The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 25, 1926, Page 11

St of ct Te Ss 7 Smesaece -~ | , to the Sejm deputy, Gogula.) . S asthdhdiddiehteneitarbaene aie eee eatin The Confession of An A gent Provocateur A Sensational Document on the White As¢ in Poland Poleh press today is carrying on a conspiracy of 3 ¢\ncerning the mass arrests of Ukranians has just been made everywhere, at Lemburg. ¥, Przemysl, ete, have already pointed out that we were once more ned here with an affair fabricated entirely by ski’s police nm order to discredit the movement national minorities which is becoming a greater @ each day, des, it is very. possible that documents had been ered. But one would have to have poor sense not to realize that he is ealing with the work of provocateurs. terday we promised to publish a docu- which would demonstrate: irrefutably adil of the Polish reaction tn practices 3 kind. We shall see later. vas a matter of a very simple fact: mnfessions of an agent provocateur. It confession of one of those poor bug- which Upton Sinclair's “100%" defin- lepicts. e, in its tragic simplicity, is the letter he sent, after being seized with re- * s De ‘aty, he istrict of Nowogrodek, one hears whete: “Jancevitch is a provocateur! vitch has thrown a thousand people he dungeons!” etc, Looked at icially, without considering the causes, ay believe that it is really so. I beg > listen to me then, to learn how all appened. ow One Becomes a Provocateur! YRKED as an instructor for the “Wy- olenie” Party (Party of Freedom). ‘ar had had a negative influence on my J constitution. I did not have a single ! of subsistence and I felt very little to do physical work. Thus, I allowed f to be easily convinced by the Agent ta and became agent of the “Defen- at Nowogrodek. I was given the task sovering a supposed conspiracy set on y a secret White-Russian organization, ' of the state. The thing had to’be |* ————e—————_—___—_ mpaign agaist labor. A Washington dispatch ing in the general presis (Noy, 1884) states that susinessmen of this country are in-favor of an se of the ammy and its concentration in the larg- 38 SO aS to suppress riots and control strikers.” v, (Jan., 1886) says that “In view of the dis- t of the laboring classes Congress is urged to 3 the fegular army.” ‘In 1884, the press gives aual report of General Phil, Shéridan to the Sec- of War, in which he sayg that “The danger of e with foreign nations seems remote,” but tells ns.of other troubles . between capital and afd the danger of “entire cities being destroyed i Furiated populace . . .” After another lec- y another general, on how to put down labor , With a detailed plan for the defense of the pal buildings and the city hall Park, New York, ern labor paper came out with an equally de- description by a friendly army officer, on street 3 tactics for workers, and the use of barricades weful and highly technical diagrams. Riot drills requent—and frequently broken wp by workers. . e resdlutions and resolutions of mass meetings ke sympathizers were frequently direct class ges. During the 1885 strike on one of Gould’s 78 & convention of employees on the whole vestern system passed a resolution declaring that and capital have met in a deadly conflict,” edged support io the strikers, sustaining them » + Sympathy, money and . . . lives if neces- A Chicago mass-meeting addressed by @ miner id come from Shawnee to get aid for the strik- the long and desperately-fought coal strike in . Valley, Ohio, passed a resolution declaring employment of all means to protect the wage . from the tyranny of capital is justifiable. ‘the military has been called out to defeat ertsts of the working classes, the mass meeting 3 to arm themselves and offer resistance to ss who are depriving them of their bread, their ess and their lves.” sketch of conditions in the first half of the s will give some general idea of the causes that “entrance of the American proletariat on ne” of which aroused not alone Engels, but revo- sts the world over to such enthusiasm, and ‘the ‘an bourgeoisie to such fear and determination an end to this challenge to its supremacy, In xt article will be described the culmination of ‘vement, and the campaign of capital against its oh enemies—the Knights of Labor and the Black itional—with {ts climax in the Chicago Anar- rame-up, following the great eight-hour strikes monstrations of May 1. “ON POLISH LAND.” done quickly and I had neither the time to discover the conspiracy nor the possibility of learning how to or- ganize this. They gave me very short notice, threaten ing not to give me a single