THE FEDERATED PRESè RELIABLE NEWS
CONFERENCE FOR PROGRESSIVE
POLITICAL' ACTION
(By The Federated Press)
Cleveland. — Drawing up a pro
gressive platform and providing for ef
fective organization by states, but re
fusing to take steps toward a third par
ly, the second national Conference for
Progressive Political Action came to a
close here.
The storm that had risen the first
day over the question of seating dele
gates from the Workers' Party of Am
erica, who had been ignored by the
credentials committee, ended with the
adoption of the committee report refus
ing to seat them on the ground that the
party was not in harmony with the con
ference policy.
R. D. Cramer, representing the Min
neapolis Trades and Labor assembly,
and Dennis Batt representing the De
troit Federation of Labor, took the
floor to inquire into the manner ir
which the credentials had been side'
tracked and to testify that in Minnea
polis at least the Worker's party had
made every effort tc educate labor
forces to act in harmony and not for
disruption.
The conference decided to hold an
nual sessions of delegates from, labor,
farmer and cooperative bodies while a
national executive committee of 21 was
instructed to call state conferences
ilisuuticu
possible to form permanent
soon
state organizations.
The aim of the conference was stat
ed to be for the purpose of obtaining
the nomination of president, vice-pres
ident, U. S. senators, representatives to
congress and state and local public of
ficials pledged to the interests of the
producing classes and to the principles
of genuine democracy in agriculture,
industry and government.
THfe HERRIN TRIAL
(By The Federated Press)
Marion, ill. — The complete defense
to the charge of the prosecution that
the five men now on trial murdered
Howard Hoffman, a strikebreaker, at
the Herrin strip mine, June «22, was
outlined to the jury in the opening
statement prepared by A. W. Kerr, the
chief counsel, Illinois Mine Workers,
who is directing the defense.
Otis Clark, Bert Grace, Leva Mann,
Joe Carnaghi ,and Pete Hiller were not
near the scene of the killing, according
to witnesses to be produced by the de
fense; and in any case, the killing
were committed in circumstances that
could by no .conceivable interpretation
justify the term murder, Kerr main
tains.
Kerr said that the defense would
prove that the killing of armed guards
was a result of the unlawful invasion
of .Williamson county by these armed
guards and of many acts of brutality
culminating in the ruthless murder of
three unarmed union coal miners.
ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR
LEGISLATION WILL MEET
(By The Federated Press)
Chicago. — Wages, unemployment,
industrial waste, and workmen's insur
ance will be the principal subjects to
be considered by the Américan Assn.,
for Labor Legislation at its 16th annu
al meeting here. Dec. 27-29. Among
the speakers will be Albert Thomas,
who abandoned Jean Longuet and oth
er French Socialists and became the
French cabinet minister for armaments
during the w.-<r. He is now director,
International Labor Office (league of
nations), Geneva, Switzerland. John
John B. Andrews, 131 E. 23rd St.,
New York City, is secretary of the As
sociation.
FREE SPEECH FOR MISSOURI
(By The Federated Press)
Jefferson City, Mo. — Final efforts
of the motion picture industry to gain
immunity from the ^possibility of cen
sorship legislation in Missouri by spec
ific provision in the proposed new con
stitution is expected to be made this
week. The constitutional convention,
sitting as a committee of the whole,
is considering the report on the bill of
rights presented by the committee on
preamble, boundaries, bill of rights,
and distribution of power*. Section 14
of the bill of rights, providing that free
speech shall net be impaired, is what
the motion picture industry is seeking
to change.
