Richmond planet., 1923-03-24
SKI LOSES BY UNFAvORABLE DECISION
bORAH AND |. v. v. ORATOR VOICE
DEMAND FOR GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL
POLITICAL PRISONERS At MASS MEETING

While President Harding was speed
ing to Florida for a months vacation,
the official publicity announcing that
he was leaving "a virtually clean
desk" a group Of working people in
New York City were completing prepar
atiCns for what proved to be the most
impressive demonstration yet made TO
remind the President, that his desk
and his record-will not be clean" un
til he issues the order that will set
free the last of the So workingmeu
still being held in federal prisons osten
sibly for opposing the war" but In
reality because Of the;. past activities
in championing the cause of labor.
Over 3000 people crowded the Lex
ington Theatre on Sunday. March IL,
and cfreered repeatedly the insistent
der,and that the much-boasted claim
of the United States to be the land OF
the free" be transformed from a sick.
en!ng hypocrisy to at least a temporary
reality by the release Of these men, i'm
prisoned solely for having been true
to their ideals and having done what
they could to make the world a fit
place to live in.
The meeting was reused to a high
PAS>A Va ShiOtiOh Ivy Tie ilTSI SpcdheI
Sam Scarlett, an I. w. W., sentenced
to 20 years but recently released sub,
ject to deportation to Scotland, who
held his audience speIl-bound for over
an hour while he pictured the long
struggle of the workers of the west
and northwest to improve conditions
in the logging and construction camps
mines and harvest fields. the systema.
ic persecution by the powerful finan-
cial interests controlling the machin-
cry of government and so-called JUS
tice in those sections the brutal treat
ment of I. w. w. prisoners in the jails
awaiting trials. the mockery of Justice
in the court proceedings, the inhuman
sentences inflicted by capitalisticaaIy
minded judges the unflinching stand
Of the men in the face of fiendish
cruelty behind the prison walls and
their refusal to sue for mercy or break
the solidarity OF the group by asking
for individual pardon.
"ThOse SO fellow workers Of ours are
not being held in Jail for what they
did in the past" Scarlet said. but for
fear OF what they would do IL released.
The authorities know that prison has
not broken their spirit or changed
their opinions one whit. The financial
interests that own the big Industries
OF the west know that every one or
those men will, as soon as he comes
out OF prison, go right back to the
spot where he was arrested and take
up his work as a labor organizer where
he left off when taken to Jail in 1917.
That Is why the Washington officials
turn deaf ear to all appeals to their
supposed-and purely imaginary
sense OF justice or feelings of human
ftyy and that is also why it is plainly
and squarely MP to the working class
to wake up and take such action rs
will force open the prison doors for
these men who are being victimized
solely because they dared to stand In
the front ranks in labor's battle.
1T is because these men were cap.
able speakers. writer's and organizers
for the workers that they were put III
prison nearly six years ago and il Is
for the same reason that the workers
must set them free so that they can
go on with their work in the interest
of labor"
Senator Borah, the prosecutor Of the
former 1. w. W., leader, Bill Haywood
In the famous Haywood -Moyer-Petti
bone case startled his hearers bv
bringing out the same point namely,
that these men are in prison because
OF their activities I'm the I. w. w. He
protested against the injustice Of hoI1
Ing men I'm prison for something not
mentioned in the indictment and not
recognized in law as a crime.
What" he asked, is the controlling
reason for keeping these men in pris.
on! 1t is not, in my opinion because
OF the offenses for which they were
convicted but for another offense un.
known to criminal code namely, be.
cause they are members OF the I. w.
w. They are not in prison by reason OF
any acts OF violence to person or prop.
erfy. They are political prisoners. It
is not right to put men in prison AMI
keep them there solely because they
Continued on Page A.