The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 8, 1925, Page 4

ceric Hyman Blasts the Sigm “ tive board to see to it that in all fu- address such gatherings. |, (Continued trom page 1) of) the working class; and ‘Whereas, as a result of the above- mentioned action, the. iiajority of agreements signed in our industry contained a provision relating to the right of every worker in our industry to celebrate this day by cessation of work; and “Whereas, in some localities agree- ments exist that do not provide for the right of the worker to stop from work on the First of May; be it there- fore | “Resolved, That the 15th biennial) convention of the I. L. G. W. U. in-| structs the incoming general execu- ture agreements which are about to be signed with our employers, a pro- vision be incorporated, giving each worker the right to stop from work} on the First of May.” ~ After this substitute resolution, which was adopted at the convention unanimously, President Schlesinger} delivered a short talk, in which he} said that the introduction of this reso-| lution was not justified. “I want to say,” said President Schlesinger, “that | our organization was the first one in the needle industries that has done what you are referring to. It seems to me that you are not familiar with the workings of your own Ifiterna- tional. Second, you say that the In- ternational Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union has not as yet made the First) of May a holiday, thus compelling our members to work on that day. I don’t think it is fair to say the International is or will be compelling its members to work on the First of May. On the contrary, in most of the agreements that have been made between the In- ternational and individual manufac- turers or with associations, there is a provision which definately states that being absent from work on the First of May does not mean a violation of the agreement. The International has| been the first organization, I venture} to say, of all other organizations in| the country, to insist upon the em-| ployers that stopping work on that! day shall not be considered any viola-| tion of our agreement.” All of which certainly proves that the First of May was recognized as a labor holiday, even previous to the convention of 1920, and that we have| always urged our workers to stop on} that day, and that we have held meet- ings and celebrations on that particu- lar day. Olgin A Usual Speaker for I. L. G. W. It is also not true that it is the first time that a speaker of the Party that Mr. Olgin belongs to, was invited to I have said during the course of this hearing and I say it now, that Olgin spoke for years and years, not only for Locals No. 9 and 2, but for the International itself, and has lectured for them for a@ number of years, and we also want to state that the convention of the In-! ternational has permitted to speak such well-known Communists as Mr. Ferguson, who was at that time the secretary-treasurer; Mr, Ruthenberg, whose speech I am going to read to} you, which he delivered at the con-| | generations, vention of the International. Pohlesinger Aided Communist Speches | § ©n page 121, President Schlesinger| troduced Mr, Ferguson, the treas-| urer of the Communist Party, and he| made an appeal for funds on behalf) of the deportees, in order to supply them with legal aid. It-was moved and carried that the appeal of Mr.) Ferguson be laid before the Commit- tee on Resolutions. You will find this on page 38 in the convention minutes of 1922. Charles BE, Ruthenberg, who) is an eminent Communist and one of their foremost leaders, and was known | as such at that time, was introduced by President Schlesinger at the 1922) convention. You will find it on page| 108 of the convention minutes. Mr.| Ruthenberg spoke as follows: Ruthenberg’s Speech to |. L. G. W.) in 1922 “I come to you to present a program | of unity, of solidarity in the struggle) ‘of the workers against the capitalist) aggression. ‘I speak to you as a Com- munist, as one who accepts the lead- ership of the Communist International. It has remained for the Communist International to offer that program to the workers of the world which will bring about a united front. We hope that your organization will make the necessary advances which will brin, ‘into existence, in the near future, an organization covering all the needle ‘trades so that the industry will stand| _asone. My parting wish is that these | ‘feliberations will solidity the labor| organizations of this country, so that che entire working class may meet wd bring the day when they will ad ninister and take over the industries of the world, and conduct them for _ he workers of the world.” (Applause). _ All the delegates applauded ti ‘narks made by Mr. Ruthenberg. I want also to quote to you some of he speeches that were delivered at ur convention, to show you that they re in no way different from the peech delivered by Mr. Olgin at our ‘irst of May meeting. From the con- Jention