Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-15
VESTS UNREST
is IMPRESSED
ON PRESIDENT

Continued from Page One)
demonstration of enthusiasm for
Mr.. Wilson, the symbol of authori-
ty, was by far the most remarkable
tribute he has ever gotten in this
country. Confirmation of this was
10 be found in the way the audi
= ence at the auditorium leaped to
its feet and shouted with almost
frenzied enthusiasm as the presi-
dent, after describing the pitiful
condition of the Russian people
and the terrible rule of the minor
ity of BolsheYist autocrats, spoke
with dramatic emphasis this sen
tence:
My fellow citizens, 1 am going
to devote every influence 1 have
and the authority I have from this
time to see to it that no minority
commands the United States"
HeckIers Kept Outside.
u Outside the hall We could hear
the crowd yelling in loud chorus,
"We want Wilson, we want Will
son." but on investigation l found
that the crowd wasn't merely try
ing to get in to hear the president,
but was trying to get an opportu-
nifty to heckle him about the "po-
litical prisoners" Three hundred
of these labor people had been
promised seats in the arena AMI
they all came wearing these badges
aforementioned, and while a few
were admitted, somehow or anOth-
er the police couldn't find room for
the great majority of the others
and the meeting inside consequent
ly was peaceful.
Nothing so disrespectful to the
president has occurred in any pre-
vious Journeys of Mr.. Wilson or
any other American president, and
the premptory character of the de-
mand made by the Seattle labor
headers for a conference with the
president on Sunday afternoon
when he was resting in Seattle,
was also not lost upon eastern OBJ
servers. Back in the Atlantic states
where controversies rage as to
whether labor unions affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor
should be recognized, conditions
seem to the WesteTneT quite tame.
For instance, the Seattle Times, the
wealthiest newspaper here, which
could mo more be suspected of an
interest in disorder than the com
plant of eastern laborers who
want the unions to be recognized
in the steel industry. So far be-
yOnd the stage of merely recogniz-
ing labor unions has the Pacific
coast situation gotten that it is
here largely a question of standing
by the American Federation of La
Dor to prevent the l. w. VS. from
getting complete control and that,
it is feared, would mean direct &C
ton and Bolshevism.
Even Conservatives Radical.
But it cannot be said that all the
men in the American Federation of
Labor out here are conservatives.
Perhaps it is the contagion of rad
icalism or the desire to prevent
their own authority and position
from being Uprooted by agitating
radicals, but the men who went to
on Sunday talked as some of the
radicals might have talked. They
presented arguments concerning
She release of what they termed
political prisoners, and their per
sistence along lines which the rad /
icals have agitated gave an impress |
sion not wholly different from their |
own aggressive brethren But the
seems to be dependent upon the
wisdom of such men, for the pres
ent anyway, because they are for
law and order and differentiated
from the direct actionists.
Conditions Different.
But Seattle is not like eastern }
cities. Labor conditions are en- +
tirely different The labor group
is much more audible and infuen-
tial. For instance, they publish a
daily newspaper which circulates
hundreds of thousands of
workers in this section. On the
front page of the Seattle Union
labor's organ, there was
printed in flaming letters on Mr..
Wilson's arrival a series of ques-
tons full of inuendo and demand
ing the immediate repeal of the
law, the release of Tom
Mooney and other political pris-
Oners," the withdrawal of Ameri- 4
can forces from Russia, and ex-
alanation of the refusal of pass
ports TO Americans wishing to visit
Russia, support of the Plumb plan,
and. finally, this query, why do
you not fire BUrleson?" There fol-
ows a long editorial condemning
he postmaster general for dismiss
ng employees from the postal ser
vice for activity in organizing
1nions, and a long discussion sup
1osedly of grievances of American