The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-12
LABOR Defense
SENDS PROTEST.
TO POLICE HEAD
Workers Indignant at
Illegal Search
q. |. .. Press servIoel

VI L. ~ Fres6 SerNioe)
Great Indignation has been aroused
by the action Of the Chicago police
department in searching the person
Of every man who attended q meeting
Of the international Labor Defense,
held on Friday, Dec. 4, In West Side
Auditorium. The meeting was called
to protest against the imprisonment Of
Benjamin Gitlow and Of the supreme
court decision in the case Of Anita
Whitney.
Several prominent Chicago intellec-
tuals and progressives, voicing the
feelings of thousands of others, Joined
the International Labor Defense in
protesting this unwarranted conduct
on the part of the police. The fol
lowing letter signed by Rev. David
Rhys Williams, DR.. John A. Lapp, OF
the National Catholic Welfare Coun-
Gil; Edward C. Wentworth, Emil Arm
old and Rev. Norman B. Barr, was
sent to Chief Of Police Morgan A. Col
Inns and given to the press:
Morgan A. Collins
Chief of Police,
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Sir:
I'm behalf of the International La
Dor Defense, 1 protest against the un-
warranted procedure of members of
the Chicago police force in forcing
workers who attended mass meeting
under the auspices of the above-nam-
ed organization, last Friday evening,
Dec. 4, in the West Side Auditorium,
to submit to the indignity of search
Of their persons.
"The meeting was called to protest
against the criminal syndicalist laws
which are on the statute books of sew
eral states in the union, and particu-
larly against the Imprisonment Of
Benjamin Gitlow of New York and
Charlotte Anita Whitney of California,
and there was no ground for any ac-
ton of interference by police officers
at the meeting.
1.-THE international Labor Defense is
an organization which provides legal
defense for workers who suffer prose
cution and persecution for their ef-
forts to better the conditions of work
ing men and women.
THE international Labor Defense is
operating openly and legally and COM
prises in its membership and on it's
executive council men and women of
diverse views and prominent in the
labor, radical and progressive move
ments. st.s
"The constitution of the United
States and of the state, of Illinois
guarantees the right of free speech
and free assemblage and the principal
aim of the International Labor De-
tense is to defend the workers in the
exercise of those rights.
In raiding peaceful meeting, your
officers have violated the rights of
everybody in the audience who was
compelled to submit to the indignity
of search for weapons.
Are meetings of workers in Chi
cago to be submitted to such interior
ence, while other public meetings are
to go unmolested?
I'VE emphatically protest against
the action of the police on last Friday
evening and demand that you state
publicly on what basis you compelled
those attending this meeting to sub
nit to the indignity of a search of
their persons without any warrant and
without any disturbance actual OF sug-
gested at this meeting"
The preversity of the Chicago CAPT.
talist press was never revealed to bet
ter advantage than in connection with
this meeting. On the morning of the
date of the meeting the Chicago
Tribune carried news story, that
forty policemen were to maintain or
der" at the gathering. A newspaper
photographer was present to take pic
lures of the expected disorder, but no
disorder Undertaking., except that
manufactured by the police, and tho
the photographer took a picture of the
policemen "frisking' the male mem
bers of the audience on their way into
the hall, neither the story nor the
picture appeared in any of the capital
list papers, with the exception of the
Daily News, which carried a lying
paragraph about the amount of the
collection.
The meeting was addressed by Will
liam Holly, Pete Jensen of the Fed
Grated Shop Crafts, Robert Minor,
George Maurer and G. E. Ruthenberg.
A good collection was taken up for
the defense of the Ziegler miners.