minutes of 1918) page 140, ad- Jress delivered by Morris Hillquit: dillquit’s Speech in 1918 Convention. « “So long as there remains any ex- loitation of the workers, so long as i of your work is taken by “16 others, taken by @ class of para- ttes who thrive upon your labor, so ag your struggle remains before wu, 60 long must you continue striy- g& steadfastly, tirelessly, day after qu, until you lave come into your a into your fvll inheritance tn life, ad | destruction. THE DAILY WORKE R WHO SAYS THE INTERNATIONAL | OFFICIALS ARE TRAITORS? [8 It permitted to say that the |. We hold that not only is it permissable, but when the leaders commit a treacherous act it must eliminated from the labor movement, But Yanovsky doés not agree with us. national officials are the “greatest concludes secretly a “he knows what he is doing” and he has to be thanked for it. Sigman and Hiliquit secretly work out a memorandum to the Goyern- ors Commission which surrenders the cloakmakers demands, they also “know what they are doing”, and those who are not “Sulkeses, unionbreakers, etc.” LL this is so when Yanovsky receives pay from the Sigman ma- But In the Freie Arbiter Stimme of Jan. 17, 1917, Ya- novsky wrote about the International officials and told them: “Compare your acts from the beginning until now, with the acts of provocateurs and strike-breakers, and you will see yourself that you are not justified in being enraged for being put in the same category.” ND about the agreements which the International officials signed chine. in 1914. Yanovsky wrote: “The cloakmakers dare not, under any conditions, permit that traitors which have made this agreement should remain at the head convention must of the International. A special called, and this convention should these servants of the bosses, and trayers of the working-class movement.” These excerpts we have copied from parts of Louis Hyman’s speech, read Wednesday before the “Lusk Committee” in the Hotel Cadillac. is fully emancipated from all economic | exploitation.” I will read from page 142. “With all the cry of our bought press, of our narrow-minded statesmen against the | present regime in Russia, we know) nevertheless {hat there is a great,| tremendous country, with a large pop- ulation, a country that has heretofore been the darkest resort of the darkest reaction, standing today in the van- guard of democracy, in the vanguard of social progress, in the hands, all thru from top to bottom. of the peoplé theiaselves, of the working class and the peasants.” (Great applause). repert of the convent: :n minutes @f} 1924, a speech deliver:1 by Morris} it. Page 116). | Hillquit’s Speech in 1924 Convention. “We have reached a very crittial point in the history of the whole’ world. We where it has become apparent and ob- vious that the capitalistic class can no longer govern. It is not merely the incompetence and the corruption) that are today displayed by our own government, in this Washington , in- vestigation. Oh no, it is more than that. It is an absolute, complete, bankruptey of the capitalistic class all over the world. Look at them, They have ruled, they have governed for They have ruled with- out question. The workers of all lines have submitted to their rule. They have ruled in ruin, in devastation, in They ruled up to the point where they driven the whole human race into a frenzied war of mutual extermination until they have “supplementary” agreement with the bosses, ,as the throne in Moscow. That is a I am now reading to you from the} thing of the past, thanks to great, have reached the point ‘honest man on the face of the globe covered the countries of Europe with) rivers of human blood. They have) ruled until they have taken the most | progressive, the most prosperous part of the world, Europe, and turned it) into a poor-house, turned it into a) condition of misery that beggars des- cription. If they are allowed to con- tinue ruling, it may mean the end of human civilization, “There is but one force that can save the world, and that force is the) force of the workers, who have no in-| terest in the competitive fights and| struggles of the capitalists class, who) stand, and of necessity must stand,| for universal prosperity, for universal brotherhood, and for peace and the workers alone can establish a world on that basis.” Hillquit Said I. L. G. W. Should Lead) Progressives. “This movement to redeem the world from capitalistic cluthces, is the very real movement today. It re- quires the co-operation of the Ameri- can people which means primarily the American workers, The opportunity is open before us now. The Interna- tional, as a progressive organization, as an organization of idealists, should make it its duty, should make it its pride, to lead in that movement, to lead in every progressive movement of the workers.” Panken's Advisory of World Unity. I am reading to you now the min- utes of the convention of 1918: You will find on page 234 a speech deliv- ered by Judge Jacob Panken: “In my