The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-17
A BRAVE MAYOR
Labor Unions at Seattle Rcpudiate
Red Leaders.

6St1 iI-ducrS.
1.-The strike failed because 90 per cent
of the workers came to their senses Nand
refused to follow farther their false and
anarchistic- leaders, and prophets" The
words of Ole Hanson, the courageous mayor
of Seattle.
Seattle Washington, Feb. 10
Seattle's general strike of seventy
thousand laborers was an attempt at
revolution. The plan was to start
the revolt here and have it spread to
other cities, according to a statement
made by Ole Hanson mayor of Seattle.
The strikers, he said, saw deter
mined men ready with rifles and ma
chine guns manned by an American
ace and his company. prepared to
But Fear Conquered.
"They came. They saw. And fear
conquered" he said of the strikers.
The statemen follows:
The so-called sym pathetic strike
in Seattle was an attempted revolu-
| ton. That there was no violence
doesn't alter the fact. tho the Anar-
chists who fomented it are using that
as an argument to deny their revo-
| lutionary intent to the men who
blindly followed them and who are
today beginning to understand how
dangerously they were misled.
There was no violence because
every precaution had been taken
against ii. Strikers came in droves- to
the police stations. They saw deter
mined men, ready with rifles and ma
chine guns manned by an American
ace and his company. They came.
They saw. And fear conquered.
Planned a City Soviet.
! 1.-The intent, openly and covertly an
| nounced, was for overthrow of the in
dustrial system; here first, then every
! n d atfxr H.,
been more assiduously placarded with
| soviet propaganda than was Seattle
just prior TO and during the tie-up.
After the strike had been called
and the radicals were beginning to
| show Their colors more frankly, the
proposal to take over all private and
municipal industry was actually put
| to a vote in strike councils and missed
| adoption by narrow margin only
This vote led to redoubled efforts by
| the Bolsheviki.
/ THE strikers, thru newspaper. no.
| tees, decreed that:
1.-The public is advised to go home
and stay al home after eight at night
we will police the city; we will supply
! such food as We think necessary, and
| nothing can operate except on our per-
| mission.
| THE owner of a taXicab company
| was told that he might run cabs for
sick and emergency cases. provided he
gave the sovietists half the proceeds.
| Planned on Bolshevist Lines.
Their plans exactly followed those
| of the Russian revolutionists. Each
| union was to operate its own industry,
| Labor, said the strikers official
| organ, will not only shut down indus
| tries; labor will reopen under the
management of the appropriate trades
| such Industries as are needed to pre-
serve the public health and peace. If
1 fiF7Il IN Inr aol Ia RI
to open more and more industries I'M
| der its own management
I 1T was not strike. Not. simply a
protest. 1t was a threat A challenge.
| A revolutionary dictum.
"A 1eaflet bearing the signature of
| the metal trades committee urged ::
| Since the products and Industries of
| the world are ours by right, since thru
| their proper organization we can man.
age both more efficiently and with JUS
! tice to all-and-were ready let's
win!
IF the mass of labor in this affair
believed it was not being swept toward
| overthrow of esta blished government
IL is because they didn't apply plain
logic to the situation and don't COM
prehend what overthrow of govern
ment consists Of
Revolution Doesn't Need Violence"
True, there were no flashing of
ton, I repeat, doesn't need violence
The general strike as practiced in
| Seattle, is of itself the weapon of revo-
luton all the more dangerous be-
cause quiet.
ITO succeed, it must suspend every
thing. Stop the entire life stream of a
community. And to do that means
danger, disease, death. 1t means
stopping by violence or intimidation
every governmental agency for the
protection and preservation of life as
government out of operation. And
that is all there is to revolt-no matter
/ how achieved.
Thousands of those supporting the
strike didn't understand this until
they saw what a monster, what a
l'Frankenstein, they were expected to
help create. When they did eompre-
| bend, the revolt died.
Tremendously significant is the
fact that the tieup was not to be en-
| forced for twenty-four hours but for
an indefinite time. This was to Gre
ate chaos, terror, the founda ton for
taking over industry by Iss action
\ not to demonstrate labor's solidafity,
which no one in Seattl is. disputing
Failed To MisIead the People
i violence cannot long be kept out
of situation such as Seattle faced
| for four days of terrible tension
Forces such as these once set in mo-
| tipn. cannot long be controlled, either
by vigilance or by words. They are
i bigger even than their directors They
fear the red Frankenstein that de-
Stroys its creators with the res of us
Those who say this was not an at
tempted revolution do not know that
two and two make four"