New-York tribune., 1919-06-25
The Alien
Torch
By Stanley rost

help win proletarian control, but that when
it was once won they would join with the
soldiers to throw out the foreigners, and
that they would share the benefits to be
won from the strike-they never said
worked. The great body of soldiers, as
represented by the Great War Veterans
Association, stood neutral.
Working for Germany
But not for long. The Citizens Com.
mittee Immediately began a carefully
planned campaign to show them the extent
to which alienism permeated the striks
leaders plans and theories and to convince
them that these leaders were insincer.
to say the least, in their promises. TIL.
history Of the agitation which had pre-
ceded the strike made this easy.
1t was shown, first that at the conven-
tion at Calgary, at which the One Big
Union, the body behind the strike, was
organized, resolutions had been adopted
which not only sent fraternal greetings tc
the Russian Soviets and the German Spar
tacans, but demanded the release of politi-
cal prisoners who were expressly defined
as actively working for the German gov
ernment in this country" It was shown
next that many of the strike leaders, and of
the One Big Union leaders elsewhere, had
been pacifsts and anti-war agitators.
Finally, the figures as to the number of
enemy aliens in the strike forces were
brought out-at least 5000 in Winnipeg
alone.
Patriotism, the Issue
At first all this had little effect on the
soldiers, but it had an immediate effect on
the aliens among the strikers. Alienism
became a strike issue. The active inter-
nationalists among the leaders and fol-.
lowers alike attacked patriotism, and finally
attacked the flag for which the soldiers had
fought. Flags and patriotic buttons were
torn from the coats of officials and there
were anti-patriotic parades and demon
strations.
1t was only then that the Citizens Com
mittee made direct appeal to the soldiers
and the strike leaders realized that they
had been outgeneralled The effect was an
immediate outburst from the majority o.
the soldiers against the strikers. To offsst
this the strikers had a parade of returned
soldiers, in which some two thousand
marched. The next day more than five
thousand other soldiers paraded for the
other side.
Too Parndes
1t may or may not be an index of the
character Of the two groups, but there was
difference between those marchers. The
striker group showed little semblance of
martial order-it marched with ragged
lines, many of the men out of step, and it
turned the corners in irregular curves.
The other parade marched like a regiment
every line straight, every man in step,
and the corners swung square-cut ana
clean. A day later the Mayor made
speech along patriotic lines to the striking
soldiers, and from that time they became
lukewarm. The question of the support
Of the soldiers was settled for Winnipeg.
"The Manitoba Veteran" the Great War
Veterans Association organ, came out with
this statement:
"The returned men will determine the
issue Of this strike. But the
returned man will insist on a settlement
that will make general strikes in cities
impossible in the future. He realizes that
this sympathy strike has imperilled :he
existence of Winnipeg as a civilized COM
munity. The returned man
stands for LAW AND ORDER AND A
SQUARE DEAL ALL AROUND, and the
returned man has stepped forward to SEQ
that these secured and by securing
them end the strike"
So democracy has the soldiers and the
radicals have the aliens in Winnipeg.