opinion,” said the judge, “there should be no American labor movement, there should be no French labor movement, there should be no English labor movement, but there should be one labor movement, a world labor move- ment.” Vice President Rosenberg Lauds “Reds” On page 145, an address is recorded by Mr. Dimer Rosenberg who was at that time, I think, the first vice-presi- dent of the International, He said: “When this war was declared, it ‘was supposed to have broken down the International, it was supposed to have broken down the or 1) of the Reds thruout the world. In- stead of that, it seems as tho the Reds were going to break up the pres- ent system of the world.” The phrases used by Mr. Rosenberg, such time as the working class/as well ae the rest of the speakers L. G. W. U. leaders are traitors? be pointed out and they must be He holds that the Inter- minds” in the union. If Feinberg And if sfied are immediately be put before the Court éf the Union should exclude foréver these be- who used similar phrases, were al- ways wildly and strongly applauded by, the delegates at our convention, Cahan Praises the Russian Revolution. IT am going to read to you now pages 214 and 215, an address deliv- ered by the editor of the “Forward”, Mr, Cahan: “About four years ago,” said Mr. Cahan, “when the war broke out, many of us were intensely interested jn seeing the Russian despotic regime smashed. But the czar has been elimi- nated. There is no such thing now glorious revolution that took place in Russia. (Great applause). And, friends, there we have a regime in Russia that is a Socialist regime from top to bottom (great applause). The next to go are the Kaisers. Is there an who can think, and at the same time would not desire the downfall of that infamous bunch? (Tremendous ap- ‘plause). That bunch of highway rob- Wers that are trying to wreck the Russian revolution for their own use, to their gain? Now that the majo ity party in the Reichstag, including) the scojal-democrats and even the vtaholic party, have been obliterated | and robbed of every influence entirely, there is nothing left but the military chieftains, the Hindenburgs and the Ludendorfs that rule Germany and/ that there seems to’ be no hope for free speech, democracy or suffrage i Germany. In the face of all that, can there be any true opinion as to who should win now? , Abe Cahan Felicitates Lenin and Trotsky and Red Flag. “After the war is over, there will be a new era in the life of labor in this country, as well as in Europe. This war has taught us a great deal. England today is the great country of organized labor, so powerful, so strong, that the powers that be in Britain have to reckon with this; to- day the English labor movement is about 75 per cent clear cut social- istic (applause) and in Russia, the Red Flag is waving as the flag of the Na- tion. They celebrated the 1st of May in Moscow, they combined that great holiday with another festival, the birth of Karl Marx, and this holiday was celebrated not only by trade un- ions, not by organizations in their private capacity, but as a National holiday. Lenine and Trotsky, every member of the organization. of the government, marching alongside of the great flag of Socialism’ as their banner, (Tremendous applause), Cahan Hopes Bolsheviks May Defeat Capitalism. “We can trust both the Bolsheviki and the English comrades, and the American comrades to defeat the de- signs of the capitalist class, And let me tell you frankly, with perfect sin- cerity, from the bottom of my heatt, that so far President Wilson hae tak- en the right attitude toward the Bol- sheviki, (Tremendous’ applause.) He is standing by them nobly and valiant- ly, because I know he has many odds to contend with, “Prepare Yourselves for Great “Comrades, a new world is coming. We are on the eve of a great new historical epoch. This country will be different from what it is now and what it has been so far. Everything will be ‘olutely different. We are now going thru the most remarkable change in the history of humanity, not only in the political history of hu- manity, but in its history from every aspect and view. Nothing like it has ever happened before. Get yoursélves ready. Prepare yourselves for the great change that is coming after the an Machine after the war is question about it. Says |. L. G. W. SHobid"be Left Wing in A. Faot'L. “And this is the final word. You are one of the progressive organiza- tions of the American Federation of Labor. You are one of the few that amounts to something. Everybody is proud of you. And without fear or favor, you must. do’ your duty. Get ready to do your share to keep alive in the American Federation of Labor that progressive spirit; that spirit of socialism. The American Federation of Labor will amount to a great deal, but only because itis getting to be a Progressive body, and you who are al- Teady progressive, ought to be con- gratulated as being one of the great factors in bringing’ about a glorious change in the