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

Of course Of anyone else. And the other fight was
between two very good fellows, whose nerves were
exacerbated by the hellish life lived in that Chi
cago prison locked, three in a CELL for twenty
hours out Of the tweuty~four) and about some
perfectly petty personal matter. The minute after
this nervous explosion, they shook hands, and the
matter was finished. Those were the only two
fights in the Jail. AS to the pententiary, if
they'd want to indulge in "bloody fist fights" the
opportunities were extremely small And the prison
discipline was such that, if boys had fought
much the whole damned lot would have been
in SOLITARY" l differed materially from some Of
the l. w w. men in there, several points--on
Communism, on the advisability of accepting reduc-
tons in sentence ii recantaton was involved, and
other matters-but we never dreamed of fighting.
It is deporable that Allen should make such state
ments. They appear to be curiously animated by
malice towards Haywood, which l cannot under
stand. Surely Allen is too younger too young in
the movement-to like or dislike Haywood person
ally:
am Communist | think much of the l. w. W.
theory in which / then implicitly believed, was
wrong-narnely their attitude towards politics and
towards the A. f. of L. But, they were an organiza-
ton which believed in the class struggle, and Which
fought in the class struggle They spread wide in
America the idea of industrial unionism; and they
brought organization and consequent betterment
into the lives of the migratory workers. On oeca-
son as Allen deigns to acknowledge they travelled
hundreds of miles, through parched desert bitter
cold beating their way, risking Jail and beatings
on the way in order to fight for the workers, in
some conflict with the authorities. Their speakers
often had to sleep the floors Of the halls, when
their evenings propaganda DONE Their edi-
tors worked for a scanty living wage, and never
augmented their income by titillating the after
dinner senshes of the readers of fifty-cent maya
zines. Perhaps they weren't clever enough; per-
haps they didn't think it quite decent.
am sorry Allen has spoilt good article / am
sure Gurley Flynn is sorry; she ever generous
and warm in her friendships and sought ag-
grandisement at the expense of others. She never
needed to. l think she is sorry she lent Allen her
scrap-book. Bill Haywood probably hasn't read the
article-the New Mercury hasn't large circulation
in Moscow; and if he has, he probably wouldn't
haps it doesn't matter what the New Mercury read
ers think about us; and the few who read it, and
know the labor movement, won't believe it, anyway
Very few factory workers miners-whose good
opinion esteem--will know of it.
But mot being directly attacked or mentioned in
the article-am impelled to write the above. am
impelled because | honor the comrades who went
through the Chicago trial, and Imprisonment, with
me. And don't like to have them lied about. With
many Of them l disagree politically. But they
are men, with mems clean emotions of pride and Of
anger, and with capacity for courageous suffering
To stigmatize them puppets must hurt then
pride, and mock their past suffering. And sure
it must arouse their anger. 1t did in Hence
this article
1.-THE end