The Louise Olivereau case [: trial and speech to the jury in Federal Court of Seattle, Wash., November 1917].

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The Louise Olivereau The Proceeds Derived from the Sale of This Pamphlet to Be Used

Case

for the Benefit of Political Prisoners

Trial and Speech to the

Jury in

Federal Court of

Seattle, Wash., November 1917

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MINNIE PARKHURST, 516

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By GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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me LOUISE OLIVEREAU

CASE

.

IMPRESSIONS This pamphlet is presented to the public as an Historical Re view of the case of Louise Olivereau, because friends are anxious to know something about the principles for which she stands. Louise Olivereau is a Political Offender, and we believe that she should be liberated now that the war is over. I believe that "The Truth will make mankind Free". So I give you the important proceedings of her trial, taken from the Court Record, together with my im pressions for what they are worth. When Louise Olivereau went to trial in November 1917, the community was not yet able to understand How, and Why, a human being could stand before a court, and hold the same In the six or seven opinions which she held out of court. years that I have been friends with Louise, I have found her unswerving in her principles. She believes that an idea that is good enough to stand for out of court is good enough to stand for in court, and that we should have the courage to even stand before the firing squad for our ideas if it comes to that. happens that Louise Olivereau is American born. I do not know that she is proud of the fact —but I do know that she was not asked whether she wanted to be born here or not. Louise chose to speak for herself to the jury, because she did not think it possible to get a lawyer who would appreciate her stand. She knows that lawyers and judges are trained to do things by precedent, and if they can contrive some way to make a jury believe that black is white, well, perhaps they can save their client. Louise did not want to be saved at the expense of her principles. So she went to trial with the firm belief that she was capable of telling the jury what was in her mind; that it was no crime to try to help young men to think, and that we can not carry freedom and democracy to a foreign land, unless we can first free ourselves.

It

The presiding judge plainly shows his bias from the very beginning of the examination of the jury. Impatience and in 3

tolerance is written all over his face, and he frequently twists his face. It appears to be a cross between a forced smile and a sneer. The corners of his mouth turn upward, giving his head and ears a pointed look, as a friend remarked to me in the court room: "He looks like the pictures one sees of little black devils." When Louise Olivereau asks the jurymen if they have any prejudice against the criticism of laws, over and over he chimes in before the juror has time to answer, "if it is within the law". Louise finally shrugs her shoulders, which says, "what's the use " The Judge also informs Miss Olivereau that it is his duty to instruct the jury in matters pertaining to the law, and that it does not matter what they think or believe, they must abide by his instructions until one wonders why there should be a jury at all. Why not let the judge decide and be done with it, since he is the sole over-lord, and rules as a powerful autocrat from his throne-like pedestal ? The prosecuting attorney, or rather the assistant prose cutor, who does the job in this case, is in the court room early. He is very happy, smiling and laughing. He evidently thinks the day has come for him to put away one — innocent or guilty — who is very dangerous to his masters, and in this he will have done his duty. He seems petty. This pettiness is so plain that one friend who is under fire, because she dared to think for herself, asks him if he means to be small and petty. He swallows the pill very hard. It is bitter. The truth always is, for those who would dam up the channels of thought, which are the life-blood of freedom, while at the same time they repeat over and over in a parot-like fashion and understanding, freedom, democracy and humanity. The jury is finally drawn and sworn. Oh. Louise Olivereau, you are to be tried by a jury of your peers! Most all of them are old, and are by property owning qualifications naturally supporters of the system of slavery and intolerance; they can not possibly have sympathy with that superb freedom for which you are perhaps to give up years of your life. There is only one of them in whom I have hope. He has a rather open and frank expression on his face. Perhaps it is because he is a swimmer that I have faith in him. I have often found the spirit 4

of freedom in those who swim, but soon my dream and hopes are shattered; if he was ever possessed with this spirit of freedom 'tis only when he swims, and there is no cleansing, clear water in the Court room. He has bowed his head and conformed to the rules of the game. He too is a slave, and will help to send a woman whom he can not understand to prison for many long years. The last day of the trial the court room is packed to the doors, but not all who are here are friends of the accused; some are here to laugh, some to sneer, some to misunderstand, and some for curiosity's sake; but many, many, friends are present. It is a cosmopolitian "bunch": English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Jew and American. It looks as tho we could sing the "International" if the detectives and court henchmen were not so numerous. Louise Olivereau swings about in her chair occassionally during the examination of the jury to smile at her friends in the court room, and during recess chats with us cheerfully. However, when on the witness stand and while making her plea; no, not plea, for she did not ask for mercy, "a painful, intro spective, haunted earnestness is stamped upon her face — the face of a thinker." The jury was out less than thirty minutes and brought in a verdict of guilty on six counts. This was the evening of November 30, the following Monday, December 3rd, the Judge pronounced sentence. We did not know until a few minutes before, that she would be sentenced that day, making it im possible to have a court stenographer present. For this reason I can not quote the exact words of the judge. Miss Olivereau's memory may be better than mine in remembering the remarks of the judge that day, because she stood quite near his throne, and I sat on the front bench. I quote from a letter she wrote me after her sentence. "I hope you properly appreciated the judge's speech — 'I do not know if you realize what it has cost to establish this flag', indicating the flag above him, 'and all we have and all we get we owe to this flag', — and right after that he proceeded to give me forty-five years — also if you remember he said I ought to have a 'constructive future' be fore me." 5

But neither milk-white rose nor red May bloom in prison-air; The shard, the pebble, and the flint,

Are what they give us there:

For flowers have

been known

to heal

A common man's despair. — Oscar Wilde. Yes, Louise Olivereau even told the court that she was an Anarchist, which fact brought a terrible howl from the different factions of the Radical movement. Artless bigots, prattlers — of another of society's shams the sham of culture, political quacks, and self-confessed possessors of super-knowledge, who were quite sure that had she been represented by a savior in the form of an Attorney, who is supposed to be skilled in law;

and if she had gone down on her knees and crawled, and begged, why, surely this good lord, the lawyer, could have saved her, dug a deep grave and buried principle, put his fee in his pocket, and all would have lived happy ever after. While each faction of the revolutionary movement opposes the Capitalist system, and are working for the same ends in that regard, yet we set ourselves up in separate organizations and groups, spending most of our energy fighting each other. Each faction claiming that his is the right road to the promised land, until one won ders if we have not brought our creeds with us from the churches. Nevertheless, those who fight each other so bitterly, and also fight the courts outside of them — when the time comes that they stand before these courts cringe and tremble the same as slaves have ever done before their masters, except the very few who are of the Spartan type. Such stupidity as this intensifies our love, and hate, for our fellow man, and makes us wish that we might not be too quick to judge until we know. Because of this, I wish that every one might read with open eyes and mind, Louise Olivereau's own words in this book, perhaps not always to agree, but to think — understand.

MINNIE PARKHURST.

6

GLEANINGS FROM THE TRIAL THE DEFENDANT: (Addressing the Jury): Are there any of you men who feel any prejudice against me or preconceived opinion concerning my case because of possibly having read the newspapers or otherwise wherein I was referred to as an An archist who respects right rather than law? If you feel that you have any prejudice against me because of what ycu may have heard or that you are unable to try my case fairly then it will save time for all of us if you will withdraw at this time.

THE COURT: If any juror feels that he is not a fair juror or has any preconceived opinion with relation to this issue or any prejudice toward the defendant on matters with which she stands charged and feels that he wou?d not be able on that account to give her a fair and impartial trial, — now that is what she desires to know.

THE DEFENDANT: have you any prejudice

A JUROR:

I

The essence of the question against a declared Anarchist?

is:

certainly have a prejudice against a declared

Anarchist.

THE DEFENDANT:

It

wi'.l

be necessary

for

him

to

withdraw.

PROSECUTOR: a moment, gentlemen.

THE COURT:

(As Juror starts

to leave the box)

Just

The issue that is before you has been very

briefly stated. Now what the defendant wants to^ know and what we all want to know is whether in view of the charge made here and the suggestion of the defendant you could give her a fair and impartial trial. As to whether she is a declared Anarchist or not, that is not an issue in this case; but in view of the statement

made by the —

To Defendant, — Do I understand Anarchist?

that ycu are a declared

THE DEFENDANT: Yes sir. THE COURT: If she is a declared Anarchist — 7

I am not sure whether the defendant PROSECUTOR: means to state that she declares herself to be an Anarchist or that the newspapers declared her to be an Anarchist. THE DEFENDANT:

Both,

your Honor.

SOME OF THE QUESTIONS ASKED OF THE JURORS BY LOUISE OLIVEREAU Do you believe that citizens have the right to criticise the laws of the government? Do you believe that in war time that right still exists?

You would not believe that the best good is secured by the silencing of minorities ?

THE COURT:

I

think that is in issue here. We want to find out the condition of the minds of the jurors with relation to this issue, and not as to any other things which I think this does not enter into this relate to the defendant. do not

issue.

THE DEFENDANT:

I think this

does

enter into this

issue.

THE COURT: I do not care to discuss it with you, but we can't go into these various details. You have heard that I am an An Do you know the meaning of the word "Anarchist"?

THE DEFENDANT: archist.

A.

I

think

I

do.

What do you understand by the philosophy or what do you understand Anarchy to be ?

of Anarchy

That is not the issue. I simply told the jury a while ago that it doesn't matter whether you are an Anarchist or not. This does not enter into the issue of this case. What we are inquiring about is whether the jurors can try your case fairly and impartially regardless of that fact.

THE COURT:

THE DEFENDANT:

The attitude of the jurors' mind as to Anarchy seems to me is a very decided issue.

THE COURT:

As to the details and analysis of that, that

does not matter. 8

THE DEFENDANT:

It

is often true that prejudice is questioning that is not discovered by

discovered by detailed general questions. THE COURT: Proceed with the examination. *

*

*

DEFENDANT:

*

Is your understanding of the law of the such United States as to make you believe that citizens of the United States have, during war time, as in peace, the right to express themselves freely either individually or in public meet ings or either orally or by letter concerning matters pertain ing to the war or to the Government? THE COURT: You see it is my duty to instruct the jury with relation to the law, and the jurors' opinions, — what they believe the law to be, — cannot be considered upon the trial of a criminal cause. The question, therefore, is not a proper one. I must tell them what the law is, and they must regulate their deliberations in this case as they are instructed; so that their view of the law,— their understanding, — would not be material, and the question is not, therefore, a proper one. THE DEFENDANT: Are you prejudiced against persons who indicate either orally or by letter, individually or in groups, any understanding concerning matters pertaining to the war, and express opinions which you do not hold? THE COURT: Is your mind in that condition that you can try the issue, — fairly, even though the person on trial might have different ideas from yours with relation to the rights of persons and the conduct of individuals with relation to the government? Or is your mind such that you would be prejudiced ? THE DEFENDANT: I beg your pardon. That is not quite the question. The question is whether an individual has the right to indicate his feelings to other citizens. THE DEFENDANT: Addressing a juror.— You say you have read nothing in the newspapers concerning this case? A.: No. Q.: Are you a habitual reader of the daily papers? A.: Not every day. I live out in the country, and have no time to read all the newspapers. 9

Do you consider yourself a well-informed man on Q.: public questions? A.: No, I wouldn't say that. THE DEFENDANT: I challenge this juror for cause. THE COURT: On what grounds? THE DEFENDANT: That he is not a well informed per son on public questions. THE COURT: The challenge is denied. That is not a ground of challenge under the law.

As I understand the law, I am en titled to a trial by a jury of my peers. If not being a wellinformed person upon public questions at least is not sufficient cause for excusing a juror, then what is?

THE DEFENDANT:

THE COURT: The law says what is sufficient cause. That is not sufficient cause. You may proceed. remind Have you a prejudice against people who Q.: citizens of this day that under certain conditions the citizens of this country have the right to institute a revolution?