American Federation of Labor, I thank you. (Tremendous applause.)” nat I am citing now to you, a speech delivered by Mr. Clarence Darrow, at the convention in 1920, on page 3 of the minutes: Darrow the Anarchist, Speaks for Soviet Russia. “We have looked to Europe and seen in Russia a great movement for the man who works, (Applause.) I protest against this country, born in revolution, against tyranny, laying the least thing in the way of the as- Pirations of the new ‘Russia. None of our soldiers should be there, Our statesmen are not able to pass upon the wisdom of the rule of Russia. It is not for: the American people to say whether they are right or wrong, but it is for the American goverrt- ment to inquire one thing, who is in control, and to recognize those who are in control. “I fancy that 90 per cent of the people of the United States wish Rus- sia well, and would like them to suc- ceed. In their hearts they protest against their government misrepre- senting them, and seeking to throw anything in‘ their path.” “Hands Off Russia,” Charley Erwin. Mr. Charles Erwin, at the conven- tion in 1920, in this address—you will find it on page 2, said, “Now, don't think for a moment that I don’t know how important world events have been in-the last five years, that I don’t know that out of the war has come the wonderful working class republic of Soviet Russia, that I don’t feel a tremendous inspiration from that-fact, and that you ought not to feel a tre- mendous, inspiration from that fact. But the kind of inspiration you should feel is this, not that you can do any- thing for Soviet Russia, but use your influence for the working class of the world that they shall keep their hands off. The best answer that you can make to Soviet Russia, is to show Russia that the working class of this country knows how to. take care of itself.” Why the Sudden Scare at Red Speech? I have cited these speeches to show you that we have not been so consery- ative in the past that we should be- lieve that suddenly the International got frightened over a radical speech ind has suspended and brought on a | trial people for having arranged a meeting on the first of May where a speech praising Russia’ was delivered, and calling the workers of the world to unite for the purpose of abolishing the present system of:society and es- tablishing a new co-operative com- monwealth. These sort of speeches have been delivered at our meetings, and at all our Conventions, all the conventions of the International, and the leaders bragged whenever they had an oppor- tunity to come before the members, of their radicalism and their records as reyolutionists. “You will, of course, try to argue that these speeches were delivered and that Communists were invited to speak prior to the order issued by the International with reference to the league, and it seems that order was issued, prohibiting members from be- longing to the Trade Union Educa- 0 League, or any other organ- ization that has the same programs, and the same object that the Trade Union Educational League. No Prohibition in Local’s Choice. You will say, that afterwards, such practices aré prohibited, We abso- lutely deny that the order can in any way be interpreted’ to imply that a local union has no“right to invite a speaker who is a member of any poli- tical party, even including the Work- ers Party. The order in question does not specify any parties. It does not Specify or does nét mention any in- dividual who shal? be permitted to speak at such gatherings. ‘As to the question, then, whether we had a right to call a meeting for the first of May. I know that nobody will question that right. If Mr, Olgin would have been invited to address this meeting, nobody would even have 4h excuse to stage even such a trial the present one, because the lead- ers of the International, they are the same few people who control both or- genizations, and they know) them- selves that the First of May meeting and the First of May celebration can not be interpreted as a violation of Section 10, that these expenses are not legitimate expenses. Perlstein Approved as Local Officer, ‘AS @ matter of;fact, Mr. Perlstein himself, he was the administration of Local 2, and he never questioned the war. This war is teaching a remark: | bills that were sulmitted covering the able lesson to the workers the world | ¢xpenses of this ing. To show over. The membership of the soofal-| you ss a iHustration that Perl- ist party will be probably tem times |' wide open. axf@ did by the fact that when $25.00 tickets were purchased for the Freiheit Chorus, Perlstein immediately said | that this is not a legitimate expense }and “I will not sign this bill.” He would never dare to say that the ex- penses covering the rent for the hall, the talent that was engaged for that meeting, were not legitimate expenses, and are not valid, that they are, in violation of Section 10. Olgin Received No Money for Speech. As far as Mr. Olgin is concerned, it is known to the Committee