The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-16

In addition, there are several
hundred workers involved in cases
that are pending, workers who are
about TO come to trial, or
whose appeals are pending before
higher courts. all of them threatened
with prison sentences or with depor-
tation. These workers are not Grim
inals. In the greatest majority of the
cases there is not even an overt act
charged against them. They are held
only because they are devoted to the
cause OF the workers, because Of their
opinions, their activity in strikes or
other work for the movement Of labor
These workers who languish in ca
pitalist prisons or who are menaced
with such Imprisonment represent
various political and economic opin-
ions and organizations Among them
are members and officials of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor and the In
dustrial Workers Of the World, social
lists and Communists and anarchists.
They are pickets from the strikes of
the Passaic textile workers, of the New
York fur workers and cloak makers;
they are from the miners in zeigler
who have fought militantly against
the ku klux khan and the coal opera
tors, as well as the corrupt agents of
the operators in the RAMS Of the
union; they are members of the l. w.
w in the harvest fields or in Cali
fornia whose. sole crime was member
ship in a labor organization; they are
Communists who are charged on the
basis of belonging to the Communist
Party.
These workers are among the most
alert and devoted in the labor move
ment They are the ones who help to
inspire and organize the working class
to renewed heights of struggle against
exploitation and misery and injustices.
They are the prisoners of the working
class.
ITO the already large number of class
4 war prisoners is being added daily
from the ranks of the working class.
The arrests In the Passaic textile
workers strike and the strike of the
New York cloak makers give daily
evidence of this. The conviction Of
Edward Horacek in Pittsburgh and
the threatened Imprisonment of his
20 comrades, is followed by the con-
viction of George Papcun because Of
his activities In organizing the Penn
Mt In Tn oil
Massachusetts,, three Portuguese work
ers are threatened with a "sedition"
charge and deportation. The supreme
court Of the country is soon to rule
in the case of G. E. RIthenberg, and
this will affect the freedom also of
seYenty-four other workers in the
famous Michigan criminal syndical-
ism" cases. A California court will
soon decide the fate Of Charlotte Anita
Whitney, who is charged under the in
famous criminal syndicalism law"
which has been used to strangle the
labor movement in that state as in
the others.
Tom Mooney and Warren X. Billings
are still imprisoned altho the frame-up
against them has been universally
acknowledged. The shadow Of death
looms constantly over the lives of Nj
cola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
despite the protests turnout the world
of workers and public men who have
adjudged them innocent. Matt Schmidt,
J. B. Mcnamara. Edgar Combs, the
Centralia l. w. w. prisoners, the Cali.
fornia /. w. w, Paul Crouch, and
scores of others still rot in the pris-
ons of American capitalism. Pious
wishes and obscure representations
have not secured their release. Only
the united protest and organization Of
all honest workers and progresslves
Of the country can free these splendid
labor fighters from the living death
they must endure.