THE COURT: That is, that would prejudice you against trying the issue in this case. THE DEFENDANT: You know that under our Consti tution citizens have the right at any time when it seems fit and proper to do so to institute a revolution. THE COURT: That is not a proper inquiry. THE DEFENDANT:

against Have you any prejudice conscription money ought who of individuals advocate that the to be made at least as extensive and forceful as the conscription of men in the support of this war? PROSECUTOR: We object. THE COURT: That is not a proper inquiry. THE DEFENDANT: You believe in the right of citizens to criticise the laws? JUROR: Yes, within the law. Q.: That is to criticise the law within the law. That is the only form in which the Court will allow me to ask the question. Do you believe that the laws of the United States always perfectly reflect the will of the people of the United States? 10

PROSECUTOR: I object to that. THE COURT: Objection sustained. *

*

*

*

OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PROSECUTOR "May it please the Court and you Gentlemen of the Jury: On the sixth day of April, 1917, a resolution was adopted by Congress declaring that war had been thrust upon the United States by the Imperial German Government and recognizing a state of war to exist. The resolution further authorized and directed the President of the United States to employ all the forces and resources of the Government in the prosecution of the war and pledged the resources of the country to the same end. That state of war, as is known to all of us, has existed continually since that time up to and including the present date. One of the Acts of Congress adopted after the declaration of war, and as a war measure, was the Act generally known as the Espionage Act, which was approved on the 15th day of June, 1917. Insofar as may be material to the inquiry in the present case, that Act denounces three offenses as criminal: first it denounces as criminal the offense of causing or attempt ing to cause insubordination or mutiny or disloyalty or dis obedience to orders, or rather refusal of duty in the Military or Naval Forces of the United States. The second offense obstructing of or denounces that the enlistment recruit ing service of the United States to the injury of the service or to the injury of the United States. The third offense re ferred to was an offense with reference to the use of the United States Mails or the attempted use of the postal serv ice. The Act in question denounces the offense of using or attempting to use the United States Mails or Postal Service or for the transmission of any matter urging insurrection treason, or for the transmission of any matter which is non mailable as that term 'non-mailable' is defined by the Espion age Act, and the Espionage Act defines as non-mailable, any and all letters, books, of a character to offend against the first two provisions I mentioned; that is, things of a nature to cause, or attempt to cause, insubordination or mutiny in the Military or 11

Naval Forces, or things of a nature to incite to the obstruction of the enlistment or recruiting service of the United States. The charge against the Defendant in this case is set forth in nine counts in the indictment." #

#

#

*

LOUISE OLIVEREAU ON THE WITNESS IN HER OWN BEHALF

STAND

"Before proceeding with my defense, I desire to make a very brief statement to you as to why I have chosen to rep resent myself in this case rather than be represented by coun sel. I believe that in such a case it is better for the Defendant and the Jury to know each other better than is possible for them to know each other through an intermediary. I am by principle a direct actionist, and I believe in keeping the rela tions between individuals and groups on a simple fundamental human basis wherever it is possible to do so. I believe it will be quite possible for me to present the facts in my defense as clearly and as truthfully as any attorney could do it, not withstanding my lack of experience in legal matters, this being absolutely my first appearance in Court in any capacity except that I once attended part of a trial merely as a spec tator; this being absolutely my first participation in any Court proceedings. And the fact that I am unskilled in law, — un — read in law, I believe will not seriously interfere with the If direct and truthful presentation of the facts in the case. there are points of procedure on which I err, Your Honor will doubtless set me right before any serious damage of any sort is done. I believe in this case wTe can avoid any serious trouble by sticking clearly and closely to the facts, and re Because ferring, if necessary, to his Honor for instructions. of the nature of the case, it will not be possible for me to proceed perhaps in quite the manner that I might like to do. For instance, I am introducing no witness on my behalf. I have not thought it necessary to do that, for the reason that the burden of proof, of course, lies upon the prosecution. *

"I

*

%

^

have no wish to drag in any exti-aneous matter, 12

your

Honor. On the 7th day of September of the present year, I went to the office of Mr. Wright, the special agent in charge of the department of investigation in the Department of Jus tice to inquire concerning certain books and pamphlets which had been confiscated when a raid was made upon the I. W. W. offices in Eoom 40, Union Block. These books and pam phlets consisted of ten copies of a book called "The Backwash of War" and several hundred copies of a pamphlet called They had arrived that morning from New York, "Shambles". and I had no opportunity to give them more than a very super ficial examination. I have had no opportunity to give them any examination at all since that time. Therefore, I know of them only in a general way that they were anti-military in their nature. "The Backwash of War," I believe, is a series of hospital sketches. Exactly what "Shambles" is, I don't know. These matters were entirely my private property, having no connection whatever with any organization. The day the raid was made I applied for them, and was referred to Mr. Wright. I was unable to see him that day, but on the morning of September 7th I did see him. I went to his office and he took a description of these matters, wrote it down, and then produced a certain circular and asked me how many of those circulars had been mailed from Room 40, Union Block and I answered to my knowledge none. He asked me then whether these circulars had been prepared upon the typewriter and mimeograph in Room 40, Union Block, and I told him that so far as I knew they had not; that the only knowledge I had of any matter prepared in or mailed from the Union Block was matters pertaining to the business of the organization. He then, or after some further discussion, suggested that we go to District Attorney's office where doubtless we could get further information concerning the books and pamphlets to which I have previously referred, and stated it as his opinion that these would be doubtless returned to me if they were my private property, because the purpose of the raid did not include the confiscation of anything except organization prop erty. We went to Mr. Allen's office and there Mr. Perkins was introduced to me; and after a few moments Mr. Allen 13

A copy of "The Backwash of War" of the pamphlet called "Shambles" were shown to

came into the room also. and a copy

I

was not allowed to take them into my hands and I was asked whether I had written the play "Shambles" to which I replied no. I was asked also whether I had read "The Backwash of War," to which I re plied I had not. I was asked what purpose I had expected to put them to and I said that not having read them I didn't know that I would put them to any purpose whatsoever; but of an anti-military that I had written for some matter nature, and this was what I had gotten, but until I had op portunity to examine it I did not know whether I should return it to the sender or make any use whatever of it. Mr. Perkins then spoke concerning the letter to Harvey Leech, which has been previously referred to by the Government and concerning which I gave testimony. This letter I admitted I was having written, also the circular therein contained. asked whether Mr. Leech, — no, I was asked, —no I was not asked, but I made the statement that I knew a few days after that letter was written that it had come into the possession of the Government, and that notwithstanding that fact I had I was asked, — one of the sent out two more lots of circulars. first questions, — I don't know that it was the first, but is was among the earlier questions asked by Mr. Allen, whether I knew or did not know that the thing that I had been doing was open to suspicion of having been financed by German money. I disposed of that statement by stating that if I had any considerable sum of money to work with, —whether Ger man or otherwise, — I could have found a much better way of using that than that. Then I was quite thoroughly interrogated as to the possible connection between these circulars and the I. W. W. There seemed to be a great desire on the part of Mr. Allen, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Wright to establish a connec tion between these circulars and the organization known as the I. W. W. I might state at this time that the last lot of circulars was mailed either August 28th or August 29th, and that I was not in any way interfered with or arrested until the 7th of September. That was two days after the raid was me on the desk.

for close inspection

14

upon the I. W. W. Hall. I have no means of knowing the cause for that delay, and I assume that it would not be proper in this time and place to draw inferences. You may do that yourselves. I was further interrogated as to how or who had financed the writing and sending of these cir culars, to which I answered that I had written and financed the proceedings myself. The questioning was quite extensive on that point. There seemed to be a desire to prove that somebody besides myself had financed this thing. There seemed to be a great unwillingness on the part of my question ers to believe that any individual would spend the amount of time and the amount of money which were obviously necessary for the preparation of something like 2,000 of these circulars and mailing them out unless he was getting paid for it. I made the statement at that time that the purpose of sending out these circulars was to induce men to think more clearly concerning the nature of the thing which they were being required to do, — these men who were being conscripted in the Army; and in fact I was repeatedly asked what I expected to get for doing this thing, to which I repeatedly answered that I expected no financial remuneration. And in answer to Allen, a question, propounded I believe by Mr. as to exactly what result I expected to get from the sending out of these circulars, I replied that if out of 2,000 circulars I was sending out, five men were induced to think more clearly and to think seriously of the connection of the individual with the Govern ment and with the war, I would consider my work had been quite successful. Thereupon Mr. Allen musingly said: "I don't know whether this woman is a harmless sentimentalist or a dangerous person;" and Mr. Perkins said to Mr. Allen: "I believe she is a very dangerous woman." Some conferences ensued, and apparently it was decided to take no risk, because I was held for arrest. One of these gentlemen, — just which one I am not at this time quite certain, — asked me whether I had any more of these circu'ars at my house. I replied that I did; that I had a number of copies which I had been unable to buy postage for; and I also stated that I would be glad to turn these circulars over to them if they would come to made

15

my house and get them. I do not remember whether the suggestion was made by one of these gentlemen first that they should search the house. I know that the matter of searching the house was discussed, and that I had no objection whatever to a search for circulars or matters connected with Thereupon Mr. Perkins, Mr. Wright and myself this work. took the Wallingford car and went to my house at 4406 2nd Ave. N.E. There were one or two little household matters which needed attending to. While I was doing that, Mr. Per kins and Mr. Wright I left to their own devices. They con ducted such search as they saw fit to conduct. When I came down stairs after having been attending to something upstairs, I seeing that they had not got the bulk of the circulars which I knew were in the house, I made the remark, the substance of which was that their search had not been very thorough, and asked them if they were quite satisfied with the results of it. They said they were. And I asked for a full report as to what they had taken, having entire confidence in their honesty and in their clearness as to just what would constitute matter bearing directly upon this case. It did not occur to me that they would take matter which did not bear directly upon the case, but they had in their hand certain copies of the "Masses" and certain other papers which I did not know the exact nature of. Some of them that I was shown this morning appear to have had no direct bearing upon the case. However, I then took Mr. Wright and Mr. Perkins, — I don't recall whether I took them into the adjoining room or whether I brought the suitcase out from that room; but from the suit case in the adjoining room I took out a small bundle of cir culars, — this bundle which is marked Government's Exhibit No. 10 and which Mr. Perkins states was taken from the cubby hole upstairs. The exact location from which this bundle was importance only insofar as it establishes the reli taken has ability of the witness' memory. Either before or after giving them that bundle I took Mr. Perkins and Mr. Wright upstairs, and upstairs there are two cubby holes of the sort described to you by Mr. Wright and Mr. Perkins this morning, — that is in the white plastered wall is a lot of little doors, perhaps 16

that wide and that high (indicating), in a frame like window casing. These panels or doors are fastened in by two of the small iron buttons of the sort used to fasten old-fashioned The only pur They are very conspicuous. cupboard doors. pose for which I can conceive of them being placed in the wall There is no is to give an easy access to the electric wiring. sort of a cupboard or anything of that sort behind these panels. It is merely the wiring and the rafters and so on that are in the unfinished part of the house. In the first one of these places that I opened were no circulars. I had had them there

and had moved them in the other cubby hole which I opened and which was in a room which I myself occupied a part of the time, and which was at that time not occupied at all. I took the large bundles of circulars which have been produced in evidence this morning and gave them to Mr. Wright and Mr. Perkins. I have learned since that time that they also took certain personal letters and a package of University Eng lish exercises belonging to a student who had brought them to me to criticise. They also took certain copies of poems entirely unrelated in any way to war or conscription or any phase of the revolutionary movement. What else they may have taken I have no way of knowing. They then returned to Mr. Allen's office and the complaint was read to me and later on a warrant was duly served and the other proceedings gone through in the ordinary and proper fashion insofar as I know. So much for the facts of the actual arrest. They also took from my house — at least I gave them a letter which had been referred to in Mr. Allen's office. I had referred to it as establishing the truth of my statement when I told Mr. Allen, Mr. Wright and Mr. Perkins that I had no intention and no desire of urging any man to change his opinions or to act in accordance with opinions which were mine rather than his; that I had and have no quarrel with any man who has thought out the matter seriously and decided that it is his business and his duty to enlist in any branch of the United States Army and do what he considers his duty in that serv ice. In support of that statement I mentioned a letter which I had written to a young woman who had written to me for 17

advice in a certain matter and I gave this letter to Mr. Wright and to Mr. Perkins while they were at my house. I might add that when I first mentioned having written such a letter when in Mr. Allen's office, when I first mentioned that letter Mr. Perkins, I believe it was, said, "Oh that Miss Covington, for and not reported she has a brother who is registered is." physical examination, and we think we know where he That was before I had said anything more than that I had written a letter and received one from a young woman in I had not mentioned her name or the contents of Tacoma. the 'letter. Is it proper at this time to offer in evidence this

-

letter?