that he did not receive any money for his speech, and it is also known at this time to the Committee, that it was never passed by the executive board, : Disproves Fake for Mr. Lewis, the president of the Mine Workers’ Union, to question his members whether they are reading a democratic paper at the timé of a cam- paign who attack him for his support of republican candidates. Everybody knows that as far as politics are con- cerned, every member has a right to belong even to a party which attacks and opposes the party of which: the leader is a member. It has not been proven that these members who are on trial here have taken their orders ahd their opinions from gthe Freiheit or any other organization. You have never proved that and you are not able to prove that. In the union, as they have stated, and it was never reported whether | Olgin or anybody else, was invited | as a speaker, that the whole meeting | | was arranged by a committee of three | in Local 2, and a committee of an/ | equal number of Local 9, and that | they have never reported to the exe-| cutive, to their respective executives, | and they have had full power to ar- range this nfeeting. There is nowhere in the constitu-| tion anything that should direct them | or prohibit them or restrain them| |from inviting speakers who are writ: | ing in newspapers who happen to crit: | icize the leaders of the International, | which is the whole contention of the prosecution, that this was in viola- tion of the constitution. I want to show you that speakers who have very strongly criticized the leaders of the Internaitonal, are not only invited | to speak at meetings, but some of} them are at present the leaders and are receiving high salaries from the International. As to Critics of the Officials. I will read to you some of the arti- cles written some time ago by Mr. Yanovsky, who is the editor of the of- ficial organ of the International at the present time, and this will also illus- trate to you that the Freiheit isn’t the only paper that criticizes the Interna-| tional leaders, and that it never hap-| pened that when the Forward criti- cized leaders, whether it was of the local unions, whether it was leaders of the joint board or leaders of the | International, or leaders of any other} union, or leaders of the American Federation of Labor, that any of these locals, joint boards, or the Interna- tional or the American Federation of Labor as a whole, should ever demand, of the members to know who are read-| ing these papers, who are supporting| these papers, or that they should re-| frain from reading these papers, or that they should abstain from sup-| porting these papers, because therb is | nowhere in the constitution of the In-| ternational, and these cannot be, and they have no right to make such a constitution, that should regulate the thoughts of the members. No Control Over What Members Read. We in America, at least believe in free speech, and we have never given the authority to our officers or even to the authorities of the United States government to abridge the rights of the citizens to read any newspaper they desire, and to support any news- Paper that they feel like. I will now read to you some of the articles that were written by the pres- ent editor of the Justice at the time when he did not have his office with the International. I am quoting now from the Freie Arbeiter-Stimme, Jan. 10, 1914, of which paper Mr. Yanovsky was the editor at that time. Under the heading of “Bosses and the Inter- national Officers in Conspiracy Against the Cloak Union,” from which heading itself you can see that the article which will follow will not be any compliment to the leaders of the Intrenational. Yanovsky’s Attack of U. L. G. W. Officers. The article in part says as follows: “The last joint statement in the English press by the Union officers and the bosses should dispel anybody’s doubt that the Internaitonal officers’of the: Ladies Garment Workers Union united with the Bosses’ Association to betray the Cloakmakers. The Cloak- makers Union situation permits the traitors who have gone into agree- ment with the bosses, they remain at the head of the International. A special convention of the Internation- al should immediately_be called. This convention should put on trial the of- | ficials who are obedient to and serv- ants of the bosses, and it should expel those traitors from the labor move- ment forever. Yanovsky. This article was written by Mr. Yanovsky, who is the editor of Jus- tice at the prsent time, and the lead- ers whom he called traitors at thal time were Mr. Sigman, Mr. Perlstein, Mr. Rosenberg, Mr. Halpern, and some other of the leaders who are the lead- ers of the International at the present time, At the present time the same .Mr. Yanovsky who called these leaders whom he is serving now, by the names I have just mentioned, he is naturally prepared to call us by the same names he used to call them at the time when he was an editor of the Freie Arbiter Stimme. Nobody