The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-08-12
WARM LETTERS
CALLING DOWN
JOHN G. EMERY
Edward S. Bethlehem, Jr.,
Also Gets His Dose.

l
President Hardings attention to un.
warranted misrepresentation OF
two eX-army officers in letters tc
the President opposing pardon
for Eugene V. Debs will make in.
teresting reading:
National Headquarters Private Sol.
diers and Sailors Legion, $40 +
Street, N. W., Washington, DC
April 2, 1921.
Honorable Warren G. Harding
President of the United States
White House, Washington, DC
My Dear Mr.. President: The
amazing insolence and effrontery
| of the language used by John
G. Emery, Commander of the Off
GERS American Legion in his tele-
gram to you today on the Debs
pardon case, certainly should be
sharply rebuked.
AS volunteer who served twen-
ty-two months in the war, and from
July, 1917, for fourteen months on
the firing line in France on the
Cambria front, and as National
President of the Private Soldiers
and Sailors Legion, | denounce as
| absolutely false, the claim of Col
| onel Emery that he represents the
sentiments of the great mass of
eX-service men and women" in his
| deliberately malicious and mislead-
ing statements as to the Debs
case and the effect Of your grant
ing him pardon.
No man who knows Eugene v
ha f,,1I
harm a hair on the head of any
human being. l have know Debs
personally for over twenty-seven
years, since the days when he and
were both locomotive firemen on
the railroads. He is and always
has been peaceful, big hearted
kindly man, filled with martyrs
| enthusiasm and willing, cheerful
self-sacrifice for the cause of the
poor, the helpless and the op-
pressed.
Mr.. President, l denounce Colonel
Emery's telegram to you and his
publication of it broadcast through
the press of the country as a thou
sand fold more dangerous, incendi-
| ary and violence-inciting act than
|
his whole life time.
| am utterly opposed to Debs
Socialists Party and his socialist
ideas. | am an individualist anC
a lifelong and earnest follower o1
the teachings of Thomas jefferson
and Abraham Lincoln. But tn,
worst way in the world to attemp-
to convert socialists or any othel
class of men of the error of theil
ways is to slander and persecutt
| them as Colonel Emery and hi.
Officers American Legion are do
ing with Debs and his followers
Worse still they have resorted tC
mob violence against both men anC
women in hundreds of cases in all
parts of the United States. This
has gone on until their depraved
| and deliberate lawlessness has be.
come national scandal and dis.
grace to our conutry where free.
| dom of press and speech and peace.
| able assemblage, which these Amer,
lean Legion officers and their dupes
would destroy, are the very treas
ures of the ark of the covenant OF
American Liberty.
| The inexcusable threats of the
Officers American Legion Com
mander Emery, that if the Presi
dent of the United tSates exercised
his merciful constitutional power tt
grant a pardon to gentle kindly
harmless old man like "Debs, "it
would be interpreted as a license tc
disregard all law and order" is
/ .f. tA l.
incendiary character that it may
| very easily become the incitation tC
even more widespread and danger.
Gus violence than has previously
followed similarly inflamatory pro
nouncements by these lawless swash.
buckling American Legion officers
| and their immediate circle of addle-
| pated followers.
The brazen demand of the Off
GERS American Legion officers that
| the President of the United States
| should surrender at their dictation
| and threats his great and benign
pardoning power vested in him by
the Constitution, and that he bind
himself by giving to them "your
assurance that no such action is
contemplated or to be expected" is
one of such unparalleled and i'm
pudent interference with the duties
of the Chief Magistrate of the ma
tion that if tolerated would become
great public menace. The press
| and the law abiding people of the
| United States will administer the
proper rebuke to the overweening
and outrageous pretensions of the
| American Legion officers who seek
to set up in the United States an
inquisition of the fine old Spanish
| model of infamous memory.
1t is the intention of the National
Executive Committee of the Private
Soldiers and Sailors Legion to sub
NIT to Congress the facts as to the
numerous acts of lawlessness and
violence of the Officers American
Legion as basis for appropriate
action to repeal the special Act
granting them a charter of incorpo-
ration Sept. Is, 1919. And thereby
put an end to the unmitigated and
dangerous nuisance which the Off
GERS American Legion and its Off
GERS have made of themselves. AS
suring you Mr.. President that the
great mass of the private soldiers
who served in the war have no SYM
pathy whatever with these ex-offi-
GERS who are seeking to poison
American life with a bad mixture
of militarism and mob rule. Espe-
cially would we condemn their at
| tempt by threats to coerce the Pres
ident against the merciful exercise
r 4