THE COURT: You may. THE DEFENDANT: I will

read the letter from Miss Govington in Tacoma. reads letter and her reply, (Witness Defendant's Exhibit "A".) Mr. Wright and Mr. Perkins were entirely satisfied at that time that it was a bona fide copy and one I had written in answer to the one I had received from Grace Covington. That letter which was written in ab solute accordance with my own conviction concerning patriot ism and concerning the duty of conscripts does not in any way contradict or is it in any way opposed to any thing con tained in any of the circulars which have so far been presented in evidence. I should like at this time, your Honor, to read the circulars which have been presented in evidence. »|

THE COURT: You THE DEFENDANT:

mean all of them?

No, I do not mean all of them. That would be a very lengthy and extensive proceeding, since there are several hundred. *

*

*

*

PROSECUTOR'S ADDRESS TO THE JURY "May it please the Court and you Gentlemen of the jury: The labors of a jury are ordinarily most difficult in determin ing from the testimony adduced what the facts, what the truth may be with reference to the facts in the case. You are in telligent men. You know the meaning of the English language. You know the purport of that literature. You will recall such 18

'For the sake of phrases as, 'Be true to your own class.' your class resist; resist your Government when it would play Then if you examine that first circular you will, the tyrant.' notice the subtlety with which that is draw. It starts out' by saying, 'We do not count for resistance, but if you are Then what does it say about; a conscientious objector, resist.' It says that, 'We assume since the conscientious objector? you have not volunteered, that you are a conscientious ob jector.' Then it drops in the poisonous suggestion and tries, to flatter the recipient by appealing to his back-bone, so-called; and his spirit, so-called, saying that the men who have not' been carried away by the emotional appeal of the press or the threats of prosecution are men with backbone, men with spirit, men who can stand up and refuse. Then there is th.0/i suggestipn that the average man will not inform upon the slacker, or the so-called conscientious objector, and tries to stretch the great percentage or the number who are supposed Gentlemen, this is a most serious charge, to have resisted. It is a matter of most serious concern to the Government, and it would be such if these were peace times, if the minds of the public were to be poisoned by a lot of maudlin sophistry and misplaced phrases; but at this time the very life of the nation is at stake. Not only would the circulars attempt to deprive the Government of the force of the men to resist the invasion of the German government with the horrors that gov ernment has thrust upon the world, not only would it en deavor to keep men out of the trenches; but these circulars go further, and they try to poison the minds of the eligible men for service by advising them not to accept any combatant service, advising them not to accept any service that would minister to the dying and wounded and diseased, and that would tend to mitigate the sufferings and hardships that con front the brave spirits who are over there in the trenches, advising them not to aid those who are giving their very lives in defense of our country, advising those who are behind not to give their money nor of their service in the making of arms or supplies or anything by which to prosecute the war. Those things are matters of which the Government is bound to take 19

cognizance. The Government has been lenient, fair, and just in dealing with persons who are conscientiously opposed to war; but when people who live under our flag resort to in trigue and strike at the very foundation of the Government and outrage the feelings of true Americans, then it is time to mete out justice and punish such attempts as are set forth in the distribution of these circulars." *

LOUISE

*

*

*

OLIVEREAU'S ADDRESS

"May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the jury: find myself just a little bit overwhelmed by the oratory you have just listened to. If it takes me a little time to recover you will, I know, be patient. I have explained to yo.u before that this is my first appearance in a Court of Law; not only that, but the circumstances of the case make it difficult to conduct it along the lines which might seem easiest and most I have never been a public propagandist in Seattle, desirable. and to a very limited extent only in any other place; therefore it is impossible for me to produce witnesses or evidence to the effect that it was not my habit to advocate lawbreaking either forcibly or by any other means, to bring about any social change that I might consider desirable. The prosecution has through not been able to establish either its witnesses or by any evidence that it has introduced that I have ever at any time advocated forcible resistance to the draft law. The cir culars themselves speak eloquently in denial of any suggest ions that I would urge conscripts or any one else to make forcible resistance to the draft law. There are suggestions of violence or force contained in some of those circulars. Those suggestions for violence are not from me but are copied from a speech made by Elihu Root, who is lauded as a patri otic and loyal supporter of the administration. What I have I done, and what purposed to do, in the sending out of these circulars was to call attention of drafted men to the fact that they are asked, or rather ordered, to resign their right to think for themselves or the right to judge for themselves what

I

20

was the best good of the country and what that good demanded in their relation to a question on which they had been given no opportunity to vote; the right to dispose of their own lives, and incidentally, of the lives of others dependent upon them or other wise closely connected with them, in the manner which might seem to them to the best advantage of all concerned. A very large part of the matter contained in these circulars is copied from books which may be found upon the shelves of the Public Library. The rest is frank discussion by a Conscientious Ob jector with men who may or may not be like-minded, but who certainly have a right and an interest in knowing the position of such Conscientious Objector. "Because I have not been a public propagandist, and can not refer you to past public utterances on the subject of war and government, and because I was not allowed to develop what my views as an Anarchist really are on these points, in my examination of the jury, it becomes necessary for me now, in order to establish motive, to set forth in some detail just what I do believe, and why, and the circumstances which caused me to write and send these circulars. First, let me briefly very review the facts of the arrest and attendant cir cumstances.

"You have been informed that I went to Mr. Wright's office on the morning of Sept. 7 to regain if possession, possible, of certain books belonging to me personally, which were confiscated in the raid on the I. W. W. office at 40 Union Block, Sept. 5. After some discussion,. Mr. Wright stated it as his opinion that the books would doubtless be returned to me, since the purpose of the raid did not include the holding of any property other than that belonging to the I. W. W. I have not as yet received the books. "The burden of Mr. Wright's questions concerning the cir culars which he showed me in his office, was, how many had been prepared in and mailed from 40 Union Block; whether I had prepared them there; whether the work had been done on typewriters or mimeographs belonging to the organization, etc.; all of which I was able to answer truthfully in the nega 21

•

tive, since nothing of the matter was known to anyone the office, nor had any of the work been done there.

in

"I

had known that the letter to Mr. Leach, in Bellingham, had come to the knowledge of the post office authorities, a very few days after it was written. Allow me to point out that that letter contained one of the alleged seditious circulars, and yet it was delivered to Mr. Leach with the full knowledge Knowing that of its character, by the post office officials. fully government doing, and I was the was aware of what could stop me at any time if they wished, I continued to prepare and send out my circulars, and was not arrested until more than a week after the last lot was mailed. Judging from the persistent effort made by Mr. Wright, Mr. Allen and Mr. Perkins to connect these circulars with the work of the I. W. W. can only conclude that my arrest was delayed until after the raid in the hope that such a connection could be estab lished. "In a discussion, lasting something like two hours, I violence, ob quite frankly stated my views on patriotism, edience to law, and other related subjects, to Mr. Allen, Mr. Wright and Mr. Perkins. My opinions on these matters have never been a secret, though I have not shouted them from the housetops. I have governed my life in accordance with these principles, and never before have they brought me in conflict with the laws of this country. I do not believe they have now brought me in conflict with the law, though they have brought me in conflict with what appears to be, for the time, the gov erning force of the country. Though Mr. Allen stated that he was uncertain whether I was 'a harmless sentimentalist or a dangerous woman, it was decided safest to take no risk, and I was held for arrest. "During the progress of the case you have had some opportunity to learn what the philosophy of Anarchism is. In order to refresh your minds as to the points which have been developed, and to connect those points into a coherent whole, let me make a short statement of what this philosophy

I

actually is. "The word itself is from the Greek word 22

'arche'

,

mean

Anarchy, then ing force, power or violence, and 'an' , without. Anarchism is the is a condition without force or violence. working philosophy of those who desire to bring about a con dition of society in which force and violence will have no place. As a social student, I am convinced that violence breeds viol desires ence, war breeds hatreds and fears and revengeful which lead to other wars; suppression within a nation or a community results in rebellion, insurrection, revolution. A thoughtful survey of the evolution of life, whether from the point of view of physical or social development, leads inevit ably to the conclusion that mutual aid, the communal sense, the social sense, recognition of common interest among indir viduals, is the greatest factor in the world's progress, and Struggle for supremacy between individuals, always has been. between tribes, between nations, is a reactionary, destructive force. It wastes energy; it wastes time; it separates and em bitters the individuals or nations engaging in such struggle; it prevents progress along constructive lines in any direction. "One of the fundamental necessities for progress in any society is perfect freedom of discussion, and another is perfect freedom of experiment, with various forms of social organiza tion, laws, or other measures connected with community or national life. Ideas occur to single individuals oftener than to masses of people; therefore the right of minorities to pror pagate their ideas must be inviolate if we are to have a pro gressive society. In most matters, it is right that the major ity should determine the policy of a nation; in almost none is it safe or advisable, for the peace and progress of the na tion, for the majority to compel the minority to conform to the will of the majority, or to silence the minority or in any way prevent it from attempting to make itself a majority. "These principles are recognized not only by Anarchists as essential to the fullest and most beneficial development of individuals and nations, but our own government is theoretic ally founded on these same principles. The rights of free speech, free assemblage, and free press, are guaranteed to the people of this nation in its Constitution; but we have never had really free speech, nor a really free press, nor real free 23

of assemblage; it has always been limited to 'freedom within the law,' which is not freedom at all. No country with the possible exception of Russia under the old regime, has so sternly silenced minorities and otherwise denied its people these fundamental rights, as the United States. Especi ally since the declaration of war, the suppression has been so complete, so tyrannical, that thousands of people who are most conservative, who would be horrified at being called 'radicals' of any kind, are protesting against the undue sever ity visited upon those who exercise their supposedly constitu tional rights. "The immediate cause of my sending out these circulars was the speech made by Elihu Root, in which he declared that this is no time to think, argue, reason, or do anything but fight. Mr. Root had put into concrete, concentrated form the bill motive underlying all the emotional appeals made by dom

demonstrations, de boards, music, the press, preparedness nunciation of everybody who was anti-war as 'pro-German' , 'Cowards' , 'white rabbits' , etc., — all the hysterical jingoism which so often goes by the name of patriotism, and which results in mob violence and such outrages as I shall show you have occurred in this nation since the beginning of the war. Mr. Root's speech, I repeat, was the immediate cause of my sending out these circulars. I should have infinitely preferred speaking face to face with the men who had been called for war service. That, for various reasons, was impracticable. "I had not money enough to hire a hall and advertise a meeting; I am not accustomed to speaking in halls; there was no doubt in my mind that such a meeting would be prevented or broken up by the police or military authorities; the mails offered the most convenient method of communication avail able. The purpose was not to send these circulars to men actually in the service; the presumption being that such had given the matter sufficient consideration to know what they were doing. I fully expected that if any of the men who re ceived circulars had enlisted or otherwise become actual mem bers of the service, they would understand that the communica tion was not to them, but to drafted men, and disregard it. 24

I considered these circulars improper reading soldiers or sailors; merely that it was not my deliberate tention to send them to such. Not that

for in

"The real issue in this case is, have citizens of these United States the right to confer together on the subject of war, and upon other closely related subjects? Have citizens who have been drafted, or who may be drafted, the right to think of their relation to the war and to the government, and of the relation of this government to other governments of the world, in any terms except those of complete acceptance of orders which may be issued to them by the Government? Are the laws of this country at the present time such as to demand for their obedience that citizens resign rights that we have been accustomed to consider fundamental in a democ racy — namely, the rights of free speech, free press, and free assemblage? Has there been -instituted in this country an autocracy comparable to Russia under the old regime, or Ger many under the militaristic system which we officially protest we hate so much that we (officially) have entered the war to destroy it? "These are the questions you must decide before you can decide whether I have broken the laws of this country or not. If we are to take the words of President Wilson at their face value, it becomes at once apparent that the whole matter of the Conscientious Objector and his course of action is very simple, because, in his proclamation of May 18, explaining the Conscription Act, the President distinctly says that this is in no sense a conscription of the unwilling. Now the C. O. is decidedly unwilling to render military service; therefore, by the terms of the President's explanation of the act, he should be exempt from military service without further discussion of the matter.