at that time questioned members of the union whether they have the right to read the Freie Ar- biter Stimme, whether they agree with it, whether they should support it, be- cause we know very well that a mem- ber of the ufion has a right to read papers which their leaders were ob- Jecting to, . {| think the union and nobody has contradicted their statement, whatever they do comes from their own convictions. They do things because they believe in them, and they don’t do things in which they do not believe. I have some articles written by the same Mr. Yanovsky of the same char- acter, and I’m not going to waste your | |time in quoting them because they ‘are of the same nature that I have just read to you, but even stronger. Nothing that is said in the Freheit at the present time can be compared with what was said at that time by the same Mr. Yandvsky against the very same leaders whom he is serving at the present time and from whom he is taking orders as to what to write. I wanted to bring over here Mr. Olgin himself, since his speech is in question, to establish whether he said, as two or three doubtful witnesses for the prosecution testified, that we must take a big hammer and smash the International. Is this true or not? It stands to reason that no one knows better what was said at that time than Mr. Olgin himself. Olgin a Proper Witness and the Only One, It-was no more than proper that we should permit him to come here and state what he said at that meeting, because, as I said in the beginning and in the course of my cross-exam- ination, that this Olgin is one of the best and most fluent and eloquent speakers in the Jewish labor move- ment, and that he spoke for nearly an hour, and even a_ stenographer would-not be able to take the minutes as quickly as he spoke. Since it has ben quite a few months ago, and nobody took down any ‘minutes as to what he said, we can: not rely on our memory or on the memory of a few individuals who claim that they have heard him say or use that phrase, Trial Chairman Has Various Constitutions. Olgin was hot permitted to come hére because the chairman, who knows so well the constitution, says it is not in accordance with the con- struction of the International to per- mit one who is not a member of the union, But this chairmafl evidently has different constitutions for) differ- ent occasions. In one place he has one constitution and in another place he has another constitution. It is known that there was a trial against several of our members, namely Bookman, Alex. Cohn, and an- other whose name I don’t remember. It was‘a question that these members accused one of our officers of taking graft. Presum was the name of the officer. These people were tried for not being able to prove to the satis- faction of the committee that he had taken graft, We have a point in the constitution that if you bring charges against an officer and you cannot prove these charges to the satisfaction of the com- mittee so that he should be convicted, the people that bring the charges are convicted fnstead for slandering or be- smirching the good name of. the offic- ers, That is perhaps one of the rea- sons why a good many who have charges to bring against officers re- frain from making them, because if a district attorney would know that if he is going to bring anybody to court and the jury would not convict, that he himself will be convicted, he would be very careful before he would put anybody on trial, Borenstein Had Bosses as Witnesses. However, at that particular trial, I believe the same presiding judge, Brother Borenstein, was there, and there he had a different constitution. He admitted there not only non-mem- bers of the union as witnesses, but contractors and sub-contractors, Their names are Levine, Sachoquitz, and Shanehouse, These people surely are not mem- bers of the union, and belonged to an organization with whom we have oc- casionally to fight, because I do not adopted a new philosophy that instead of preaching, that the interests of the workers and of the capitalists are antagonistic, that they have now adopted a new Philosophy that the interests of the workers and the capitalists are har- monious, f If that would be the case then, of course, there would be no reason or justification for the existence of the union, Nevertheless, Mr. Boren- stein did not object to admitting as witnesses, manufacturers who evident- ly are not members of the union and| As cannot, be members, Workers Party Theses, A great deal was said during the course of ‘this hearing about the theses of the Workers Party. Brother Feinberg wanted to prove that the mere fact that a man is a member of the Workers Party, he must necessar- Right of Political Opinion and fly violate the rules of the union, or Criticism, | the rules of the Workers Party, ~ a harges it is the greatest fallacy, because it has not. been proved that the Work- ers ‘Party has adopted the program that was read and quoted heré sev- eral times, and furthermore, this is