Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1935-03-15

Denny, organizer and leader
took his place as chairman. Most
of the speakers listed on the
agenda were out on bail-victims
of previous raids on the Book
shop and other working class Of
fees. They were Dirk De JOnge,
war vetrean and unemployed
leader; Earl Steward, Communist
Party leader, a former school
teacher; and Don Cluster, then
organizer of the Young Commun-
list League.
Denny called the meeting to
order and announced hte serious
purpose of the gathering. The
Citizens Emergency League spies
testified that he announced: This
meeting is called in defiance of
the police and local authorities.
They lied. He announced that
the meeting was to protest the
ruthless shooting of unarmed
pickets and the unlawful raids
on working class headquarters
and homes. He introduced the
speakers-each one explaining
the maritime strike and the VIC
lence against the workers from
various angles.
Spotter
Back II the audience, as the
meeting progressed toward the
question and discussion period,
a man rose to his feet, walked up
to De JOnge, smiled at him in a
friendly manner and said: That
was a fine talk you made, De
Jonge." He then left the hall. His
name was Robert Smith and he
had been detailed by the meet
ing earlier in the day at the Citi-
zens' Emergency League head
quarters to attend the meeting,
identity the speakers, and pre-
pare to point them out to the
raiding party when it arrived.
Accord ng to instructions,
Smith left the hall. But-this is
his story on the witness stand
instead of going straight to the
police station, three blocks
straight down Second Avenue, as
he had been told to do by Bacon,
he walked up Third Avenue and
then to Yamhill Street, circling
around because two men left
the hall" with him and he was
afraid of being followed.
He admitted that he did not
see those men after he left the
vicinity of the hall. He took a
cab from Third and Yamhill-but
he still didn't go to the police
station. Instead, he went to the
Gel headquarters where he pick
ed up a sap that was lying on
the desk" Then he went to the
police station where he had a
rendezvous with eight uniformed
police officers and other civilian
Gel members.
The Raid
They returned to the Unem-
ployed Unity Center in a body
the officers armed with pistols
and riot clubs, issued to police
during the strike. Smith entered
wearing gloves and swinging his
sap, identified the law violat'
ors" and assisted in the arrests
and the searching of the head
quarters. While arrests were
made freely, several workers
were released after several hours
and only the four indicted by the
grand jury. ,
Smiths sap, which he carried
Tor ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS he
doubted the courage of the eight
armed policemen-somehow dis
appeared. He doesn't know what
became of it, so he declares. But
strangely, one of the offices, the
last to enter the hall, found a
sap and pair of gloves cached
conspicuOusly in the hall. he
picked up his discovery and i'm
mediately began trying the gloves
on nearby workers. But they did
not fit or even approach fit, so
they simply kept the sap for eV-
idence of criminal syndicalism
and sabotage.
Smith, asked if he could pro-
duce his sap in court, declared
that he didn't know where 1t was
he put it back where he got IL
after the raid.
Maze of Contradictions
The Indictment under when
Don Cluster, Dirk De Jonge and
Edward Denny have been con-
victed, and Earl Steward Is yet
to stand trial, charges that they
presided at, conducted and assist
ed in conducting that assemblage
on July q, 1884; that the assembl-
age was the Communist Party;
and that the assemblage advo-
Gated criminal syndicalism and
sabotage.
No where does the document
charge that the Communist Party
advocated those doctrines, nor
does II accuse the defendants OF
guilt for belonging to the Com
munist Party. Carefully and de-
liberately, the issues are obscur-
ed behind a network of techni-
calities-but it is a network that