Montana labor news., 1938-09-15
OPEN FORUM
Don't Worry About Communism,
Worry About Loss of Freedom
of Thought.

VI ~
The hunt for Communists being
staged at present by John P. Frey,
and VIM. Green of the A. f. of L.,
is very strongly reminiscent of the
hunt for witches some hundreds OF
years ago.
Their desperate attempt to place
all Communists in the ranks of the
CLIO would be very amusing were
il not for the fact that intolerance,
whether in religion, politics, or ones
way of thinking in general, so in
evitably leads to serious trouble at
some time or another.
Picture these two old women
VIM. Green and John P. Frey-in-
dustriously sweeping these innocu-
Gus Communists and near Commu-
nists from their own A. F. of L.
door yard over the imaginary di-
viding line onto the CLIO property.
Some of the less important particles
are inevitably drifting back and
forth, and Mothers Green and Frey
are fretting and stewing like pouter
pigeons.
No doubt a large part of the bar
rage against the Clio at present is
due to the latter's supposed political
potentiality. No one need be great
ly alarmed over the political effec-
tiveness of either the A. F. of L. OF
the CLIO. Those of us who have
been affiliated with the A. F. of L.
for many years, realize the intol-
Grant and intolerable attitude of this
organization of racketeers and would
not let our votes be influenced by
any political propaganda produced
by it.
Those affiliated with the CLIO also
will vote as they darned well please.
Some bad effects will, however,
be produced by the hysteria UNI
avoidable to some minds in having
the epithet of "Communistic" ap-
piled to them. This is simply an
inevitable penalty that the holder
of any progressive ideals must pay.
We in the United States have
prided ourselves on our Individual
freedom of action and thought. In
fact, it was for the attainment OF
this freedom that the Pilgrim
Fathers first came to these shores.
We all realize that the covering
over of a fostering sore does not
heal it, but rather tends to drive il
deeper into either a physical or
political anatomy. The best hope
for the attainment of a permanent
cure is to bring the disease into the
open and remove the cause pro-
ducing the infection. When this has
been done there is no cause for
worry and neither Communists OF
any other lists or "isms' will OBJ
tain a foothold.
Freedom Of speech and a free
press constitute the best safety
valves we can conceive of and they
must not be suppressed unless you
desire to encourage despotism,
Nazism and anything but a free
democracy.
The greatest menace at the mo-
ment is not so much in the de-
liberate attempt to suppress free
dom of thought and action as in the
seeming lethargy of our few papers
and magazines claiming to be pro-
gressive and independent, in not
realizing what is happening and
fighting it aggressively.
Many of the brightest minds OF
the country have rather recently
acquired decided radical leanings
which are largely the result of the
chaotic industrial, financial, and po-
litical conditions existing through
out the nation, and the world in
general, and the also almost uni
versal display of ineffectiveness in
remedying such matters.
The breakdown of the present
capitalistic spoilage system necessi-
tates many fundamental and radical
changes in our laws, the attempted
enactment Of which is fought tooth
and nail by those who profited most
under the old regime.
An article by Senator Burke of
Nebraska in the Mining Journal OF
August 18th shows that a serious
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