The committee recommends that the
section read: "That ro law shall be
passed impairing freedom of speech;
that every person shall be free to say,
write, or publish whatever he will on
any subject, being responsible for all
abuse of that liberty, and that in all
suits and prosecutions for libel, the
shall be given in evi
A CHRISTMAS TREE FOR
STRIKERS' CHILDREN
(By The Federated Press)
Richmond, Cal. — A Christmas tree
and presents for the children of strik
ing railway shopmen will be brought
by Santa Claus to the Labor temple
here. J. P. Reeves, chairman of the
strikers, is making the arrangements,
which will include a bag of candy, nuts
and fruits for each striker's child un
der 12 years of age and a present 011
the Christmas tree. It is assumed that
the federal injunction granted to U. S.
Atty. Gen. Daugherty will not be in
voked to prevent the holiday celebra
tion for the children.
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER SPEAKS
(By The Federated Press)
Schnectady, N. Y. — If American
industry is to progress and permanent
prosperity ensue, industry must be or
ganized not only to bring capital a fair
and reasonable return, but to guarantee
to the worker a living wage, said Chas.
P. Steinmetz, consulting engineer, Gen
eral Electric Co., addressing an open,
forum meeting in All Souls Unitarian
church here.
Co-operation in industry, he declar
asjed. is gaining ground as opposed to
tU C r I.' *1 \ 1" i.*
either the Socialistic or the capitalistic
conceptions. If the co-ooerative ten
.
dency is to succeed, he added, the em
ploye must have a living wage, contin
uous employment, and capital must
'have a return which is fair and con
tinuous enough to attract it.
"The problem then arises," he said,
"to harmonize these two requirements
and to reorganize our country's indus
trial system so as to eliminate the al
ternate periods of depression and in
flation."
Steinmetz gave it as his opinion that
the most practicable and effective way
of attaining th>s end is one in which
l?bor »^nd canitpl would be complete
ly unified "by having them both, in
some form or other, participate in the
profits of the company through di
_ ^ j ^
dends. and in t^e management of the
com^nny through the board of direc
tors.
(By The Federated Press)
San Francisco. — The
of California are up in arms against
the new adequate safety laws recom
SAFETY DEVICES COST MONEY;
MINERS' LIVES ARE CHEAP
minp „«m,,,
mine owners,
mended by the industrial accident com
mission following the Argonaut disas
ter
cannot listen to reason," said Edward
Higgins, president, California Metal
Producers' Assn., "we have the power
to get a commission that will." Among
the members of the association are.the
owners of the Argonaut mine, where
47 men died but fhe mine property was
saved from being destroyed.
GOVERNOR HENRY ALLEN'S
KU KLUXING GAME
"If the p -esent comftiissicners
t Uctor,
(By The Federated Press)
Emporia, Kan. — "I have been Ku
Kluxed, and a court that did not have
the guts to pull out their shirt tails
and give a real Ku Klux Klan parade."
Such was the indignant comment of
William Allen White when he was no
tified that charges against him that he
had violated Allen's industrial court
law, were dismissed on instructions
from the attorney general. Specific
charges against White were that he
had violated an order of the industrial
court by displaying in his office win
dow a placard expressing sympathy
with the striking shopmen. White is
editor and publisher of the Emporia
Gazette.
White's hot shot at Allen's court was
supplemented by a statement from
District Judge W. C. Harris, presiding
when White appeared. Judge Harris
observed that three times White had
appeared in court and demanded trial,
and that three times the state had re
fused to try him, asking continuance.
"The state has a legal right to dis
miss its case, but it is a great wrong
to charge a person with a criminal of
fense and humiliate him by arrest, mal
iciously or without probable cause;
the lay mind associates arrest with
guilt," said Harris. "The court is
forced to the conclusion in this case
by the conduct of the moving party,
that this case was commenced mali
ciously or recklessly, without any in
vestigation of the facts to ascertain
whether a prosecution was justified,
and in either event the action was
equally reprehensible. A defendant in
a criminal prosecution is entitled to a
fair trial. I do not thinlc the defendant
in this case has had jt. He is left in a
' ion."
FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD
(By The Federated Press)
The federal reserve beard is the
most important body in the United
States and one of the most powerful
in the world.
