The northwestern bulletin-appeal., 1924-10-11
LABOR MEN BECOME
BIT UNEASY OVER
COMMUN|STSGA|N

Minnesota labor men are becoming a
bit uneasy over the Communists who
are gaining a firm hold on the Farm
er. Labor party in this state.
The so-called Progressive Farmer
Laborites are beginning to express
alarm over the situation which they
find staring them in the face. In the
October issue of The Minnesota, a
Minneapolis labor paper, these pro
gressives" deplore the fact that there
are three Communist sympathizers
on the state central committee and
Communist candidates for Governor
and lieutenant governor on the party
ticket.
This close affinity with the Com
munists and the Industrial Workers
of the World, is due the article says,
to wreck the Farmer-Labor party.
"Those who have spent their time
and money to build the party" it
states, "are looking toward the fu-
ture with misgivings."
Another bone of contention with
the "progressives" is the fact that the
Workers party in Wisconsin where
they have filed full state ticket, has
unreservedly indorsed the Farmer
Labor ticket in Minnesota. This in
dorsement coupled with the filing in
Minnesota of William z. Foster and
Benjamin Gitlow, avowed I. w. w.
men, on the Farmer-Labor ticket is
causing considerable uneasiness
among the candidates who have been
perched precariously on the fence be-
tween Communism and the ordinary
garden variety of Socialism. ---.-..
In an open letter to the Farmer
Labor Advocate, C. A. Hathaway, dis
trict organizer for the 1. w. w., said:
"Mr. Foster and Mr.. Gitlow are being
filed by petition on the Workers par
ty ticket in Minnesota. We are not
filing any candidates for state Office
but we will continue our active sup
port of the Farmer-Labor movement
and the Farmer-Labor candidates"
Communist members of the Farm
er-Labor state central committee are
William Mahoney of st. Paul, the
pilot of the Communist convention in
that city last summer; Jack Braden
of Minneapolis, firm supporter of
the I. w. W., and Alderman I. G.
Scott of the Minneapolis city council;
he was appointed by Floyd Olson,
Farmer-Labor candidate for COVER
nor.
A. B. Gilbert, an avowed Commun-
list himself, was first appointed in
stead of Braden and refused to serve
on the same committee with "such
reds as Mahoney and Scott"
Making a statement of the menace
of Communism in the Farmer-Labor
party, the article in the Minnesota
said: "The borers-from-within have
also secured executive positions in
the various units which are support
ing the ticket, and an instance of this
is pointed out in that an avowed
Communist, Richard Wangerin, is the
secretary of the Ramsey county divi
sion of the Farmer-Labor party.
"This condition, the progressives
feel, is the reason why the Commun-
sok n;1 xxyhin foly 70
ders direct from Moscow, is not filing
a state ticket in Minnesota, and it is
creating uneasiness in many quarters,
particularly since Floyd Olson has
never renounced Communism, and
since his principal aides in Hennepin
County appear to be 1. G.. Scott, his
appointee to the state committee, and
Dick Wiggin, member of the city
legal staff and guiding figure in
Communistic activities in the Mime
apolis City Council and the City and
County Employees Union.
Communists continually bore
from within and never support any
organization which they do not know
is friendly to their cause. Those who
are beginning to express alarm at the
situation point out that there are
many candidates on the Farmer-La-
Dor ticket who are bitterly opposed to
Communism, and their appointees to
the state committee are above re-
proach, but 1t is felt that the Com
mics are willing to support the whole
ticket in order to get the whole Min
neapolis City Hall bunch moved over
to the State Capitol"