"But one who reads carefully must see that these words are not to be taken at their face value, because Mr. Wilson goes on to say that it is rather selection from a nation which has volunteered in mass. Now this nation has not volunteered in mass. This nation has not volunteered at all. If the nation 25

had volunteered, it would never have been necessary to pass a conscription act. "From the beginning of the European war, this nation It has. believed that the has been anti-war in sentiment. — quarrel was a purely European one a struggle for financial supremacy between England and Germany, in its essence — and it has had no wish to take sides, or to become embroiled in President Wilson was elected on an anti-war plat the war. form. The slogan "He kept us out of war" was on every tongue — no, not every tongue. There were those who desired that this country enter the war, and they spoke bitterly against the peace program of Mr. Wilson. There were those who saw that, great as their profit was from munitions and war supplies sold to the allies, a still greater profit could be made if muni tions and war supplies could be sold to our own government also; and it was from this source that the war agitation came. I have no wish to accuse the President unjustly. I do not know whether during all the time he was winning the con fidence of this nation and promising to keep us out of war, he meant to plunge us in, or whether he simply has not been strong enough to resist the pressure brought to bear by the great financial interests of the country; but whatever the cause, the fact remains the same; an unwilling people have been betrayed into a war which they do not believe is a just one.

To answer "What should a nation do in such a case? that, we must consider what a government is. What relation does it bear to the people? Such a government as ours, which we are in the habit of calling a democratic government, is, or should be, a means of expressing and carrying out the national will; that is, the will of the majority of the people who make up the nation. If it does not do that, it is not truly a democracy, but a despotism. As a simple matter of fact, whatever may have been true in the past, this government is not today a democracy. We have a machinery of govern ment which on the surfaee looks representative; we have in fact that machinery so under the control of the financial powers that it is, as President Wilson has himself stated, no In longer a government of the people, but of the interests. 26

his campaign speeches, portions of which have since been pub lished under the title of "The New Freedom", he points out, over and over again, the necessity this country is under, for the people to regain control of their government. "As means to this end, he urges that the people get to gether and discuss government matters among themselves, and make the result of their discussions known to the govern ment. He says he would feel it a loss if he were deprived He says we must re of intelligent criticism of the people. organize our national economic life, even as we once re-organ ized our national political life; and that the way to do it is for the people to take counsel together and form an opinion as to what they want, and make that opinion known. "The Jails of this country today are full of people who have attempted to act upon President Wilson's advice. In this country, against whose 'peace and dignity' I am charged with offending, we have the preposterous spectacle which I will show to you: "Before war was declared, citizens were forbidden to hold peace demonstrations of any kind, such as peace parades; but preparedness parades, organized for the express purpose of working up war sentiment, were given encouragement and pro Later, when the matter of conscription was under tection. consideration, there were many arrests in various parts of the country of people who said publicly that conscription is an undemocratic measure, and urged the people to exert them We have had, here in selves to prevent its becoming a fact. Seattle, in the Wells-Sadler-et al case, an example of the treat ment accorded people who exercised their rights of free speech, not even in criticism of an existing law, but in criticism of a thing which they saw was in danger of being forced upon this country as a law, and which they believed was contrary to the fundamental principles of our Constitution.

"We have had the spectacle of a great representative body the people, namely, the People's Council for Democracy and Terms of Peace, hustled about over the country from one city to another, from one state to another, its speakers arrested for inciting to riot and advocating violence, when in fact they of

27

had done neither the one nor the other; threatened in Hudson by a mob; in Fargo by the soldiers, though the Governor of Dakota wished to extend the Council his protection; in Chicago given such protection as the mayor could give, but compelled to disperse hastily in order to escape government suppression. Local meetings have fared no better. Scott Nearing, eminent economist, arrested before he had even a chance to speak in Duluth; in Oakland the Dist. Attorney organizing college youths to drown Mr. Nearing's speech in a flood of 'patriotic' songs! We have the spectacle of men being arrested for read ing the Declaration of Independence upon the street corners; for circulating quotations from the Bible; for placing stickers upon enlistment posts; for a thousand trivial acts; for nothing at all. "Consider for a moment the labor situation in these United States during the past year. Forty corporations have made a net profit of $677,298,729 out of the war during the year 1916. That is not their total net profit; that is merely the amount by which their profit during the year 1916 is greater than their average profit during the three preceding years. Place opposite this fact the other fact that there have been serious strikes and other labor troubles in practically every great industry in the United States during the last year. When war was declared, there was a demand made by many corporations that all labor legislation be set aside during the period of the war, in order that women and children might be employed in occupations now closed to them, and also in order

that employees might be worked an unlimited number of hours. There have been some voluntary advances in wages; but in no case has that advance been commensurate with the advanced cost of living. All attempts on the part of the workers them selves to obtain advances in wages, have been met with most bitter opposition on the part of employers. All attempts to secure better working conditions or shorter hours have also been bitterly opposed. The workers have been told that it was unpatriotic for them to desire more money or more leisure during war time. Nor has the opposition of employers con fined itself to peaceful, non-violent methods. We have had 28

i

forcible deportations, as in Bisbee, Arizona, where some 1500 men, strikers and sympathizers and even some who might be classified as innocent bystanders, having no particular knowledge of or interest in the issue involved, were taken from their homes and left foodless, shelterless and comfortless in the desert. We have had, very close to home, and at an earlier period, an even more serious infraction of the laws and lib erties of the people on the part of the employers; I mean the tragic incident of the 'Verona,' the ship on which at least five men were killed by officers who were proved to be absolutely under the control of the Lumbermen of the Northwest. We have had the Mooney case, in San Francisco, which is funda mentally a labor case, although the pretext upon which Mooney and his co-defendants were arrested was a bomb which ex ploded in the Preparedness parade — a crime terrible indeed, but utterly opposed to the character and purposes of the men arrested therefor. We have had the deliberate, cold-blooded murder of Frank Little in Butte, for his activities in connection with the copper strike. We have had the halls and offices of the I. W. W. in all the principal cities of the U. S. raided, its property confiscated, its members jailed, often without any charge whatsoever being made against them. There are sev eral instances of members being held 'for investigation' for as long as three months. to the organization have been arrested while going peaceably about their business over Highly imaginative fables have been circulated the country. to the effect that this organization had for its purpose this year the entire destruction of crops and other property. They have been accused of burning forests, in order to interfere with the production of war supplies. None of these charges has ever been substantiated, but the arrests go merrily on. The popular mind is still being poisoned against that organiza tion by being told that it is a German spy institution; that it seeks to overthrow government and institute 'anarchy'; and the latest is that it is engaged in the illicit manufacture and sale of liquor and is a part of the great vice trust which is such a menace to the conscript army of the United States.

"Men suspected of belonging

29

"What has been the attitude of the government during all these troubles ? Has it responded to the calls for investiga tion and relief from the reign of terror instituted by the em ployers and the 'patriots' who have wrought such a havoc among them ? What has the government done ? The mur derers of the Everett victims walk free; so far as I know no investigation has been made of the Butte affair except the one made by Miss Rankin, and it has had no results; the Phelps-Dodge

Company

may

continue

to

censor

telegrams

without fear of anything more serious than a reprimand from the government; government investigation of the Mooney case has had to be forced by protests from Russia; the government mediator in the shipyard strike adjusts wages so that they will be lower than before the strike, and gives the telephone girls so extremely small an increase in the beggarly wage they now receive that, here in Seattle at least, the offer is indignantly spurned. Consider that we have had also during the past summer certain race riots in which perpetrated quite as atricities were horrible as any thing of which Germany has been guilty. Consider also that in this democratic country millions of women are denied so simple a democratic right as the ballot, and that women have been jailed and subjected to personal indignity and the bodily violence of forcible feeding for demanding the right to vote. Consider also that other women have been jailed and similarly treated for advocating that women should have the right of voluntary motherhood, and for teaching the women of the very poor how to lessen their misery and the misery of the children they already have, by limiting the size of their fam ilies. Consider that 17 men were recently lynched in Tulsa for no other crime than that they belonged to an unpopular Consider that only the other day, in Mon labor organization. tana, a secretary of this same organization was bastinadoed and two other members of the same organization hung by Other lynchings have the neck until they lost consciousness. been advocated as a necessary and patriotic measure. Con sider the outrageous treatment of the Rev. Mr. Biglow; the frenzied discharging of German College professors; the un30

utterable silly prejudice against every thing German. Consider these things, and then decide whether the condition of peace and dignity in these United States has been, or is, such that it can be offended or endangered by urging men to think of their duty to their country and their relation to a government which has so far shown itself unable, or unwilling, to safe guard its citizens against mob violence and other unlawful interference. The life of citizens in these States today is at the mercy of war-mad fanatics. We, who have boasted of being the land of the "free and the home of the brave, must, if we would preserve our lives and remain out of jail, seal our lips and lay our pens aside and submit to seeing our dearest and most cherished ideals of freedom and human dignity dragged through the blood and dust of war for the financial profit of those who keep us economically, mentally and spiritually No, the United States Government today is not a enslaved. means for expressing the will of the people of the nation. Yet, even in the face of these terrible facts, I have never counseled any man to forcibly resist the government in any way whatsoever. I have understood that such a condition as now obtains in the relations between this people and the Gov ernment of the United States, might breed violence. I have feared it, because I have believed, and now believe, that anything we as a people might gain by forcible overthrow of the exist ing government, would be less, and less enduring, than the results to be obtained by persistent, organized efforts to bring about the great economic and the social changes which natur ally accompany economic changes, through means not involv ing violence.

