The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-09

us family was bounded and threat
"A ened. Their home and property
were confiscated and in desperation
they fled to Ferney, the home of Vol
taire. He sheltered them and cared
for them and listened to their story
of medieval barbarism.
IN the meantime the Church con-
I tinued to betray the people, to live
off their tithes and to aid in their
oppression and enslavement.
The court was corrupt and harbored
courtesans and panders.
IN 1865 youth named La Barre, not
4 yet seventeen years of age, was
arrested on the charge of having
mutilated crucifixes. This was the
frame-up charge used in railroading
radicals in the eighteenth century.
Today it is killing paymasters."
HINDER diabolical torture La Barre
v confessed to the Crime" In the
public square his head was cut off
and his disfigured body burned at the
stake. A mob of mobiles and priests
stood by and cheered. A copy of
Voltaire's "Philosophic Dictionary"
which was found in his possession was
also publicly burned with his body.
VOLTAIRE, the writer of philos-
optical satires, the creator of
witty conversation became a serious
man for the first time in his life.
He thereafter devoted his life to the
overthrow of system where limo
cent people were tortured and de-
stroyed. His pen became biting and
purposeful. He adopted as his now
famous slogan, "Ecrasez rinfame"-
crush the infamy.
in letter dated November II, 1865,
: he wrote, Come, brave Diderot, in
trepid d'Alembert, ally yourselves;
overwhelm the fanatics, destroy the
insipid declarations, the miserable
sophistries; do not let those who have
sense be subjected by those who have
none; and the generation which is be-
ing born will owe to us its liberty"
EFFORTS were made to bride him,
- the kings mistress offered her
body, the pope offered him a car
dinaPs hat. He hurled their brides
into their teeth. He ended all his
letters with Crush the infamy." He
wrote, ''The man who says to me,
Believe as do, or God will damn
you. will presently say, Believe as
| do or | will assassinate you"
VOLTAIRE did not live to see the
revolution, but thirteen years
after his death the National Assembly
OF the victorious revolution brought
his remains to Paris and he was
buried in the Pantheon His remains
were carried through the streets of
Paris on a funeral car on which was
inscribed, HE gave the human mind
great impetus; he prepared us for
freedom"
WE have no Yoltaires today. This
" IS not an age of great person.
alltles. This IS an age of great move
ments. The militant vanguard of the
working class is our Voltaire TODAY.
Today the CALAIS case is the case of
Sacco and Vanzetti. Today there is
no powerful religious absolution. To-
day we have capitalist oigarchv.
TEE lnfamy of Voltaire's day is still
= with us, slightly altered in form
but more powerful and more relent-
less. America has its infamv that
must be crushed. It is personified in
the personalities of Governor Fuller.
IN Judge Thayer, in the corrupt poll
ticlans and capitalists of this country
who will strangle the voice of revolt
unless their will is destroyed
WHETHER Sacco and Vanzetti live
+" or die, this is the lesson that we
have learned"crush the infamy"-
there will be no neutral ground until
the infamy is crushed. The case of
Sacco and Vanzetti is now sacred
cause to the working class. We must
not tire, we must not rest until our
slogan is realized.
"ERAZEZ L. INFAAlE"-crush the
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