Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-09-13
HERRlN METHODS AND Boil
SHEVISM

SHEVISM
Dragging herring across the trail
is not novel device for turning at
tention elsewhere. Possibly the
United Mine Workers have heard of
1t. Possibly, too, the writer of the
alleged expose Of communist meth
DDS of boring from within, per order
of Lenin of Russia, may have heard
of it. Yet all this may have nothing
to do with the purpose of the ex-
pose. 1t is worthy of notice. how
ever, that, at this particular time, it
declares that Sc Lithuanian boil
shevists took the lead in the massa-
ere at Herrin of non union employees.
Considering the disgrace attached to
that horror. responsibility for 1t Is
not desirable. Were we a member
OF the United Mine Workers we
should prefer the bolshevists of Rus
STA should bear the odium.
The Federal Coal Commissions in
vestigation went into that Herrin
affair pretty thoroughly it would
seem, although the records of the
horror and of the farcical trial told
enough to sicken the heart of any
self-respecting citizen of this coun-
Try. No proof was found by the
commission that the officials of the
union and Of the city of Herrin
anticipated the slaughter, but it was
noticeable the latter kept ont of
10Th hot Of
troops to maintain order were re-
fused, that neither the officials of
Herrin, Of the county nor of the
union took any precautions to pre-
vent 1t, that following it, in the
brazen effrontery of eXultation, the
coroners jury found that the mas
sacre resulted from the act of the
mining company in employing nom
union labor at this work!
Where find insolence surprising
that? And they got away with it
for the time beng-and no one ever
will he punished for It by the laws of
the State of Illinois or of the coun-
try. The United Mine Workers
poured out money in defence of the
murderers and paid $4,000 for the
mine. Now they-or someone appar-
entely writing in defense of them
goes to the trouble to tell us that
Lithuanian bolshevists working I'M
der orders from Russia are the in
stigators. Was it Communist money
that defended the murderers and
paid for the mine?
The odium of the Herrin massacre
lives and will live. The instigation
OF 1t may have come by way of Rus
STA. If so it was one of the most
hellish of all Russia's exploits and
was defended under the auspices of
the United Mine Workers of Amer
lea.
The situation must be cause of
members of the Workers organiza-
ton. 1t must be a stencil in the
nostrils of the Herrinites, day and
night. But they can't shirk it onto
the shoulders of Russian bolshevism,
however much that may have in
ClLeu II. lJOuDtleSS llle ICCOIu VI tiltit
blot on the country will stand long
after the United Mine Workers shall
have passed out of memory. 1t is
possible, nevertheless, this expose
of bolshevism may serve good end.
1t has long been evident that COM
munism cannot continue to control
Russia unless it may overthrow 9TH
err governments under the old order.
The incentive for meddling in our
affairs, overthrowing the forces of
law and order has long been appar-
emit The working men of this coun-
try are hardly OF the type that
would take kindly to this movement,
any more than they are the kind who
in their hearts would approve the
Herrin massacre. 1t Is possible that
out Of all of this they may arrive at
definite conclusion that no lasting
good may come to them or to theirs
by the Herrin methods, whoever may
be the guilty parties who intro
duced them.
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