The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-06
Copyright, 1926. by Upton Sinclair,


Copyright, 1926. by Upton sinclair.)
There will be, Bunny, rest A.
sured-if | should bust loose in
Washington, nothing would ever
convince Roscoe and O'Reilly that
l hadn't wormed it out Of you. I'm
afraid nothing would convince your
father either. But want to be sure
that your own mind is clear, you'll
know | haven't been dishonorable."
Bunny gave him his hand on 1t;
and not one of the veteran poker
players who sat all night in the
smoke-flled living room Of the
"ranch house" at Paradise could
have acted more perfectly the part
of impassivity. Bunny even made
himself finish lunch, and he wrote .
check to cover part Of the debt OF
the labor college, and gave his
friend a hearty farewell and best
wishes for his new job. Then he
drove off in his car, and was free to
look as he felt, which was quite UNI
happyl 10y
He decided that it was his duty to
tell his father about this conversa-
ton. 1t couldn't make any differ
ence to Dan Irving's work, and 1t
might yet be possible to keep Dad
out of the mess. But when the elder
Ross got home that evening Bunny
had no time to get in a word. well,
son, we got those leases!" rs
you don't say, Dad!"
They've been approved, and
Verne left for Washington today.
They'll be signed next week, and
you and me are going to take a trip
and have some fun!"
TX.
Joe and Ikey Menzies had been
out Of Jail for a couple of months,
their comrades of the Workers
Party having scraped together the
bail Now came their trial, with
several other members of the party.
The state was undertaking to show
that this organization was nothing
but the Communist Party under
camoufage; it was the legal part
of the organization, but the real di-
rection was in the hands of an "un-
derground" group, which received
funds and took orders from Moscow.
1t advocated the forcible overthrow
of the capitalist state" and the set
ting up of a dictatorship of the
proletariat," after the Russian pat
tern. On the other hand, the in
dicted men claimed that they had
organized legitimate working-class
political party, and their attitude to
violence was purely defensive. They
believed the capitalists would never
permit the power to be taken from
them peaceably-it was they who
would overthrow the constitution,
and the workers would have to de-
fend them.
The prisoners were all tried at
once, and the procedure took three
weeks and was quite an education
in contemporary problems = or
would have been, had the newspa-
pers reported both sides. To get
the workers side you had to sit in
the courtroom; and Bunny went
whenever he could get loose from
the university. He was there when
the prosecution sprung a surprise"
witness, and it was a surprise to
Bunny also-his boyhood friend,
Ben Skutt! Ben, it appeared, had
grown a moustache and taken
course in the Moscow dialect, and
had turned up as an oil worker out
of job, and been admitted to the
Workers Party, and before long he
got job in the Office. Now he had
narrowing stories to tell of the
criminal things he had heard said,
and of efforts the party had made
to incite the oil workers to rise and
destroy the wells. On the other
hand. so Bunny was told by key
Menzies, the Communists were
ready to swear that Ben Skutt had
himself done all the proposing OF
destruction-at the crisis of the
strike he had spent his time insist
ing that the only way to save the
situation was to get a bunch of real
fighting men and burn up half
dozen oil fields.
Continued tomorrow
t.ss