"I

was opposed to military preparedness in this country I understand that preparedness for war of warbreeds war. If a nation learns to think in terms preparedness, it is extremely unlikely that that nation will be able to see clearly that there are other ways of settling national difficulties than by wars. Furthermore, wars do not really settle anything. We are fond of saying that we gained our freedom from Great Britain by a war; but we are not, and have never been, quite free from Great Britain. Canada, which

for the reason that

31

never went to war with the mother country, has been quite as independent as we; and today, as the ally of Great Britain, we certainly cannot claim freedom from her powerful influence. We also tell ourselves, and teach our children, that chattel slavery was abolished in this nation by means of a war. But the fact is that chattel slavery was becoming economically im possible in this country, and would have soon disappeared, war or no war. And even though we had gained perfect freedom from England, and even though we could have abolished chattel slavery only by a war, of what avail either of these accomplish ments unless we, bettered the condition of the nation thereby? During the days of chattel slavery, one portion of the population was enslaved. Today practically the whole nation is in a condition of economic slavery, and, since the declaration of war, Plunged into war in a condition of military slavery as well. against our wills, we are compelled to support that war with every penny we spend, with every stroke of work we do, almost, I might say, with every breath we draw. Our every attempt to free ourselves from this slavery is met with violence often of the most extreme character. "Gentlemen of the Jury, you have heard read a circular in which patriotic duty was analyzed, and the good of the country placed above obedience to its laws. This, says the prosecution, is treason, disloyalty, 'anarchy.' It is not treason to the best good of the people, whatever it may be to the established government. When the government deliberately, as in this case of declaring war upon Germany, violated the will of the nation; when there is no provision made for the people to make their opinion known officially — as, for instance, by a referendum vote— when the necessity is urgent for making that opinion known, lest irrepr.iable damage be done, what course is left except for citizens to remain loyal to the prin ciples of freedom and democracy for the perpetuation of which this nation is supposed to have been founded, even though it be at the expense of breaking a law in the making of which tha people had no part? Is there anything sacred about "e.w, just because it is law? Is there no place in this free country for those citizens who can not act as the lawmakers would 32

have them act, without violating their own consciences? Can it ever be to the best interest of any nation that its citizens should resign their freedom of conscience? I think not.

"There are thousands,

millions, of citizens in this country whose conception of patriotism, of loyalty, immeasur yes,

ably transcends mere obedience to law. These citizens have come to realize the interdependence of all nations. No nation can exist unto itself alone. Just as the family conserves the interests of its members, just as the nation conserves, or should conserve, the interests of the States and communities of which the nation consists, so a world-state, a recognition on the part of all the peoples of all countries of common interest, is ne cessary to conserve the best interests of separate nations. Wars do not conduce to a furtherance or early realization of such a world-state. Industry today is international; art, music, culture, all phases of education, are international; the interests of the workers of all the world are identical, and the interests of all owners of industry, the financial powers, in all countries, is directly opposed to the interests of those workers. An early realization of a world state can be possible only when these facts are known and understood, and the old idea of national antagonism abandoned. Germany and England today are struggling for industrial supremacy. The workers of Germany and the workers of England will not be relatively much affected, no matter which country is victorious. The United States has entered the war on behalf of England, France, and the other allied powers, but the workers of the United States will not be much benefited by the war, no matter who may be victorious. "Wars tend to intensify national hatreds to a high degree. We hear much of this war as the last war — the war which will bring the people of the world together in love and amity. I have not much faith in the love and amity the German people and the French people and the English will have for each other when this war is over. It does not make us love our enemies to have those enemies murder our brothers and fathers, ravage our wives and sisters and daughters, and lay waste our homes. These things are being done on both sides-. Germany has no 33

doubt perpetrated atrocities; so has every nation that ever went to war. That is the nature of war. It is a horrible In India, not so long ago, British soldiers tossed intoxication. infants into the air and caught them on their bayonets. It is not that horrible people make war, but that war makes people horrible, that I find objectionable. I do not know how American soldiers may conduct themselves in this regard, but when I recall the atrocities perpetrated in these States, not upon battle fields, but in supposedly peaceful communities, I am not at all sure we shall not have some atrocities to answer for, equally with Germany.

"I

believe that the United States has thrown away the greatest opportunity to make the world safe for democracy that any nation has ever had. To America have come the peoples of all the earth; believing it to be a land of equal opportunity, where the freedom of which they had dreamed was an actuality. America has been aptly called the melting pot of the nations; a place where the various races were to be fused, and out of which was to come an understanding nation — a people unique in the history of the world, whose country a should be, not like the old countries, a Fatherland, but — Brotherlandits people alone of all the peoples of the earth capable of understanding and loving all other nations, capable of using all that was good in the accomplishments and insti tutions of other nations, able and ready to lend aid whenever trouble arose between other nations; able because of its deep understanding, and ready because it would realize that only by safeguarding the rights and interests of each nation could the best good of all be secured. Practically unlimited resources, a clear field, untrammelled by tradition, immigrants in whom the love of liberty and the desire for a world-nation was strong — all these we had, and we have not used them wisely enough to avoid the horrible degradation and slavery into which we have fallen today. "Perhaps the most horrible thing about it all is that the the great mass of citizens do not really know just where trouble lies. They are well-meaning, they wish to be free, and wish others to be free; but they do not know who it is 34

that has placed the chains upon us. Many of them do not They have been so thorough even know that we are in chains. authority, and to believe for constituted taught reverence ly whatever is told them by those in power, that they actually believe it is necessary, in order to be a loyal American citizen, to be the enemy of the rest of the world if ordered to do so by a few people whom we have allowed to gain control of the I am an American citizen, and I love this country. government. But I do not and can not love it to the exclusion of other To me England, which I never countries from my affections.

saw, but whose poets and scientists I know and love and re cognize my indebtedness and the indebtedness of the world to, is as dear to me as Florida, which I also never saw, but also love whose culture and whose scientific attainments music, German myself indebted to. German science, and know admiration and German industrial efficiency, command my whom people I have known average respect, and those German neither better nor worse than those of other nationalities. France, from which country my parents came, has contributed her art, music, science, her gaiety, her splendid revolutionary spirit, to enrich my life and the lives of us all. Russia — ah, Russia is today a glorious figure in the world, advancing with proud and confident step toward the rising sun of freedom, her voice lifted in the most wonderful song ever heard during the ages. I love Russia as if she were my mother country, yet I have never seen Russia, and have known but a few of her people. I might continue thus, naming every country of the globe; each has contributed something indispensable to the life of our nation, and to the life of all the other nations. And just as I love each of these countries, so I hate in each of these countries the forces that keep them from attaining the perfect state of freedom of which all peoples in all stages of the world's history have dreamed. I hate the economic system which decrees that millions shall toil for a bare living while the few accumulate wealth and power which destroys them even while they struggle still further to oppress the multitudes for their own so-called benefit; I hate the stupidity of the masses, which keeps them enslaved not only to their

I

85

economic masters, but to Custom, that cruellest and most ex acting tyrant of all — that tyrant which blinds their eyes to the facts of their mental, moral and spiritual slavery as well as to their economic slavery. These things I hate, and against these things I must direct my force and energy, such as it is, so long as I live. If to do this is to be disloyal to America, then the greater must be preferred above the less. I have no desire to maintain my citizenship in these United States if to do so I must relinquish my citizenship in the Human

Family. "Finally, it does not make an atom of difference whether you decide that I am innocent of any violation of the law or guilty of a crime. America will continue to be a country without dignity, without peace, and an offe»se to human kind, just as long as the present policy of tyrannical oppression and suppression is continued. So long as the people are denied the right to take counsel together, the right to make their

wants and desires known to the governing bodies they elect, and the right to demand that those governing bodies act in accordance with the wants and desires of the people who elect them; so long as hysteria is our motive force rather than reason; so long as tyranny and force are used against the many for the aggrandizement of the few— just so long will America be a proper subject for scorn and abhorrence with all thinking people, unless their pity for its abjectness is so great that they cannot hate it.

"And regardless of what your decision with regard to me may be, the principles for which I stand, the ideas which I have in a very limited way advocated, the work which I have tried to further, will be carried on, by more and more people, with a greater intensity and effectiveness; will those in power Will they never learn that ideas can not be imprisoned? never learn that, on the contrary, a vital idea only grows the faster when its suppression is attempted ? It has been argued that the tremendous force and vitality of the Russian Rev olutionary Movement was due to the fact that all propaganda Russians have said to me had to be carried on secretly. recently, now begins to be some hope for a real revolutionary 36

'Now, when people are denied the movement in this country. right to think, now at last will they insist upon doing so.' I The people of America believe they are right in this prophecy. are awakening as never before. They have heard the first notes of the great hymn of freedom — and it is not a battle song. They are seeing clearly at last, that to be free means something more than the Revolutionary Fathers were even capable of imagining much less incorporating into the Con stitution by which our liberties are supposed to be guaranteed They are seeing, these people of the United to us today. States, and the people of all the rest of the world are seeing it too, that there can be no equality, no liberty, no fraternity, so long as there is economic inequality, so long as any individual or group of individuals has the power to determine the terms upon which other individuals may live. Political government is seen to be an empty shell, which already lost its once-living tenant, political freedom. Industrial Government has moved into the empty tenement, and the iron hand of industrial power, of financial power, is our present ruling force. The only way in which the people can regain control of their government, the only way in which

has

they can make the government democratic, is to gain owner ship and control of the industries. Our government will then continue to be an industrial government; but instead of being controlled by a small group of people for their own advantage, it will be the expression of the necessities and desires of the whole people. None of us can forecast exactly the final form of that industrial government; it is hardly possible that we shall choose to retain the cumbersome, expensive, inefficient machinery of political government which today serves only as a disguise for the actual governing body of the nation. But of this we may be sure: that government will serve the best in terests of the whole nation, and that without prejudice to other nations. There is a sense in which this is all aside from the — question before you namely, whether I did or did not advocate forcible resistance to the draft law, and whether in so doing I violated the postal laws. But I repeat that the real question 37

at issue is not whether I did or did not advocate forcible resistance — the circulars show plainly that I did nothing of the kind — but whether it is unlawful to urge men to think on the most serious subject which can possibly affect their lives. With the contents of those circulars carefully borne in mind, and considering the fact that the prosecution has failed to prove any advocacy of force by me, it appears impossible to me that you should return any verdict except one of 'not However, be that as it may, I have this further to guilty.' say, and

I

am done:

"The present war will settle nothing. The struggle for industrial supremacy will go on after this war in Europe is over; it will be settled by superior industrial efficiency, and It industrial efficiency cannot be settled by force of arms. must be settled by the application of intelligence to the needs and resources of the country, and by the conditions of the Ultimately, the highest degree of efficiency will be market. seen to be incompatible with production for profit. "Then production for profit will cease, and production for use take its place. Competition between nations will likewise cease. The greatest of all causes for war will be eliminated. The best brains of all nations will be set free by this termi nation of the economic struggle, for labors of science, art, and culture of all sorts. Then we may perhaps attain to a civiliza tion of which mankind need not be ashamed. "These things will go on, whether I am in prison or out of it. They will go on, even though every Conscientious Ob jector, every pacifist, every I. W. W. and every member of any other union who endeavors to secure better conditions for the workers and freer atmosphere for thought and personal life, be thrown into jail. In a great world movement like this, the individual is of little importance; it is the propagation And all who are thus thrown of the idea which is important. loving humanity and working for of into prison for the crime its emancipation, will know that they are in good company; to them there will come the spirits and the memory of not only our own Revolutionary forefathers, and the Abolitionists, breakers of the laws of their times, but of all the great host of 88

free-souled thinkers of all ages, from Jesus to Frank Littlerevolutionists from England, France, Russia — there is no lack of good company for those whom we imprison today. And when they look out — if indeed they can see out of their prisons to where the 'free' citizens go their ways to and fro, they will not envy those outside knowing that a freedom of body which can be secured only by enslavement of the spirit is not Knowing, too, that every worker jailed means worth having. a quickening of the spirit in those outside, and increased de termination to redouble our efforts to bring about the reality of freedom of which the world has dreamed from the beginning, and which now, in spite of the horrible nightmare of war into which we are plunged, seems on the verge of realization."