The supreme court can veto any act
of congress and so nullify the will of
the people, but it does this only about
twice a year. The federal reserve
board comes in contact every day with
the living arrangements and expenses
of a hundred million Americans and
can do whatever it pleases with /them.
The power it posesses to raise or low
er discount rates is a more tremendous
and irresponsible power than was ever
wielded by a king and the results are
almost inconceivable. By an orde?" is
sued in a fraction of a moment this
board can ruin a million farmers and
make a thousand rich men Richer yet.
This board stands accused of the
grossest favoritism in the exercise of
its great power, so that, if these charg
es are true, it appears to have been
trying to build up New_ York financial
interests at the expense of the rest of
.
f he countr y and b y boosting favored
borrowers.
, ,
of these c!lar ges are so staggering that
thev nut intn the snarip all ntnpr nna«ps
Some of the fàcts alleged in support
they put into the shade all other phases
of all public affairs. Thus tt is assert
ed that in the fall of 1920 the federal,
of time lent to 5000 member banks in
28 states in agricultural and live stock
loans.
Millions for speculation and 1 cent
pieces for agriculture would seem to be
about the size of these transactions.
For the purposes of farming and pro
duction, money was hard to get; for
the nurposes of speculation, dead easy.
The speculators were financiers of
great infjuence; the farmers were ob
scure persons trying to grub a living
from the soil. For the farmer the
kick; for the stock gambler the
front farlor. That seems to have been
the rule.
It is further allaged that at about the
same time the federal reserve system
was lending to the national banks in
, m v i i
eserve system in New York lent to one,
° re f specu at, ;; e ba " k 111 that city
sums of money three t me s as great as
eight reserve banks m .hesame length
the city of New York three times as
much in proportion to their resources,
as was keing ' en * to cf 'he 7600
banb jn a „ ^ ^ ^
Three times as much in pro
potion to their total resources, you un
derstand.
Easy money for the great New York
banking institutions already gripping
the industries of the country: hard
money for the bank of the interior with
which the farmer does business and to
which he must go for the loans by
wh'ch he can live from crop to crop.
If this charge is true, then the feder
al reserve system is nothing but a gi
gantic machine to help sweep up all
that is left of the money of the country
into the control of Wall St. and make
one. group of financiers there of urç
limittd and irresistible
Il m this fall season cf !91!0 the
country naiiks had been nnon an equal
footing with the New York city banks
in jroj'ortion to their resources, the
country b.niks would have had r, bil
lion dollars more to lend than they
really had. The result would have
been a cheapening of money and an
easing of the farmer's crushing buiden.
l'y shutting off the money supply
to the country banks, the farmers were
compelled to sell their crops for what
they could get and the speculators
made billions. The suicides of farmers
that were ruined by this proceeding are
Said to number scores.
Desperate efforts havç been made
to secure official attention to these
charges and to cause the country to
undeisiand what is going on. All these
efforts have failed. In one way or
another publicity has been choked off
and it looks now as if this particular
process of gathering power into the
hands of Wall St. had gone so far that
it is beyond stopping.
NEBRASKA PROGRESSIVE PARTY
(By The Federated Press],
Omaha. — Independent political ac
tion was reaffirmed as the purpose of
the Nebraska Progressive party's ex
tension bureau. An executive commit-,
tee subcommittee consisting of Pres
ident Chas. A. McDonald, Nebraska
State Federation of Labor; W. H.
Shropshire, Brotherhood of Railway
Trainmen, and H. L. Swanson, repre
senting the farmer organizations, was
chosen. The Mid-West Labor News,
a Federated Press member paper, was
was made the official organ. Amnesty
for political prisoners was demanded
by the conference.
WALL STREET'S IMPERIALISM
BOOSTED BY SECR. HUGHES
(By The Federated Press)
Washington. — Central America's
first free champion tc the Hughdt'
peace conference here is Senator Wil
|; am £. Borah, of Idaho. The specta
c l e 0 f fi ve handcuffed delegations from
the Spanish Main nodding "yes, yes"
to the articles of suicide imposed up
on them by the state department prov
ed too much for Borah to endure."
