AGN FOUlt
1H MICHIGAN-D
SUNDAY, APRIB. 29, 1-23
---- -. .THE "."IGAr lATL SUNDA. PRIL 29. 11155il
0
Michigan Reds
LILLIAN REID
"A spectre is haunting Europe- to the practical worker is, "What am
the spectre of communism," wrote I going to get out o it?" He is work-
Karl Marx in 1848 in his Communist Ing hard to tay for a little house, and
Manifesto, the favorite textbook of the a little car, and to put money in the
radicals. Almost a century later, that bank. After all, money is rather sat-
same red ghost is rattling its chains isfactory to have. He has vague ideas
in upper Michigan, sending cold chills about the benefits of communist so-
down the spines of conservatives, and ciety, where labor is supreme, until
property owners. he hears that his meager savings
In 1848, the bloody Commune of brand him a capitalist, or, worse, a
Paris ended the First International, bourgeois. A contented workman has
a socialistic organization of all E- little use for extreme movements. It
rope. Today, the collapse of the makes him skeptical to be asked to
Russian experiment may kill the contribute to relief funds for the suf-
Third, or Red, International. The re- fering Russians, who are now living
sults of the recent trial at St. Joseph under this ideal plan. He is almost
indicate that the Worker's Party of content to be a wage slave, as long
America is part of this world-wide as he is comfortable.
movement. One hundred years of dis- After all communism is not new.
cussion has marked little progress in It has been quite common in primi-
methods, results, or ideals. Karl tive society where money and credit
Marx could easily explain the doc- were not used. Our English ances-
trines which Foster supports. tors held their village fields in com-
Last summer, the American Con- mon, and cultivated different plots
munist party held its second annual each year. Some Indians have com-
conventon at Bridgman. It was mon ownership, and distribute food
there that the government agents got equally to all in the tribe. The old
the evidence that is being used in the Russian village was communistic int
trials. Charles E. Ruthenberg, who industry and government. Even prim-
went on trial last week under the itive savages have common property
criminal syndicalism act of Michigan, in land, goods, and women.
declares that he went to the conven- Ideal communism may be perfectly
tion merely to bring the American harmless, as in the Brook Farm of
party into the open. He undoubtedly the New England poets, but idealists
did, if publicity was his aim. lack the mechanics to apply it to mod-
The new Worker's Party replaces ern specialized industry. It is over-
the former Communist party, which whelming to think of the .book-keep-
was secret. It Is said that Ruthen- ing which would be needed to dstrib
berg was secretary of both. Foster, ute the necessities and luxuries of
who was recently relased, had control modern life equally. Who is to de-
of the Trade Union Educational termine whether I should eat ice
League, which carries on the move- cream or pie, drive a Hudson or a
ment in industry. Trade unions must Ford?
be taught the advantages of brother- This may wander far from the
hood. criminal syndicalist trial, but the ev-
Rothenberg has already made many idence provokes such reactions. The
startling statements on the witness average citizen has gust discovered
that the Red of whom he has read
stand, and is expected to clear upl calmly in the papers, has apieared in1
more radical mysteries in his own de- person athispaerdoas ap e
fense. 'He seems to speak wvith sit- person at his very doors. No, we
thoreiestem sofpeak wUnited stould never allow such things to
States. for the Reds of the happen in Michigan. We did not even
know that we had a law against it,
Communist theories are based on until the court brought it out to user
the ideas of evolution and revolution, against Foster.
They believe that historical evlution The leaders have evidently been
consists of a constant struggle be- careful to do no actually criminal
tween classes-those who have, and acts, although the arty as a whole
those who want. They desire to con- .c push its revotritary dc trines.
trol industry, and to change the ideals There is great argument about free-1
of society, but can do this only tom of speech, which the society rad-
through the oerthrow of govern-,ial defends with fury. The charge
ment-what the uninitiated call rev- of Judge White to the jury indicates
olution. No wonder that the author- that the Michigan law is not to bIe
ties spy upon conventions which are used to deny fre-dotm of speec in the
held to preach this doctrine. The usual sense, but to prevent direct a-
spectre stands at the bed-side of the tion against the government. It might
class in power. be better to allow the communists'
The modern weapons of the radical to talk as much as they please, so
communists are propaganda and long as they, did not commit treason,
strikes. "One big union" is their slo- or violate criminal law. This trial is
gan, and the general strike of all in- certaInly giving them free publicity
dustry is their hope for the future. 'for their doctrines. The leaders
Foster was accused of managing a could hardly get their speeches so
steel strike, in which the workers widely printed in arty other way.
thought they were striking for more Marx must have been acquainted with
wages, instead of helping to destroy the same type of "parlor pinks" who
the wage system altogether. In fact, are so active in defense of the work-
the radical does not wish tIe ordinary .ers, for he describes them as "The
strike to be successful. So long as dangerous class, the social scum,
the laborer can get his demands by that passively rotting mass thrown
striking, he has no need for revolu- off by the lowest layers of old so-
tion. ciety...
Nothing pleases the Red better than The "spectre of communism" is
to see the workers badly beaten in a rattling its bones before the courts,
strike, for then they have a grudge and may disappear into the past from
against society. The skilled crafts-. which it came.
Men of the Trades unions are con-
tent to live under a capitalist system Charles Scrier's Sons will publish
which they can control, while the in April "Mark Sykes: His Life and
wandering hobo, and the western Letters", written by Shane Leslie, his
field hand join the I. W. W. in the cousin. Sir Mark, who died in Paris
..onviction that anything can be bet-- during the Peace Conference at the
ter than present poverty. It has been age of 3 years, served in the Boer
said that the I. W. IV. represents a war, made a record in Parliament, and
pathological condition of industry, during the recent war was active in
and it is true that the mind of dis- every part of the East. He was a man
contented workers is hardly normal. of varied talents; a distinguished
It .is possible that the communists arclieologist and author, a brilliant
have taken longer to gain a foothold letter writer, a political caricaturist, a
here because of our prosperity. The mimic, and an exceptional conversa-
crowded peoples of Europe have been tionalist, as well as one of the best
ready to try any remedy for their amateur actors of his day. The Rt.
distress. 'Hon. Winston Churchill has written an
The problem which presents itself introduction to the volume. I
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r
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