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THE PUBLIC FORUM
CONSCRIPT THE PREACHERS.
We want to endorse Mr. Taylor in
his objection to exempting the clergy
from conscription. Only those hav
ing dependents and those with skill
in munition work, ship building and
farming should be exempted. There
is no justice in exempting these men
who are of questionable benefit to the
country in their present occupation
in peace or war. We are not Social
ists and there are millions besides
these who, like us, see the injustice
in this matter. Mr. and Mrs. Jehiel
S. Davis, Portsmouth, Ohio
TO MEMBERS OF ORGANIZED
LABOR. May we not ask your in
dulgence for a cause that from the
standpoint of unionism should appeal
strongly to us all? As is known to
you, the waiters and bartenders have
no recognition in the Bismarck hotel
or the Bismark garden.
Every attempt maae oy organized
labor or any of its friends to induce
the proprietors to treat with the
union in the same manner that your
unions seek and obtain recognition
from your bosses has met with abso
lute failure.
The milk drivers, the coal team
sters, the ice drivers, the bakers, the
beer drivers, engineers, firemen and
all others have been ignominously ig
nored. Organized labor to this firm
is a joke. We may strike, we may
plead, we may petition, we may
frequently persuade very obstinate
employers to compromise, to settle,
to give in, but Eitel Bros, of the Bis
mark are not in that class. Their ac
tion is the most brazen defy to or
ganized effort ever attempted in Chi
cago. They make all associated
trades with whom they have dealings
look about as useless as burnt pow
der for ammunition.
Is there not some way in which
yourxmembers can help the situa
tion? Are we indeed to conclude that
.organized gftort is of no avail and
that these people can cut us with the
whip of scorn and contempt and then
rub it in with the salt of hate and rid
icule?
Friends, we appeal to your man
hood, your womanhood, to meet this
open, contemptuous and arrogant ac
tion of these men with such means
and measures as you think best, and
whether we win or lose we shall keep
on the fight for better conditions and
our success would be a great moral
victory, not alone for us, but to the
great mass of organized labor in Chi
cago. Chicago Trades Union Label
League, R. Williams, Pres.; F. G.
Hopp, Sec'y.
MEMPHIS LYNCHING. There
have been so many articles appearing
in the newspapers recently concern
ing the brutal Teutons that I had
started to believe that the Teutons
were really worse than the tender
honrtpH Vnnkees. However, the
ghastly spectacle at Memphis, Tenn.,
brought a different angle to my
senses.
These people sunk to a depth low
er than any barbaric creatures on
the face of this earth ever sunk when
they put two men to death in a man
ner so hellishly fiendish that even
Satan (if he exists) must have stood
aghast. It was said Eli Perkins con
fessed to killing Antoinette Rappal, a
young school girl, in a most brutal
manner. Perhaps he did; we are in
no position to say any mqre than are
those who took his life. But we are
in a position to say that if he did, he
should have received the full punish
ment of the law we say law, not
mob rule.
Think of several thousand Ameri
can people in a large southern city
leaving their offices, shops, stores
and homes in automobiles and othej
conveyances for no other purpose
than to feast on the agonies of a
human being. Think of them tak
ing a man, soaking his body in oiL
tying him to a stage, igniting the
brush and firewood about him, and,