In a powerful assault upon the sham
peace conference, Borah recites the
strong-arm methods employed by Am
erican corporations to upset govern
ments and exact concessions from the,
five little "republics" and charges that
the Hughes kindergarten now proceed
ing in the Pan-American building is
designed simply to make the Latin-Am
ericans write 0. K. across the fraud
lent contracts and surrender their free
dom for a place within the empire of
Wall Street.
Before the farce conference is many
days older, a resolution will probably
appear in the senate calling for an in
vestigation .of our imperialism -in Cen
. ,
.ranking member of the foreign affairs
rnmmiff aa «*»11 ».L~ ». :._l
tral America from the time American
troops took over the capital of Nicar
agua in 1912. Senator Borah, second
committee, will lead in the oratorical
support of that resolution, according
to the present outlook.
t-, i " , , » - . ...
Debate will show that Mexico, which
jointly with the United States called
the conference of 1907, is barred from
this conference by Secretary Hughes,
although the alleged purpose of the
meeting here is to confirm,and extend
the treaty of 1907.
It will show that the United States
itself violated that treaty when, tc re
tain a naval base illegally obtained in
Fonseca bay and safeguard lands grab
bed on the San Juan river by Ameri
can capitalists, it violated a verdict ren
dered in favor of Costa R-'ca by the
Central American court of justice, es
tablished by the treaty cf 1907.
It will show that the delegates now
sitting at Hughes' feet to confirm our
mastery in their home lands are all
members of families or factions brought
into prominence by American bayonets
or other coercion.
It will show that when President
Herrara was thrown out and Orrillana
put in control of Guatemala by Amer
{can intervention and battleships, the
little country was immediately forced
to accept a loan from the Blair Co., of
New York, amounting to $15,000,000
w jth exorbitant interest.
It will show that Mexico is barred
from this dummy conference because
Hughes and the Mexican capitalists in
volved in Central America knew that
jf Mexican delegates were admitted
they would review the history of Yan
kee imperialism in Latin America and
show that instead of a treaty the little,^
republics are being forced to sign a last
will and testament of their alleged sov
ereignty.
It will show that by excluding Mex
ico the United States aims to become
the sole and exclusive "guarantor and
patron" of the new order in Central
America and the single judge of when
the new treaty shall be torn up and
thrown aside, as was done with the
treaty of 1907.
JURY OF PEERS (?)
FOR HERRIN TRIAL
(By The Federated Press)
Marion,.III.— The jury for the first of
the Herrin trials was finally selected
Dec. 8, after a month of examination
of talesiéan. One coal miner and 1 1
farmers will decide the fate of the five
union miness charged with the murder
of Howard Hoffman, a ncn-Otiion man
killed in the Herrin cemetery last
June. The jurors are Oscar Swaner,
Henry Riddle, Samuel Watkins, W.H.
Davison, James Weaver, Hiram H. Mc
Millan, George Craig, E. S. Webb,
Charles Mclnturf, Nathan Pendland,
Avery Grear and George Cox, who is
- . -r, r
the lone miner. The average age of
the jury is 44 years.
Judge Dewitt T. Hartwell said that
the case would be conducted in perfect
Order "if he had -to have 4en times as
many bailiffs as he has now.' He
stated that he would permit no expres
sions from the spectators of sympathy
for or antagonism to the defendants.
'He then adjourned court until Wednes
day, Dec. 15, when both sides will
make their .opening statements and the
taking of evidence will begin.
HAVE YOU A FRIEND WHO IS IN
TERESTED IN REAL CO-OPERA
TION? SEE THAT HE BECOMES
A READER OF THE LLANO COLON
IST AT ONCE. ORDER A BUNDLE.
