The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-07-17
By Amy Schechter

NOhAh lAO upOn LAAGAu anu nClp luO
rioters clean them out and burn the
railroads property" Also that "the
only one they'd like to pour their bull
let's into was that damned Frank B.
Gowen" (the superintendent of the
railroad).
One of the strangest features of the
strike, and the one of which least is
known, is the mysterious st. Louis
Soviet" set up under socialist. lead
ership. This Soviet" sent out com
mittees which closed up every shop
and mill in the place, and for week
seems to have taken over most of the
functions of government in the city.
In their proclamations the executive
committee spoke of themselves as "the
authorized representatives of the in
dustrial population of st. Louis" Or
ders were issued providing for food
distribution, medical attendance, etc.
How representative the committee
really was and what it's composition
was will be worth finding out some
day. At any rate, the bourgeoisie Of
the city were panic-stricken at its
appearance-the spectre of the Paris
Commune, then only seven years past,
continually haunted the ruling classes
Of that period as the spectre of the
Russian revolution does the ruling
class of today. t'@
THEY formed committee of safety,
L and, after a week Of the "Soviet's"
rule-and from all available accounts
its control seems to have been almost
absolute-raided its headquarters with
cavalry and infantry and artillery,
some 900 in all. Seventy-three men
were found in the building and ar
rested, "a body of sinewy men, toll
worn and grim, clad in rough garments
such as laborers wear" reporter who
accompanied the raiders describes
them.
The one other city in which socialist
influence seems to have counted at all
in the strike was Chicago. There the
strike agitation was conducted, accord
ing to Hillquit, under the direct super
vision of the party national executive
of the Workingman's Party 0later the
S. l.. P.). The leading spirit was the
same Parsons, then a compositor on
the Chicago Times, who in 1886 was
murdered by the government as one Of
the Chicago anarchists" and who
even at that time the government had
begun to fear and wish out of the way.
The fighting conferred round the South
Side railroad yards, with pitched bat
tie between federal troops and work
ers at the Halsted street viaduct In
Chicago a number of railroad compa-
mics finally acceded to the strikers de-
mands, and the city council appro-
priated 100000 for public improve
ment to provide work for the unem-
ployed.
AS to the final results of this ire
mendous outpouring of energy and
heroism, this swift flaming of revolu-
tionary passion, it is, perhaps, best to
quote Serge, the brilliant co-worker of
Karl Marx, who did great deal to-
, wards laying the foundations Of the
revolutionary movement in the United
States.
THE whole movement" he wrote,
was the spontaneous outbreak Of the
anger and discomfort Of the workers,
and those sections of the population
standing nearest to them, with their
miserable conditions OF life and with
the appalling mismanagement of the
ruling classes. And, as IN practically
every spontaneous movement the
numerous victories of the workers In
many sections Of the country brought
them no lasting gain, because they
lacked the organization necessary TO
profit from their vIctorles." (Neue
zeit, v. 10, 1927
This fatal lack seems TO have been
brought home to labor To a marked
extent in the course of the struggle,
and afterwards. when capitalism began
savage warfare on what was left OF
the old unions, reviving the old con-
spiracy laws, extending the use Of the