
As a result of these unconstitution-
al and un-American laws and prac-
tees, hundreds of citizens are in the
federal and state prisons of the Unit
ed States charged with offenses that
our fore-fathers never dreamed would
be considered offenses in this country.
For these political, industrial, relig-
ious and military "offenses" they have
had inflicted upon them prison terms
as long as fifty years. Not only is
this true, but these prisoners have
been so inhumanely treated while in
our prisons, that many have died and
others have lost their reason. Not
one of them is person of great
wealth or power. All are workers, or
those who have cast their lot with
the struggle of the workers.
If this situation is permitted to
continue in the United States, no one
will be safe except the exploiters of
industry.
So long as Tom Mooney is in pris-
on no labor union organizer will be
secure in exercising the right peace
fully to induce workers to join unions.
Sol ong as Eugene V. Debs is in
the penitentiary, no person will be
safe to exercise the right to express
disapprovaI of the actions or utter
ances of men npower in the govern
ment or in industry
SO long as Victor l.. Berger is de
prived of his seat in Congress and
United States have no assurance that
faces Imprisonment, the people of the
the men they will elect to legislative
councils to undo the tyranny that has
been imposed upon us, will be per
mitted to take their seats.
SO long as the conscientious object
ors to conscripted military service are
within The walls of confinement, no
person can hold his conscientious
scruples or his religious beliefs to be
his private affair, nor will he be Sc