POLITICIANS SCORED
(By 1he Federated Press)
Baltimore. — Neither the hands nor
the consciences of'U. S. Senators Hi
ram Johnson and Samuel Shortridge of
California are clean in the Mooney
case, declares the Rev. -Mercer Green
Johnston, in The Voice of the People,
published here. The issue in which
Johnston's article uppears is devoted
to "the four most infamous cases of
injustice which have disgraced our
country during the last fiv.e years":
Mooney and Billings in California; the
I. W. W. victims of the tragedy at
Centralia, Wash.; Sacco and Vanzetti
in Massachusetts, and the 63 wartime
political prisoners still in federal peni
tentiaries.
DEFEAT ILLINOIS CONSTITUTION
(By The Federated Press) „
Chicago. — Nearly 900,000 of the
round million and more votes in the
Illinois special election, Dec. 12, were
cast against the proposed new consti
tution. The measure on which the spe
cial constitutional convention worked
two years and on which over $3,000,
000 was spent was hurled back by the
voters at the corporation interests that
had framed it.
AN ASTUTE FINANCIER
(By Th" Federated Press)
Seattle. — Frank Waterhouse, pres
ident cf the Seattle Chamber of Com
1 merc6i organizer 0 f t h e f irst Associated
Industries body in the United States,
and regardecJ as an astute fi nanc ; er
I and j ndustria l ] ea der, invested $11,
500 in czarist rubles in 1920, it was re
vealed in superior court here recently
in a suit to foreclose on notes which
he had failed to meet. The rubles are
now worth altogether approximately 25
cents at a liberal estimate.
NATION NEEDS BEING SAVED '
FROM PROFITEERING PATRIOTS
(By The Federated Press)
New York. — The fiation is being
saved again. This time it is by the
Allied Patriotic Societies, Inc., "with
a membersh:p of more than 6,000,
000." The great idça of the Allied
Patriotic Societies, Inc., is to intro
duce a bill at the coming session of
the New York legislature making it
impossible for -the name of any party
"that subscribes to principles subver
sive to the constitution of the United
States" to appear on a ballot. The
announcement was made at the annual
: meeting here of the Army and Navy
club.
j This ingenious jcheme, however, is
only part of the great idea. The Al
lied Patriotic Societies, Inc., has pass
ed a resolution "to direct and control
' foreign-language newspapers." That,
it. was explained, will control foreign
propaganda and at the same time is
sue propaganda favorable tc this coun
try through the Unit^ States com
missioner of education. A bill to that
effect is to be introduced in congress,
the speaker said. And everybody
cheered.
THE "REASON WHY" FOR
HIGH COAL PRICES
(By The Federated Press)
New.Yo.rk. — One-third of the na
tion's coal' supply i s being held up in
its journey from the mines to the con
sumer; coal profiteers throughout the
east are pocketing enorrhous profits on
the coal which does reach the actual
user, and millions cf people are being
forced to use makeshift fuels, at ex
orbitant prices, because of the refusal
of the hard-boiled railroad executives
in this section tc make peace with their
striking shopmen.
MAKE AUTOMOBILE KILL
ING A CAPITAL CRIME
New York.—New York's recent
Safety Week, headed by iE. H. Gary,
of the U. S. Steel corporation, with
^ s]ogan ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
* "
followed by such an increase of auto
mobile slaughter in the streets that au
tomobile killings are coming into the
homicide court at the rate sometimes
of five or six in a single day. So
scandalous have conditions become
that for the first time, motor car dri
vers who have killed' pedestrians are
being held for manslaughter. This oc
curs now at the rate of one or two a
day. x
One such driver has been sent to
jail for from one to ten years; but
that, according t© Assistant District
Attorney John R. Henning, is about
the only case where severe punishment
has been visited on offenders, despite
the fact that more than 1000 are killed
here annually by automobiles.
