The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-09-15
MOB SPIRIT In
TANGIBLE FORM
Difficult to AnaIyze Turbu-
Ience in Seattle During
Presidents Visit.
WILSON MISREPREsENTED
Damper Thrown on Coming
Industrial Conference-Con.. =.
servatives Stimulated.
(BY DAVID lAWRENcE)

ooINdtlVcS 6ClmuldLeu.
10y DAVID LAWRENcE.)
En- Poute With President Wilson
to Portland, Ore, Sept. 15.-(Copy-
righted for The Chattanooga News. }
Out Of the turmoil and noisy DEM
onstration with which Seattle greeted
the president of the United States,
few Americans can derive confident
satisfaction. Mr.. Wilson's speech
about the league of nations was in
cidental, indeed relatively unimpor-
tant. What was vital and disturb
ing to the eastern observer was the
atmosphere of unrest, Of mob psy-
chology and mob inclination which
made the whole presidential party
nervous throughout the thirty six
hours of their stay in Seattle. Police
lines were none too good and an un-
manageable mob Of several thousand
kept up a bombardment of noise and
hand pounding against the doors of
the auditorium where the president
was trying to speak. Several hun
dred marines from the Pacific feet,
which the president had reviewed
earlier in the day, stood on guard on
the docks with fixed bayonets and
in readiness for trouble.
Fanatieal Demonstration.
Why? Did the mob want to ex-
press its dissatisfaction with the
league of nations or peace treaty ?
Not bit OF it. They didn't care
about anything so remote as a for
eign policy. They were part and
parcel Of the labor movement here,
which contains leaders whose pur-
poses and desires constitute the most
tangible evidence of bolshevism
which the United States has yet wit
messed.
From tne moment the president en-
/. tered Seattle, after a remarkably en-
thusiastic demonstration at Tacoma
an hour away. the unfriendly. appar-
entity almost antagonistic attitude of
labor toward Mr.. Wilson was conspic-
uous. Apparently simple white badges
on which was printed in big black
letters. Release political prisoners"
caught the eyes of all OF us as
the presidential procession passed
through thoroughfares more crowded
and congested, more noisy and turbu
lent than anything I have ever seen
with the possible exception of the fa-
raticai demonstration which the peo-
last January. The I. w. w. and
great many labor men who are not
affiliated with the I. w. w. wore
those badges and kept silent as the
president went by, silent protest
against the Imprisonment of men like
Eugene Debs and Hulet " ellis. who
were convicted under the espionage
act OF attempting to obstruct our
1 success in the late war. And as Ii
the true Americans wanted to show
j Mr.. Wilson that Seattle is loyal, that
kit is a population not different from
Z the population Of other American cit
I les, the demonstration of enthusiasm
4 for Mr.. Wilson, the symbol of au-
thority. was by far the most remark
able tribute he has ever gotten in this
Il country. Confirmation of this was to
II be found in the way the audience at
the Auditorium ieaped to Its feet and
shouted with almost frenzied enthu-
%siasm as the president, after describ-
ing the pitiful condition of the Rus
sian people and the terrible rule of
this minority Of bolshevistic auto
Gratis, spoke with dramatic emphasis
this sentence: my fellow citizens, ]
am going to devote every influence
have and all the authority I have
4 from this time on to see to 1t that no
sminority commands the United
States" Outside the hall, we could
hear yelling in loud chorus, 1--WE
want Wilson, we want wilson,"
III ~But on Investigation / found that
The crowd wasn't merely trying to
get in to hear the president, but was
frying to get an opportunity to heckIe
him about the political prisoners"
Three hundred Of these labor people
had been promised seats in the arena
and they all came wearing these
badges aforementioned, and while a
few were admitted, somehow or an
other the police couldn't find room
Tor the great majority Of the others
and the meeting inside consequently
was peaceful. Nothing so disrespect-
u full to the president has occurred in
4 any previous journey Of Mr.. Wilson
on any other American president, and
the peremptory character of the de-
mand by the Seattle labor leaders for
a conference with the president on
The Sunday afternoon when he was
Nesting in Seattle, was also not lost
upon eastern observers from back
In the Atlantic states, where contro-
FXersies rage as to whether labor
#unions affiliated with the American
sTe deration of Labor should be recog-
Med
s Tame to Westerners.
Conditions seem to the westerners
ute tame. For instance the Seattle
Zines, the wealthiest newspaper here,
Which could no more be suspected of
IN interest in disorder than the New
York Times, had a leading editorial
Today practically justifying the COM
plaint Of eastern laborers who want
the unions to be recognized in the
steel industry. So far beyond the
stage Of merely recognizing labor
unions has the Pacific coast situation
sotten. that it is here largely ques-
tion of standing by the American
Federation of Labor to prevent the
L ". w. from getting complete con-
troll, and that, it is feared would mean
direct action and bolshevism. But it
eannot be said that all the men in
the American Federation of Labor
out here are conservatives.
Perhaps il is the contagion of radi-
calism or the desire to prevent their
own authority and position from be-
ing uprooted by agtating radicals, but
the men who went to see President
Wilson at his hotel Sunday talked as