CLOSING ADDRESS OF PROSECUTING

ATTORNEY

"May it please the Court and you Gentlemen of the jury: you, as jurors, are not concerned with the definition of the term 'anarchy' or the real philosophy embraced in that term. You are not concerned even with the policy of the law with which this defendant is charged with violating. His Honor will so instruct you, that you are not concerned with the policy of the law as to its wisdom or unwisdom. His Honor will also instruct you with reference to the question of free speech. You have had a very striking example .just presented to you of the freedom and license of speech which an easy going gov People may discuss matters, ernment accords to its citizens. but there is a point at which discussion ceases to be legal or profitable. When that discussion takes the form of an oral act which breaks the law, which advocates or advises a breach of the law, contrary to the provisions of the statute, then it becomes an unlawful act. You take the circulars and examine They speak for themselves. those. The defendant much emphasizes and stresses the contention that these circulars do not advocate forcible resistance. It is not necessary that the precise method of force or the weapons to be employed or the time or place of employment of force should be set forth in a circular in order for it to come within that quality of 39

literature which would be considered as advocating force. These circulars if they are of a tendency, — and we contend that they are — to lead to force or conflict with the constituted authorities, they preach resistance and refusal of duty; and even though they do not prescribe the particular weapon, they can truly and legally be said to advocate force. But it is not essential, in order to substantiate the charge here, that those circulars should advocate force. If the circulars or any matter distributed through the mails advocates force, — forcible resistance to a law, — that it is within the terms denounced by the statute; but it is not an essential element. That advocacy of forcible resistance might be absent, and yet the circulars be a violation and breach of the law; because the law says, 'whoever shall cause or attempt to cause disloyalty.' Disloyalty might or might not be forcible. The law says, 'Whoever shall cause or attempt to cause refusal of duty.' Refusal of duty might be either with or without force. So that advocacy of forcible resistance might be present, and if present would be a violation of the statute; but it is not an essential element. Its absence would not keep it from being a violation of the statute. It is rather a remarkable situation that the sending of these anonymous circulars would constitute a conferring together. How would the recipient find out who How could the sender was the other party in the conference? If of those circulars get the benefit of the recipient's ideas? you believe in the sacredness of law, if you believe in law enforcement,

then there is only one conclusion can arrive; and that is a verdict of guilty. #

*

*

at which

you

*

THE COURT'S CHARGE The issue in this case is raised "Gentlemen of the Jury: returned by the grand jury, which has been by the indictment A count in an and which consists of nine different counts. offense, or it separate of a is a statement simply indictment may be a statement of the same offense in a different way. This indictment is not any evidence in this case of the guilt This is the first opportunity the defendant of the defendant. 4Q

has had to appear before the court and present her side of this controversy. You can take it with you to the jury room, but not to be considered as evidence; but simply to read and determine and ascertain just what the charge is.

"You, Gentlemen of the Jury, have been accepted by both as persons who are free from any preconceived notions of this issue and qualified to pass impartially upon the issue which is presented here. I have no doubt that you will elimin ate from your minds every element which would have a ten dency to detract from the issue, and will concentrate your thought alone upon the determination to do justice and right, as your quickened conscience, aroused by the serious duty before you, may dictate your every thought and effort being divorced from passion, sympathy or sense of relation to things which might detract your thought from- the real issue in this case, and that is the guilt or innocence of the defendant; and by fair, honest and conscientious consideration conclude, so that the Government and the defendant may feel that a fair and honest consideration has been given to the matter in hand. sides

"Some emphasis has been placed in argument with relation to conditions in the world now, and the relation of the United Ordinarily I States to the other governments of the world. say that think I should matter; refer to but I would not the we are at war now. The time for a discussion of the merits of the war is past. There are only two sides to the war. One side is in favor of the United States; the other side is in favor Congress has declared the of the enemies of this country. policy of this government, and no person may say or do anything which might delay or hamper the Government in the execution of the provisions of the law in carrying out that policy. Whether the law is a good law is not the issue. The issue now is whether the law which Congress has passed has That is why you have been empaneled. The been violated. responsibility of finding what the facts are rests solely upon you, and there is no appeal from your conclusion as to the facts by either of the parties to this trial. I merely suggest that so that you may be impressed with the responsibility which rests upon you, and the seriousness of the duty that 41

is before you.

You will therefore pass upon the facts in this

case in a fair, honest and conscientious manner so that justice may be done, realizing that the Government does not want any innocent person convicted, but that the Government does not want any person when he has been proven guilty beyond every So that is just the matter before reasonable doubt to escape. you. *

*

*

*

In considering the testimony in this case, you will un derstand, of course, that you have nothing to do with the provi sions of the law. The law is enacted by Congress, the law making body; and so long as the law has been enacted and is upon the statute book, it is the duty of the courts and juries to enforce it. Personally, I believe the law to be a wholesome law; but whether it is or not, it is our duty, as stated here, to enforce it. The issue here is not whether the law is good or bad, but whether the defendant violated the law as enacted. The Congress also has a right to regulate what matters shall and to punish be carried through the United States mails persons for violating such provisions. In this case your at tention will be entirely devoted to the question of whether the effect of this literature was an attempt to cause insubordi nation, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval forces of the United States, and whether the matter mailed urged treason, insurrection, or forcible resistance to the laws of the United States as charged in the indictment. You will take into consideration in this case all of the litera ture which has been admitted. Careful consideration should be given to it. See what the effect would be on the minds of individuals selected for service, bearing in mind the present condition and status of the world relations in regard to the war, the participation of the United States therein, and the people making up this population and reached or sought to be reached by the defendant, and from all the testimony which is before you determine what the effect would be. You are instructed that all persons are free to express their views on all public questions so long as they are actuated by honest purposes, and not for the purpose of obstructing 42

the execution of the laws, of the United States. But no person has the right to convert the liberty of free speech a into carry license, or to it to a point where it interferes with the due execution of the law; where such opposition is not honest, and is not limited to the expression of views, but is manifested by an attempt to arouse others to insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny or to treason, insurrection of forcible resistance to the enforcement of the laws. A person may say or do anything not in itself unlawful to prevent the passage of a law, or. to secure the repeal of one already passed, but after a law is passed it is every person's duty to conform his acts in accord ance with the provisions of the law, and a person may not, for the purpose of ci eating sentiment against the wisdom of the law, do anything with intent to procure a violation of the law by force, or attempt insubordination, disloyalty or mutiny in his advocacy of its unwisdom or for the purpose of repair." *

*

*

*

COPY OF DEFENDANT'S EXHIBIT "A" READ TO THE JURY BY MISS OLIVEREAU AND HER ONLY CHARACTER WITNESS Tacoma, Wash., August 31, 1917.

Miss Louise Olivereau, 3731 14th

Avenue

Northeast,

Seattle, Wash.

Dear Miss Olivereau:

I am writing you this confidential letter, having obtained your name and address from a friend who assures me I can place full confidence in you and that you would be able to advise me what to do in my present predicament. I

am employed in an office with a professional man here in Tacoma and have a good position. I live with my parents, our family consisting of father, mother, younger sister, and a brother twenty-four years of age. We were always happy Brother register and contented until this horrible war started. 48

He does not ordered up for examination. want to go to war, although father insists that it is his pa triotic duty to his country. Mother is almost heart broken, and to avoid having brother go to war she has prevailed on him to evade presenting himself for examination. He is now in hiding, or the same thing, he has left Tacoma and is going under an assumed name. Nobody knows where he is except mother and I. Father says that if he finds out the where abouts of brother he will turn him over to the federal author ities. ed and has been

I will

state that I have always been taught reverence to the flag and to be patriotic, and I believe we should all make great sacrifices to win the war. believe it to be our patriotic duty. Were I a man I feel sure I would enlist and render all the aid I could to the Government. As it is I am doing my bit. I have donated Now, to the Red Cross and bought a fifty dollar liberty bond. Miss Olivereau, my question is, should I tell father where my brother is. I am in correspondence with my brother, who has given up a good position and left here in order to escape enlistment.

I

I

have a letter from him in which he asksxmy advice as I have been assured to whether he should give himself up. that if he will give himself up at once he will not be punished for trying to evade conscription but will have to enlist provided he passes the examination. There is absolutely no question but what he would be certified for service as he is a fine speci men of physical manhood and has no grounds for exemption. For my own protection I will not give you my true name but if you will kindly address me as Miss Grace N. Covington General Delivery, Tacoma, Wash.; I will get your letter. What should I do?

Miss Grace N. Covington

44

Tacoma, Wash,

ANSWER 4406 Second Avenue

Seattle, Wash; Sept.

Northeast

1, 1917.

Miss Grace Covington, General Delivery, Tacoma, Wash. Dear Madam: Your curious letter just received. I am at a loss to know why you should seek advice from a stranger upon such a question as that which you present. I am further at a loss to understand how you expect me to believe that you have confidence in me when you did not give me your real name. But we will let that pass and I will give you my honest opinion for what it is worth, concerning the matter contained in your letter. , Entirely aside from the question of patriotism, it seems to me that personal honor demands that we do not betray the confidence of others. You will have to decide for yourself whether you should advise your brother to surrender himself, but certainly you have not the right to tell any one where he is, any more than if you had heard of his whereabouts accident In other words, you have no moral right to become his ally. conscience, and force him to surrender by informing upon him. That, as I say, is entirely apart from any question of patriotic duty. . Patriotism never demands that we should violate the fundamentals of honor and decency in our relations with other human beings. But if you believe the war a just one, if you believe it is the duty of men and women to sacrifice themselves to the fullest extent or to any extent, — in order to aid the Government in the prosecution of this war, then it seems to me there is but one sort of advice that you can give your brother. The fact that it will break your mother's heart, and perhaps your own as well, if he loses his life or suffers a worse fate, should not be allowed to prevent your urging him to do his duty. If his refusal to go to war were based on principle, — if he were a "conscientious objector," you would still have a right to try to argue him out of his position; but it appears from 45

your letter that such is not the case, and that he is in hiding merely to save his skin and your mother's pain. That is by cowardly, but you cannot make him brave informing upon him; write him your opinion and let the decision rest upon

himself.

I hope you will be satisfied with the contents of this letter. The "Tower Lady" or "Cynthia Grey" would probably have given you equally good advice, and it is their business, not really mine at all. However, if what I have said will make you realize the necessity of relying on the support of your own backbone, I shall be glad. Very truly yours, Louise Olivereau. CIRCULAR SENT OUT BY LOUISE OLIVEREAU TO DRAFTED MEN

Fellow-Conscript : — You have, like thousands more of us, been first draft. The presumption is, since you did that you do not desire to engage in warfare. grounds you base your objections, whether those or principle, we believe you will be interested in we, who are conscientious

drawn on the not volunteer, On whatever of expediency

knowing what

objectors, have to say to you.

Let us first assume that you, like the vast majority of people in this country before war was declared, were opposed to the war and especially to any participation therein by the U. S. You heard, and read, and believed that Wall Street, the money power of the country, wanted war. The financial interest of munition makers, food speculators and others who Their could make a profit out of war, was perfectly apparent. cry for profits was clearly to be heard above the mouthing of liberty,' such phrases as "America, the guardian of human "Making the world safe for democracy" and the like. Before war was declared, we all felt that it was our duty to avoid war —that it was wrong in principle as well as destructive in accomplishment. Once war was declared, however, it seemed to many people that their duty was to "stand behind the president" and make 46

In other words, the war a victorious one for this nation. ' since the financial masters of the nation, greedy for money and power unlimited, have succeeded in plunging the country into war against its will, it is our patriotic duty to help them to as great a success and benefit as possible, even at the ex pense of our "lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Ex cuse me, I know it does not sound sensible put that way, but is it not just really what our going to war against our con victions means? Are we not traitors, not only to ourselves but also to our country, when we go to war in the justice of which we do not believe? — America is popularly supposed to be the great exponent of human freedom. If she is or has been so, surely, at the present time she is a traitor to herself and to us who have worked to establish and maintain human liberties.

,

I know it is commonly held to be a higher and more heroic form of patriotism to fight for one's country against one's Doubtless own convictions than if there is no such conflict. and you were taught in school, as I was, that Cornwallis Robert E. Lee were greater heroes and more admirable pa triots than other generals and fighters because against their own belief in what was right, they "served" their country. Is that really patriotism at all?

