The Butte daily bulletin. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1918-1921, 1919-02-22
SOLIDARITY
AT GREAT
FALLS
Montana Power Company
Baffled in Effort to Break
Up Meeting of Soldiers !,
Sailors and Workers..

Thursday night mass meeting OF the
Great Falls Soldiers Sailors and
Workers council, according to a del
egatc of the Butte council who re-
turned yesterday. Under the leader
ship of Captain Hoover, a Montana
POWER company attorney, efforts
were made to use the uniformed men
of Great Falls to break up the meet
ing. Only the tact of the speaker,
John Ioughman Of Chicago, prevent
ed a riot.
Loughman, who was sent TO Great
Falls on Tuesday, found that The sit
uation was bristling with hostility.
Shortly after il.s arrival he was
placed under arrest and released with
the warning that his movements
would be strictly watched.
The local Soldiers, Sailors and
/ Workers council had arranged 4
mass meeting for I.oughman in the
Masonic hall. After all the advertis-
ing matter was out, the Masons lc~
turned the money and declined to al
low their hall to be used for such a
"seditious" purpose The Carpen-
ters' hall was then secured and addi-
tional advertising matter Was issued
A big canvas banner was carried
through the streets on The day OF the
meeting.
Hoover and his employers of the
Montana Power company have q
Soldiers and Sailors club in Great
Falls-a semi-charita BILE affair where
relief is handed out presumably upon
the condition that the returned sol
r. y IL,
the lob Immediately The banner
was torn out of the hands of it's
bearers. Dodgers We're gotten out an
! nouncing thai the Soldiers, Sailors
, and Workers. council was a fraud
and instructing all 100 per cent
Americans to boycott the meeting.
Threats were made by Hoover .
dupes that the meeting would be
' broken up
+ A large crowd packed into the
3 Carpenters hall that evening. Just
before the meeting, Hoover and so
. uniformed men marched into the
hall. They were given seats in the
, front and the meeting was opened.
: Martin of Butte acted as chairman.
The first speaker was Private knut-
. son, wso confined his remarks to d
declaration that the Soldiers' Sail
t ors' and Workers council was not an
l. w. w. organization. The next
' speaker was Lieutenant Fisher, All
/ electrician employed by the Montana
, Power company, who spoke in uni
form.
Apparently the arranging commit,
tee had bungled in choosing Fisher
Instead of speaking for the council
he repudiated it and his speech was &
, reactionary rant He stated that
there was no room for the Soldiers,
Sailors and Workers council Ii
Great Falls. He defended the conduc
of Major Jones in Butte and eNcuscs
J, the bayoneting outrage which Jonc
Il ordered.
: ANY man who has been through
! the practice at the bayoneting school
II bayoneting stuffed dummies, has
u Fisher declared. When Majo
+ Jones men stood before thos
u crowds, you can't blame them fo
u. using the bayonet. 1t was a natura
=, 70 thing to do" And he continued wit
a. 81 much more on the same strain.
- After such an embarrassing p1,
30 80 lude, Loughman was called upon t
~ give his address A thorough-go -goin
- radical, Loughman decided to spea
without mincing words. He state
that there was room for the Soldier
Sailors and Workers Council
Great Falls; that it was formed
order that the soldiers and Worke
I'd should be drawn together to an III
st derstanding of their common cla
interests. In order also, that II
soldiers should not be modified
strike breakers by company tools Iii
in Hoover and by company-oWned 0
ganizations like the Soldiers al
. Sailors club. He exposed the pu
pose of the Montana Power compal
and directed his plea largely to t
private soldiers. He scored the id
of soldiers living from the bounty
~ Big Business.
K Don't go groyelling on your b.
Ia ly," he shouted. "Be men, Stand
on your own feet. Have your OF
organization-the Soldiers, Sallo
iy- and workers council -
Loughman's eloquent words
be layed the intentions of the soldie
nj and there was no further interrt
nrl ton. The meeting barely missed
ing fiasco, but, in the end, it "
, a turned into success. The tactics
,rn- the Fishers and the Hoovers are n
,nr fully understood in Great Falls.
Hts -, .e naea,.i,iie, s, tue ooiule,
has .7aiio, 1:. alu hets couheii u u
bly, 10y lt 80 ,;taa s plosless anu leceiV1
w, of Great Falls.
md A demonstration of the solidar
uie OF the unions of Great Falls has bt
tha given as the result of the action
> is the Masons. Every union in CIR
Falls has placed the Masonic or
h;s on the unfair list and the union n
- will solidly boycott all functions Ii
in The future in the Masonic hall