not & program, but it is a thesis or a basis from which to work out a pro- gram, and there is quite a difference between putting a few theses from which a program shall be drawn, and the program itself. And even if it was a program of the Workers Party, it does not necessar- ily follow that you can convict a mem- ber for belonging to a party which has a program that stands for defend- ing certain things without permitting that this particular member actually has fulfilled that part of the programt.. Have Right to Belong to Workers Party. The Workers Party has not been made an illegal party by our.u) ion. It has not been made illegal by New York State or by the United Sttaes. On the contrary, it is a legal party of |the United States which had its own candidates in the last election, and as far as our union is concerned it has not been mentioned anywhere that it is an illegal party, and that our mem- bers have no right to belong to the Workers Party, On the contrary, we have on sev- eral occasions been assured by the leaders of the International, including Mr. Sigman and Mr. Feinberg, that every member of the union has the right to belong to any party that he wants to belong to, the democratic, the republican, socialist, anarchist, the Workers Party, the single taxers, and even the Communists. Sigman, Himself, Says So! 5 I have here a declaration by Mr. Sigman in the Justice, of June 20, 1925, where Mr. Sigman says that an economic organization like ours must take in as members, atheists, free- thinkers, Jews, gentiles, Communists, democrats, republicans and single tax- ers. All members of all parties are they act in the union as union men. It must also be known to this com- mittee that thesé members are not all members of the Workers Party. A minority only of them belong. As far as Local 9 is concerned, out of the 26 there are only three that are mem- bers of the Workers Party, They have been accorded the same treamtent, have been diagnosed in the same cate- gory as Communists, altho these peo- ple know perfectly well that statement is absolutely false. Snooping Committee Was Busy. It is also known, or should be known to this committee, that the few that are members of the Workers Party among the members of Local 2, at the time when they ran for office, there was an objection commit- tee of the officers of the International, including Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Perl- stein, and tho nobody in my opinion in accordance with the constitution has a right to question anyone whether he belongs to this party or the other, because this is his private business, nevertheless these gentle- men have taken it upon themselves the responsibility to inquire into the thots of people, as to what papers they read, the papers they support, and to what party they belong. These people who are Communists and have read and supported the Frei- heit, did not deny it. That is quite proper. And they have a “perfect right to do these things, so long as they do not vidlate a specific rule of the union incorporated in the consti- tution of the International, and the things they do uotside the union is not the union’s business. So, these gentlemen who now bring charges knew that these people read the Freiheit. They know perfectly well that the Communist Party, and later the Workers Party, did not sud~ denly spring into existence after the elections. Nevertheless they permit. ted these epople to go on the ballot, and some of them were even request. ed by Mr. Perlstein that they shoulé run for office. Why have they suddenly come here and wanted to prove that a member of the Workers Party must nécessarily act in contradiction to the constitue tion of the International? Had they not known the constitution of the In- ternational ten weeks ago? Hadn't they ‘known the Workers Party and the Communist program ten weeks ago, or had the constitution of the International been changed © since then? Has the constitution of the Workers Party changed since: then? Has the Workers Party become since then more leftist? The Times Poor Informer ~ Quite the contrary, everyone Knows that the Communists are becoming ever more practical. So why does the prosecution come here suddenly, and into the daily press, to denounce tuesa People as not eligible to Lo offi in the union? A great deal has. bee! said during the cross-examination, about the report in the Times of the First of May meeting. Mr. Feinberg should be the last to base a chargé or make a case from reports in mews papers, such as the Ti or, any, )other capitalist newspaper. + +> | far as supporting organizat ons of a revolutionary nature, which it in violation of Section: 10 of the constitution of the Intersational, you will see in the minutes of the conven- tion of 1922, a list of donations. to other organizations besides trade un- 8 or labor organizations, that the pte pe itself has donated money to the American Labor Alliance for trade relations with Soviet ot dee 1 welcome in the union, provided that