Is such a submissive,

can we self -suppressing course of action the best service render our country? The present war is clearly a war for financial profit and power, unmistakably forced upon the nation by a small minority. The necessity of raising an army by conscription, and the lavish promises of impossible benefits to be derived by entering the service are proof positive of this. The great mass of men in this nation believe the war to be wrong. Shall we then allow ourselves to be used, not only to our own destruction, hut to the unspeakable degradation of the nation as a whole ? Shall we allow the deliberately calculated goadings of those who will reap benefit from the war, or the unthinking contempt and ridicule of the mob, or even the bitter scorn and deep grief of those whom we love and who love us, but do not think as we do concerning war — shall we allow these things to make us traitors to ourselves and to what we -

47

conceive the best good of our country — yes, of that greater nation which is humanity? When the epithets "traitor" and "slacker" are hurled at us, we can remain calm, knowing that we have never owed any allegiance to the powers which have plunged us into war, and therefore we cannot be traitors to them. "Slackers" in the true sense we shall only be, if we have not the courage to go forward, steadily and firmly refus ing to be drawn aside from the path marked out by our own deep-rooted principles and convictions. "Cowards" no one but a fool will call us, since we know1 that by refusing to be tools for the attainment of ends opposed to our deepest beliefs, we shall lay ourselves open to imprisonment and torture such as has been the lot of conscientious objectors in Europe. There will be none of the enthusiasm and popular approval which makes the dangers incurred in actual warfare easier to bear, and the performance of duty in our case therefore requires a higher degree of courage than action on the battle front. But we are many, and public sentiment is more with us than most of us imagine. Let us be firm, stating our grounds for exemption simply and clearly, without evasion, as "conscientious objection to war," and who knows the magnitude of the thing we together shall be able to do? My next letter will deal with alternate service.

CONSCIENTIOUS *

*

*

OBJECTORS.

*

THE QUESTION OF ALTERNATE SERVICE One of the great questions in a time like this, to the con In scientious objector, is the question of alternate service. very is England, where the fate of the conscientious objector hard, every man who claims exemption on the grounds of conscientious scruples, whether religious or political, social and economic, is offered alternate service in some other branch of the national service, such as the non-combatant hospital force, clerical work in the government offices, or some kind of labor in the industrial field. To every C. O. comes the question or thought "Why not?" Well, I am going to tell you why I could not accept alternate service. 48

.

am opposed to all war. I will neither kill nor help to kill my fellowman. I hold that every man's life is sacred to I will not take it from him. Nor will I supply the himself. gun with which my brother is to take the life of another man. To me it is as wrong to help in the destruction of life as it is to destroy life. It is only a difference of degree, this difference between handling the gun in the trenches and manufacturing those same guns in the factory for use in the trenches, or to serve in the hospitals making the ghastly work of war less ghastly. It seems to me that to work in the shops of the nation so as to let others out is equally as bad.

I

Let us take these considerations

one

at a time, and see

how they are related. As to going to the trenches, that, to the C. O., is impossible. He is therefore offered service in the hospital corps. Now it becomes his duty to go (if he accepts this service) to the field and take those men who have been ruined by a thing he hates, and repair them so that as soon as possible, they may be returned to the line. Is it within his scruples to do this? I think not. He can reflect that if hospital done, the war would become so were no work there If, instead of half the horrible that none could endure it. wounded being saved every man who received a wound should die, the governments of the world would soon see this whole business of war is too horrible to be pursued. Therefore, as a conscientious objector, hating all war, and seeking to drive it from the world, our best aims can better be served by refusal to do hospital work, as well as by refusing straight service in the combatant forces.

As to the acceptance of work in arsenals and other manu of weapons and munitions, that is equally as abhorent as war. In fact I regard it as worse for the simple reason that it shows a willingness to aid in war so long as one's own skin is fairly safe. I have more respect for the C. 0. who backs down and goes to the trenches than for him who accepts this other service. The former is at least risking his life, while the latter seems to be hiding only from extra hazardous service. This same applies to work in the Quartermasters Department of the army, and in those factories where clothing factories

4y

and such things are made by conscripts. duty of C. O's. to refuse this service.

It

seems

to me the

Obviously, then, the affair is reduced to service in some other branch of national industry. Yet, in other branches of the nation's industries \vc find the same conditions. In what ever work you are engaged, in the modem nation, during war, you are aiding the combatant forces. Therefore you are not within your scruples as C. O.'s in accepting ANY alternate service. There is but one way out. That way is refusal to be conscripted. Claim your right as a free man — not as a free citizen — to do as your own conscience directs. No kind of alternate service is possible. In my opinion there are but two possible ways. Either freedom from all government coercion, or PRISON. I will accept either of these, but neither combat ant service nor non-combatant service are acceptable to me when my rights as a free man are abridged to the extent of being called to fight for a thing which I have no desire My ambition is for a cessation of government. to defend. Shall I seek then to support a government in trying to render I itself more solid, more autocratic and more oppressive? shall not. conspiracy. The "Star" says this must be a German Curious how little imagination the "Star" has — or any of the other capitalist papers, for that matter. Can they not conceive the possibility of any one but a German wanting to speak to the drafted men upon the vital subject of their relation to the Government and the war? We are neither pro-German nor pro- Ally; we are merely anti-war. Our blood is American blood, as it happens; no better and no worse than if it were German, French or Chinese. And we are so far from being financed by German funds that this is probably the last com munication we shall be able to send out — and we have not been able to reach all the drafted men by a good many. Now in case you are like the "Star" and think we are a plot, we are Surely that is going to advise you to go to the Public Library.

not an un-American thing to do — and read a few interesting 50

things which you will find there. First, tho, read this editorial from the Post-Intelligencer of recent date: —

"To stimulate the recruiting of British subjects in the United States a battalion of Canadian Highlanders recently visited Chicago and New York and other eastern cities, and with their kilts, plaids and bonnets and the inspiring music of the pipes, created unexpected enthusiasm for the war among the crowds of Americans that lined the streets and cheered their progress. "There is something in the music of the pipes that has inspired men in all generations. Modern war is a cold blooded and mechanical affair. The soft pedal has been applied to music in war; there is no longer the urge of the fife and drum or the blare of the horn. Regiments no longer dash madly at the enemy led by the colonel with his flashing sword; the 'up men, and at 'em!' personally conducted system is outworn. The barrage fire now precedes and covers an assault: 'soldiers climb leisurely out of the trenches and proceed s,lowly, accord ing to schedule, toward the enemy; when they arrive the trenches have already been largely cleared by the fire of the great guns and perhaps flattened out; there may be only a little baycnetting to be done. There is no room in the me chanical schedule for music'

"Music inspires patriotism and sets the blood to tingling. Soldiers forget their trivial concerns; the flag and music raise them above the petty concerns of the camp and stir the heart to action. A regiment of kilted Highlanders, with their pipes blaring, their flags flying, and the fine swing of the soldiers, is an inspiring sight. The ladies from hell, as the Germans call them. to arouse somnolent "These came to American cities appear, also, to have Am duty, they aroused Britons to but erican patriotism to a high pitch. Under the circumstances it might be well to organize a few detachments of pipers and keep them at work." Note especially the part of this editorial we have under lined. Presumably these few lines contain the editor's idea of trench warfare, or at least the idea of it he wishes to 61

convey to his readers. It sounds like a peaceful pursuit. "The soldiers climb leisurely out of the trenches — when they arrive the trenches have already been largely cleared — there may be only a little bayonetting to be done." Hardly any work at all you see; just clearing up the loose ends that the great guns do not take care of. Surely no one need regard such occupation with anything but pleasurable anticipation. And this is by the P. I. editor, speaking not for himself alone, but for the war-makers, the profit-makers, the power-mad ones who want us to be patriotic — too patriotic to think — that is the thing they would lure us to with music. They would drug us with music, just as savages beat their tom-toms and sing wild songs to work up the blood rage before going to battle. If we only had some of that German money the "Star" credits us with having, we would not have to limit ourselves in this way, to a mere handful of articles and arguments. But the Public Library, which surely is not financed by German for money, is open to you; read the American Magazine November, 1916, an article dealing with the psychology of the soldier in the trenches; read La Follette's magazine; read — oh, a thousand things! —both for and against the war, until you realize what war actually is; then you can determine what your relation to it should be. *

*

*

*

"Unjust laws exist:

shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we Men have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? generally think that they should wait until they have per They think, that if they suaded the majority to alter them. should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform?" — Thoreau.

SECOND CIRCULAR

Fellow-Conscript : —

Have you ever paused to consider how government func Have you ever pondered over the fact that govern

tions?

52

ment means practically nothing to the average are a few thoughts for your consideration:

man?

Here

The State is organized for the protection of property, not of life. In the early history of the world, when there was no any property, men lived together in single groups without other law than the natural instincts of mutual aid to secure With the food and shelter or safety from hostile tribes. introduction of private property, which at first consisted only of women and the spoils of war — since the benefits of this spoliation were reaped by the strong within the tribe, — laws and regulations were enacted defining the relation of the weak er members of the tribe toward this property. Such regulation was desirable because the combined strength of the weak might be greater than that of the strong. When these asserted themselves in the groups, their commands would exact obedience.

of similar procedure is ex by great corporations who, while our at prating of patriotism and public spiritedness, resort to de portation, murder, brutal assault; and there is no governing body which will protect the person against the propertied class when it acts in defense of property. If you require proof — of this, pick up any daily paper they are filled with instances. Does government protect you or does government protect property? Stop and consider. Practically all the laws on the statute-books are for the protection of property. Even those which seem purely personal in their scope, such as those relating to murder, assault, "statutory crimes" and infringe ments of marital rights, prove, when closely analyzed, to have their roots in property rights. Woman was originally chattel property; the law in most parts of the civilized world still gives her father or her husband property rights in her that are only slowly being abolished. The usual motive for murder is the acquisition of property — as when a robber kills the man from whom he meant only to steal. Murder committed in hot blood, from motives of jealousy or hatred, is perhaps the only crime against the person which has not a property basis. And the laws against such murder are useless to prevent; worse Another clear demonstration

emplified

present

63

useless. They are society's revenge, pure and simple. Assault, like murder, is usually based on theft, or a desire to violate property rights. than

It

was my intention to make clear to you that law, the gov ernment and all its officials, have but one real purpose — to defend and protect property. Government takes no cognizance of the individual at all, nor of his individual will. The Gov ernment, which means the strong, who possess property, herds all men together. From the herd the fat are to be picked for the slaughter and the thin hitched to the plow and driven before the cart, to provide food for the fat. Do you desire I do not. to act in either of these capacities? Government means nothing to the workers (I assume you are of this class) except a method of oppression by which he is made to work for the benefit of another class, from which he receives nothing, not even protection and an adequate living. It is this thing which you are asked to protect with your life, for which you are ordered to go into the worst hell imaginable. It is for this thing that has never been anything but a means of keeping you fooled and contented that you are ordered to die. If you want to die to perpetuate this monster, for the con tinuance of the power that oppresses you, and makes you slave away your life so that others may live in luxury, why MAKE YOURSELF INTO FERTILIZER FOR GO AHEAD? THE SUNNY FIELDS OF FRANCE: But if you are op posed to offering your body for these purposes, then RESIST: REFUSE TO GO: STAY AWAY. They can do no more than kill you, and it is better to die for the truth and the ideals which you profess than to die for something which you hate. *

