The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-09

officers who seeking This, because was
attired as a seaman in the United States navy. A
good rebel, a battleship then at Mare Island,
had loaned me the uniform! No! 1 may have been
foolish to surrender but wasn't terrorized by Bill
Haywood into doing it! And the same applies to my
co-defendants.
All together there is unjustified spite in Aliens
remarks about Bill Haywood. He says "Big Bills
accusations of treason against those who refused
to pose in his martyrdom tableau, his bail
jumping and flight to Russia and the bloody fist
fights that broke out among his jailed disciples,
were death blows to the ]. w. W."
Now, this is poppy stuff with which to regale the
bored liberals and smart-alec ntelligentzia who
read the New Mercury. But it's damned bad taste,
and some Of it is lies.
My friend, Bill Haywood, happens to be hon
ored guest of the workers and peasants of the Sow
let Union, and of the Communist International. If
he is respected by the tried revoutionasts of Rus
sia and is their guest, naturally dislike other
revolutionalists-a presume Allen is revolu-
tionst-reviling him for the amusement of the gid
dy, but nnocuous, Menckentes.
1t wasn't Bill Haywoods "martydom -tableau"
And l hope hundred old-timers, who served in
Leavenworth will read this, and write in to the
same effect, and let Allen know what really hap
pened in those days. 1t is repetition of the slur
that we all got pinchcd, and served time because
Bill Haywood told to. Good Lord, how little
Allen really knows about the l. w. W., internally
that the tactics CT those days-however wrong
were not designed to ornament Haywood, but WERE
CONCEIVED BY REASONED DELIBERATi0N
OF MANY RESPONSIBLE MEMBERS OF THE
l. W. W. 1 held, at that time, credentials Ma
tional Organizer of the /. w. w. was trusted
speaker, writer and publicity agent fer the !. w W..
And I agreed with TIE tactics, and so did most of
my companions.
AS to Bills bail jumping, will admit that that
was a mistake. Bill will probably admit it too, if
Allen asks him. But it must be remembered that,
at that sine, there appeared in the press a state
ment by representative of the Comintern, stat
ing that they had agreed to the advsability of
the STEP And Bill had already become Conln'n-
ist Also, Bill was a very sick man, at that time.
However, l think it mistake. But | don't
lust blame Bill for it. He left himself in the hands
Of others
And now we come to amazing statement. Al
len refers to Uhe bloody fist fights that broke out
among his jailed disciples" This definitely want
to brand as a lie. During the three years that ]
was in prison-and my prison work at Leavenworth
enabled me to maintain contact with all our boys
there--I only know of two fights And these two
both occurred in the Cook County Jail, within the
same fortnight-while awaiting trial-and
neither was on a matter of policy One of them was
when a member gave a thorough beating to his
personal friend well-known soap-boxer from the
west (who afterwards became sort of Tolstoyan
mystic) because said soap-boxer went out, with a
detective, to be treated by dentist in Chicago
and returned drunk-the federal dick being only
too glad to drink at the expense of the Wobbly or