VICTIMS OF GREED
(Bv The Federated Press)
Mexico City. — With the single ex-
ception of the railroad men, every large
body of organized workers of this cap
ital has had occasion to bury its dead
during the last six months. Not long:
ago, it was the tenants' union which
carried to rest the coffin of a youth
shot-by an irate landlord. More re
cently it Was the General Federation
«of Workers that mourned the death of
an aged weaver shot by a squad of
mounted police at the order of a bribesf
officer.
LET PRISONERS GO FREE;
DEMAND AMNESTY FOR XMAS
fBy The Federated Press)
Washington. — Congress, churches,
universities, and organized women
were represented at thé amnesty mass
meeting held at Washington, Sunday,
Dec. 10, in the Shubert-Garrick thea
ter, to honor the meijiory of Ricardo
Flores Magon, who paid with His life;
for his.ideals of freedom, and to de
mand again the release of the remain
ing 62 wartime political prisoners still
confined in federal prisons.
This memorial meeting, sponsored
by a large group of Washington men
and women, including 13 members of
congress, was arranged immediately af
ter the death of Ricardo Flores Magon,.
at Leavenworth, while serving a 21
year sentence for the writing of a "se
ditious" article in his Spanish paper at
Los Angeles. The speakers, all of
whom defended freedom of speech and
of opinion, included Mrs. Abby Scott
Baker, chairman; Mrs. Winnifred Ma
son Huck, congresswoman from Illinois
! Dr. John A. Ryan, of the Catholic un
iversity and director, social action de
partment, National Catholic Welfare
council; Prof. Paul Brissenden, Colum
bia university, who conducted a special
investigation of various labor organiz
ations for the U. S. department of la
bor; and Mrs. Harriet Stanton Blatch,
New York, daughter of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and herself a leader in the suf
frage movement.
Mrs. Blatch made a fervent and mov
ing appeal for the release before Xmas
of the 62 political prisoners still in jail,
which was followed by resolutions call
ing upon President Harding to grant
a Christmas amnesty for all those im
prisoned for war opinions and free
speech.
Mrs. Winnifred Mason Huck, the on
ly woman elected to congress this year,
also urged general amnesty for polit
ical prisoners, saying:
It has been said that the women
or rather the woman's point of view
—will bring world peace. If that is
so,, we have no time to lose, and we
must present} and keep our point of
. view. * * * And it is from that wo
man s angle that I want to plead for
these political prisoners; and, remem
.ber, I am not pleading from the pris
oners angle. His angle is individual,
personal; and, although I, as an indi
vidual, would gladly plead the individ
ual cases, I am here to-day to speak
for humanity, and to urge that these
nrisoners be freed, net for their sake,
but for the sake of our people, that
v ' e might clear the way of obstacles,
that our road to world peace may be
easier to travel."
CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA
Berlin.—The Federated Press inter
view with W. O. Thompson, formerly
financial adviser, Russian-American In
dustrial corporation, does not reveal
the bitterness cf feeling injected into
the interview as cabled by the old es
tablished news services. Thompson be
lieves thé project sound if >the Russian
government fulfils its part but doubts
whether that will be done. 1
Savel Zimond, on leave from the In
dustrial Bureau of Industrial Research,
New York, has returned from five
month? in Russia with a high opinion
of the future of the soviet system and
its benefits to the Russian people. He
confirms the report of the National In
formation Bureau cf America that fa
mine relief continues necessary for at
least 10,000,000 people in Russia.
FREE PUBLICITTFÔRT K. K.
(By The Federated Press)
New York. — Ku Klux Klan organ
izers and leaders in New York city
have and are having the benefit of
publicity that millions cf dollars could
not have bought outright, and they are
making the best of it. They are cap
italizing the stupidity of officials of the
city administration and of the courts,
and they are scarcely trying to hide
their satisfaction at the fatuous man
ner in which the màypr, the police, and
a judge are attempting to shoo them
away. ,