*

*

*

"GOVERNMENT is not reason, it is not eloquence— IT IS FORCE: like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." — George Washington. Is it "Un-American" to quote George Washington? — At all events, the above saying is most applicable to the present is supposed to be a time. The American government If it really "of, by and for the people." government 54

much to blame for allow our master — for leaving it to — irresponsible action irresponsible to us, that is to say. The present war making government is responsible to the moneymasters of the nation and not to us, the great mass of the peop'e. This is our fault. We have allowed the government to take the terrible "irresponsible action" of plunging an un willing nation into an unjust war. If we have let things go so far that we cannot now prevent participation in the war, let us at least refuse to aid the government in its treason against the people, by declaring our conscientious objections to this war, and refusing to have ANY PART therein. is

so,

we,

the

people,

are

ing our government to become

Saturday, August 4, Elihu Root made what the Times calls "an address that will go down in Seattle's history." Here is a passage from it:

"We are in this war, we must stay in it, and we must bring it to a successful conc!usion," he shouted. "Don't argue the cause of the war. Don't wrangle over whether we should Forget be in it. Don't speak about the whys and wherefores. You all that. must realize this: The time has come when American Liberty, American justice, American independence

and freedom are at stake and every one of us must face it with full and fearless hearts and fight for America, as no people have ever fought before." That may "go down in Seattle's history," but the important thing is, does it "go down" with you? If we don't argue the cause of the war, if we don't speak about the whys and wherefores, how are we to realize that American Liberty, American justice, Am erican independence and freedom are at stake as Mr. Root says they are? Is he afraid that the result of our argument, our thinking, will be that we will not want to fight this war? It certainly looks that way, doesn't it? And truly enough, just as soon as we begin to think about the causes of the war, and our relation to it, we realize that what ever may have been true of "American liberty, justice, independence and freedom," the liberty, independence and freedom of any one who is not ready to fight without asking any questions, is entirely extinct. More than fifty years ago, Henry Thoreau sadly said "We 55

all our inherited freedom," — and it appears that If we believe since that time we have got in no new supply.

have used up

in democracy and human freedom we must make it— you and I and the thousands of others who in spite of the bombast of demagogues are thinking and whose thinking leads them to oppose the war and the system that makes the war inevitable. If you are a conscientious objector, make that the basis of your claim, instead of something else; keep the issue clear, and line up with those who are like-minded with yourself. Make the government express your will instead of being, your self the slave of the government. *

*

*

*

"The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free. They are the lovers of law and order who observe the law when the Government breaks it."-— Henry David Thoreau. "Make a safe for democracy — shut it inside To keep till the war's safely past —

Till the Powers that Be shall benignly It is safe to unlock it at last;

decide

And let the combination be known To the Powers that Be, and to them alone. If they should forget it. . . . Oh never say die! The people must blow up the safe by and by."

— Elizabeth Waddell, in The Masses. *

*

*

*

From speech of Robert M. La Follette in the Senate of the U. S., Wednesday, April 4, 1917: "In his message of April 2, the President said: "We have no quarrel with the German people — it is not upon their impulse that their government acted in entering this war; it was not with their previous knowledge or approval." Again he says: "We are, let us say again, sincere friends of the German people and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage be tween us." 56

At

least, the German people, then, are not outlaws. What is the thing the President asks us to do to the German people of whom he speaks so highly and whose sincere friend he declares us to be? We Here is what he declares we shall do in this war. shall undertake, he says,. — "The utmost practical co-operation in counsel and action with the Governments now at war witti Germany, and as an incident to that, the extension to these governments of the most liberal financial credit in order that our resources may, so far as possible, be added to theirs."

"Practical co-operation" with England and her allies in starving to death the old men and women, the children, the sick and the maimed, of Germany. The thing we are asked to do is the thing I have stated. It is idle to talk of war upon

only. We are leagued in this war, or it is the President's proposition that we shall be so leagued, with the hereditary enemies of Germany. Any war with Germany, or any other country, for that matter, would be bad enough, but there are not words strong enough to voice my protest against the proposed combination with the entente allies. When we co-operate with those governments we endorse the violations of international law by Great Britain, we endorse the shame ful methods of warfare against which we have again and again protested in this war; finally when the end comes, whatever it may be, we find ourselves in co-operation with our ally, Great Britain, and if we can not resist then, the thousandfold greater pressure she will exert to bend us to her purposes and compel compliance with her demands. We do not know what they are. We do not know what is in the minds of those who have made the compact, but we are We are irrevocably, by our votes here, to subscribe to it. to marry ourselves to a non-divorceable proposition veiled from us now. Once enlisted, once in the co-partnership, we will be carried through with the purposes, whatever they may be, of which we know nothing. Sirs, if we are to enter upon this war in the manner the President demands, let us throw pretense to the winds, let us be honest, let us admit that this ruthless war against not only a government

57

Germany's army and against her navy but against her civilian population as well, and frankly state that the purpose of Ger many's hereditary enemies has become our purpose. *

Is it not

*

*

*

democracy which leagues itself with allies already far overmatching in strength the German nation and holds out to such beleaguered nation the hope of I am peace only at the price of giving up its government? not talking now of the merits of any government, but I am speaking of a profession of democracy that is linked in action with the use of autocratic power. Are the people of this coun try being so well represented in this war movement that we need to go abroad to give another people control of their gov ernment? Will the President and the supporters of this war bill submit it to a vote of the people before the declaration Until we are willing to do that, it illy be goes into effect? comes us to offer an excuse for entry into the war the unsup ported claim that this war was forced upon the German peo ple by their government, "without their previous knowledge or approval." There is no space here to quote more. Go to the Library, ask for the Congressional Record for April 4, and read the Learn, if you do not already know, how Eng whole speech. land has disregarded international law; learn the actual con ditions under which Germany has broken that international law; weigh carefully and seriously the facts in the case against the sensational and misleading statements that have occupied THINK, man, THINK, about so much space in the papers. this war from all sides, and don't allow yourselves to be car ried away by mouthfuls of words about duty to your country and America as missionary to carry freedom to the world at large — "making the world safe for democracy" and all that sort of vocal swill. This came from the Public Library too. It was written by a native American, Henry David Thoreau, one of Emerson's closest friends and one of the few clear thinkers on governmental problems that the U. S. has pro duced. He has in high degree that rare courage which is un daunted when his thinking leads him to conclusions which a remarkable

58

demand that he take a stand and act in opposition to the popular thought, or even in opposition to the constituted au thority of the government itself. These extracts are from an address called "The Duty of Civil Disobedience", "Government is at best but an expedient — the govern ment itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will is liable to be abused and per verted before the people can act through it."

"Must the citizen ever, for a moment, or in the least Why has degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterwards. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as a respect for the right." "The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, They are the standing but as machines, with their bodies. militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In army, the most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones, and wooden men can per haps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good lawyers, legislators, politicians, citizens. Others — as most — ministers, and office-holders serve the state chiefly with their heads, and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil as God. A very few, as heroes, PATRIOTS, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and MEN serve the state with their consciences also, AND SO NECES

SARILY RESIST IT FOR THE MOST PART AND THEY ARE COMMONLY TREATED AS ENEMIES BY IT."

"What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. — O for a man who is a man, and has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through!" "The authority of government — is still an impure one; 69

jf&

]|C

f

i|t

to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. — Is a democracy, such as we know it the last improvement possible in govern ment? — There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."

On the American Poetry shelf you will find a book called "The Quest" by John Neihardt, who in spite of his Germansounding name is American-born and American-spirited; and in that book you will find the following poem: —

THE RED WIND COMES!

O

it

O

0

Too long mere words have thralled us. Let us think! Oh ponder, are we "free and equal" yet? That July bombast, writ with blood for ink, Is blurred with floods of unavailing sweat! An empty sound we won from Royal George! Yes, till the last great fight of all is won, A sentimental show was Valley Forge, A mawkish, tawdry farce was Lexington! No longer blindfold Justice reigns; but leers A barefaced, venal strumpet in her stead! The stolen harvest of a hundred years Are lighter than a stolen loaf of bread! pious Nation, holding God in awe, Where sacred human rights are duly priced! Where men are beggared in the name of law, Where alms are given in the name of Christ! The Country of the Free? — wretched lie! Yea, let be! The Country of the Brave? One more good fight, Brothers, ere we die, And this SHALL BE the Country of the Free! 60

What! Are we cowards? Are we doting fools? Who built the cities, fructified the lands? We make and use, but do we own the tools? Who robbed us of the products of our hands ?

A

tiger-hearted Tyrant crowned with Law, Whose flesh is custom and whose soul is greed! Ubiquitous, a nothing clothed with awe, We sweat for him and bleed!

Religion follows proudly in his train! Daft Freedom raves her fealty at his side! Surviving kingship, he eludes the vain Misguided dagger of the regicide. Yea, and we serve this insult to our God! Gnawing our crusts, we render Caesar toll! We labor with the back beneath his rod, His shackles on the soul! He is a System, wrought for human hogs! So long as we shall hug a hoary lie, And gulp the vocal swill of demagogues, The fat shall rule the sty. Behold potential plenty for us all! Behold the pauper and the plutocrat! Behold the signs prophetic of thy fall, 0 dynast of the Fat!

Lo, even now the haunting, spectral scrawl! Lo, even now the beast of hidden wings! The ghosts of millions throng thy banquet-halls, O guiltiest and last of all the kings! the Furies stirring in the gloom! They mutter from the mines, the mills, the slums! No lies shall stay or mitigate thy doom— Beware

THE RED WIND COMES! 61

Written by Louise Olivereau coma, Wash. Before her trial. 3

A. M. in

in Pierce

County

Jail, Ta-

Jail

In the stark hours Before Dawn

I

waken.

Like a great Bird The unquiet Spirit of the jail Broods

close above me Till I gasp for breath — And now it settles, Beak and claws upon my heart, Its evil, searching eyes within my soul.

The fiend-tormented Drug-destroyed girl

In the

writhes in her sleep, and cries out Mother of Christ,

bed beneath me

"Jesus God! Hear me!"

Obscene oaths and shuddering moans of pain Follow her prayers; half -wakened She beats her pillow, curses, Groans, and prays again.

Across the room in the half-light, Prostrate like the Magdalen at the feet of her Saviour, A sweet wild slip of a girl,

— Just seventeen — Whose thirst for beauty and joy We have answered with — jail —

Through her frightened sobbing whispers, "Mother, I will be good; take me home!" The others sleep: a gentle idiot in the lowest bed; Endless toil through all her girlhood on a lonely farm; Marriage with one whom toil and drink made brutish; These have brought her here To wait the verdict that will pen her up for life With others of her kind. 62

And she, that other frail one, Mother and wife and daughter of joy And would-be suicide, Slave of the drug-fiend, Turned thief for those white grains More precious far than life to her; Still but a child in years, Eut ageless in knowledge of evil, Loose lips half-smiling, Tcar-wet lids veiling her harlot's eyes, Sleeps peacefully as any little child. — Ah, how the tearing beak and claws Work their harsh will upon my heart, And the ever-questioning eyes, Glittering, evil, not-to-be-denied, Ask their relentless "Why? . . . Why? Why are these here?" In the next room the Matron sleeps; No Bird disturbs her even breath and placid dreams; The Jailer in his office yawns And stretches in his chair Until it squeaks and groans again; He drops his keys; a paper falls And flutters like a frightened bird; Then for a space All's still. Only the tearing, tearing Beak and talons at my heart,

And over, over, over, In a hammered rhythm, The terrible question, "Why? .... Why? .... Why?" Then splitting the unquiet silence Like jagged lightning a stormy sky, The yell of a maniac Par down the corridor. The caged tiger's rage 63

.

And nameless grief of the wolf Starving alone on snowy wastes Blend in that dreadful human cry. The jailer snarles "Shut up, damn you!" And hunts his mad charge away from the bars Back to the far corner of his cage. The creature whimpers and cries; A murmured confusion of curses and groans Swells from the cells where sleepers have wakened, — For sleep is precious in jail — Another snarled order for quiet; The jailer returns to his chair, Yawns again — And again all is quiet; Only the Bird At my heart

Is tearing;

Only its eyes, Burning deep

In my soul, Question:

....

"Why? Why? . . . Why did you let them come?"

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