The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-04-10
Mencken's Arrest and
Raids on Bookstores
Should Arouse Labor
BY J. LOUIS ENoDAHL.

EVERY passing day offers new singing revelation
l. showing straghtacket gang continually busy
trying to clamp the American brain into common mould
# it the Rev. j. Frank Chase of the New England
Watch and Ward Society," John Sumner of the Society for
Suppression of Vice. then it is other seelected
protector Of public morals like Dr. Phillip Narrow, of the
illinois Vigilance Association.
During these past few days. Chase has been running
of Boston in pursuit of r. l. Mencken
editor of the American Mercury having him arrested for
printing and circulating alleged saacous article Sumner
snoops around the obbes of New York theaers trying
smell stage Narrow has just led mob Of police
against hitherto unpretentous book stores in chcagos
loop" sezng literature that may be had at the public Ii
ba that to be found in thousands OF private libraries
turnout the city.
Mencken dismissed in Boston police court, but the
Chicago bookstore Propretors still face six months a
heavy fine under statute dating back to 1873
when the nation just crawling out of chatte slavery
The trial has been set for April g. when municipal court
judge will have to decide the public may be permitted to
buy copies of Giovanni Boccaccos Decameron the works
of Francois Rabeais; Giovanni Giacomo casanovas memoirs
of such historic personages Frederick the Great Nine
Pompadour and others; DR.. W. F. Robes sex Histories
and 1.-THE Art of LoVeF
The 1873 statute holds anyone to criminal who is
discovered having in his possession with without intent
to sell. who shall give away or lend any indecent
This would cover librarians. 1t is urged that public
libraries have not been raded for distributing these books
especially those of Boccacco and Rabeas that have been
in circulation for the past ten centuries But even that may
come to pass.
1t very evident that the of the people not
stirred by attacks The saw espionage
capped the national brain during the The mass
appauded when workers prison for alleged
violations of this law exercising rights of speech,
press and assembage
The so-caed anti-sedton laws adopted in IS states
after the war; wpng all civil liberties in industrial strug
giles, aroused Labor did rally for time
in support of the Michigan defendants in the trials of Ruth
enberg and Foster, growing of the Bdgeman raid
the Communist Party convention But is very evident that
abors vigilance has been waning The sedition laws still
stands with the endorsement of the United States
court. An Anthony Birba be brought to trial on
charge of heesy growing out of speech made to workers.
Coal miners be convicted Zeger, Ill., for espous
ing the left wing of the workers in their industry
Textile strikers jailed and gassed Passac New Jersey
and William Green president of the American Federation of
Labor, is unchaenged by the millions of organized Ane
workers when he refuses to join in the effort aid
these strikers become integral part Of the American labor
movement All these outrages pass unheeded.
The of Mencken and the Chicago bookstores
interesting in that they the petty tyrannes
that docIe public opinion will endure.
They emphasize the need Of class organization like
the International Labor Defense to take up abors defense
in all of its struggles Labor must realize that every
full aggression the part of the ruling class thru any of
its satellites is weakening of the workers. position. 1.-THE
public" may and crawl before every kick cuff
The working class must stand and fight.