The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-05-28
Sted1nan's Red Raid.
By ROBERT MINOR.
(3rd Installment.)
The Denial.

NOR dlu ne see any neeu OF denying
it. Of thoroughly law-abiding point
of view, he saw no wrong in utilizing
the arrests as an opportunity to
obtain the property. This he explain
ed to the writer in conversation in
the lobby of the Ten Eyck Hotel
during the latter part of the winter
of 1920. Asked whether he had in
stituted suit to wrest the property
from the Communists in Detroit
while they were under arrest, he
replied with emphasis:
"Yes, ] did. had to 40 it. 1t was
the only way I could save the pro-
perty from being lost. If we don't
get it, It will be taken from them
! anyhow, and will be total loss. "
(Stedman recently published false
version off this conversation in let
ter through the National Office press
service.)
It is clear tha; Siedman though
himself perfectly within the right.
He considered the Communists gull
ty of planning to overthrow the gov
ernment, and so told the court and
offered to prove it. That there re-
mained in the Socialist Party any
considerable number that would
think his action wrong, seems not
at first to have occurred to him.
Only when the story of his action
in Detroit began to seep into the
Socialist Party ranks in other parts
Of the country did Stedman and his
associates in the National Executive
Committee realize the need of a
denial of the facts. Then the ghost
of Stedman's Detroit actions began
to follow him.
Recently a suggestion Of the truth
was brought out in widely re-
ported debate in New York. Sted-
man then excitedly and injudiciously
denied that anything of the kind"
had occurred. He even branded as a
"lie" a verbatim quotation from his
own written Bill Of Complaint in the
Detroit court records, published in
the Liberator magazine. The matter
once opened, the National Office of
the Socialist Party through Otto
Branstetter came to Stedman's de-
tense with a statement full Of in
vective, branding the general charge
as a lie and spreading Stedman's
and Davidow's denials broadcast in
such of the Socialist press as would
print them. Davidow declared the
story to be a deliberate lie." Bran
stetter, as the official voice of the
party, declared it to be "a plain un-
vanished lie."
The Record and the "Stenographic
Record"
Stedman and Davidow very care
fully base their denials upon the
"stenographic record" They careful
ly avoid using the term "court re-
cord" but loudly defy any one to
produce any stenographic record of
any statement Of that kind" (Davi-
dow's words.)
The reason for this is amusing. It
is because their charges Of violation
of criminal law by the defendants
were not spoken by word of mouth
by them in court, but filed in the
form of written document. If not
spoken verbally, the words would not
appear in the stenographic portion
of the record. Yet the first paper
in the court record Of the case is
Stedman's Bill Of Complaint, care
fully written out in his office, with
the deliberately stated charges. Not
only do the full words appear in the
court record, but the case was tried
upon the foundation of them. Even
at that, Stedmans criminal charges
against the defendants do appear in
the "stenographic record" This is
because the judge referred to the
charges in the Bill of Complaint in
giving his opinion. In a curiously
adroit effort now to conceal the ex-
istence Of the document carrying the
criminal charges, Stedman in his de-
nial misquotes the stenographic re-
cord in a broad rendition Of the
judges words so as to leave out the
reference to his Bill Of Complaint.
Using II Now.
At the moment when Stedman, in
careful, double-meaning phrases, is
denying the existence Of the docu-
ment quoted here--he is using the
same Bill of Complaint on appeal in
the Supreme Court Of the State Of
Michigan in the same attack upon
the red raid victims Of Detroit.
The Shadow Behind the Denial.
During the early course Of the
Detroit trial, the bestiality of the
attack upon the Communists softened
the determination Of some Of the
members Of the Reverend Taylor's
group. Seeing that the plan to OBJ
tain the property was to take ad-
vantage Of the imminent danger Of
the arrested Communists, struggling
against imprisonment and deporta-