zloty if I did not deliver a document. On the other hand, they promised me $5,000 and the possibility of living in Posen under a false name in case I should discover this secret or- ganization. In order to encourage me they showed me mountains of money. That made me determined at the outset.to find some facts, and even when the searches . and inquiries gave no results, they “were very well sat- isfied with me in the “Defensive.” They paid me a very high salary, higher than the one promised. And they gave me gifts of important sums. I led an easy life, but I did not discover the secret organization and learned nothing of it. I passed the greater part of my time in the company of my colleague, Weraxa, 1 fell completely under his influence, and he depicted to me a stately existence aq a rich and idle future. . The Other Side of the Medal. O* the 27th of March, 1925, I was arrested by the Defensive. At the outset, they treated me in a friendly manner and gave me whiskey. But later they began to beat me. Each time the treatment became worse, They demanded that I discover the conspiracy and deliver the would-be White-Russian organizations of revolt for which they promised me the $5,000 and immediate freedom. In the course of the last two months, I had received the. sum of 660 zloties, I realized clearly: I was becoming a victim of my master, Weraxa, I was unable to find anything, not knowing a single organization other than the “Wyzwolenie” and the “In- dependent Peasant Party”; and even of these parties I knew no more than any. other person reading the news- papers. The bad treatment became worse, but I could not say anything. Then they began to torture me with an electric current. My strength. left me. It seemed to me that my bones were being pulled apart. Frightful muscular cramps paralyzed “my limbs. The misery was unendurable. After several rep- ititions, I lost con- sciousness, The Denunciation. (O put an end to my tortures, I agreed to everything they demanded of me. I said everything that might interest the “Defensive.” My statements were partly invented, partly a confirmation of what the police claimed, It is in this manner that I confirmed the charge that the following persons had taken part in the conspiracy: M, Makowski, the Sejm deputies, Holowatsh, Gogula and Sobolewski; and a hundred other persons in addition, After this examination by the agents of the Defensive I aid no more about the thing to any one, ' Later, I wag summoned before the examining magis- _A Street in Warsaw Guarded By the Polish Artist Sokolova-Skalja. trate. The examination took place in the building of the Community of Nowogrodek in an office of the De- fense to which they conducted me from the cellar which had sérved as a prison for me and where I was tortured in the most horrible manner for six days. The Presence of agents of the Defensive during the examin- ation agitated me so much that I once more confirmed, before the examining magistrate, the statements which I had made to the Defensive. I ought to say here that the police prepared me for this examination two whole days before. Day and night, two agents were continually present and taught me that I was supposed te declare to the exam- ining magistrate. They gave me whiskey to drink constantly and promised me my free- fessions to the magistrate; Just before my appearance they gave me more to drink, so that I made my. confession in an intoxicated state, ~ On the first of April, I was conducted to the prison of Nowogrodek, and on the sec- ond of April, the prisoners had already -ar- rived. I was isolated, and yet it was suffi- cient for me to show myself in the yard for a shower of hisses and blows to be brought forth. On the second of May, I received a violent blow on the head which left a deep wound. They bandaged my head and de- clared that the blow had been dealt out of vengeance, At the district tribunal I gave the same testimony. Tardy Remorse! OME time later, my wound healing, I be- gan to calm down, but remorse assailed me. I saw the truth in all its horror. An abyss had opened up for my innocent vic- tims. I decided to act according to my conscience and my feeling for justice. This time I sent true confessions to the attorney of the district court of, appeals and to the court of the tribunal. I submitted myself to a medical commission which found, In spite of the five months which had passed, the marks of the tortures of which I had been the victim. They discovered five scars, one of which was ten centimeters long, the others of different sizes. The tribunal will bring everything to light. Irresponsible? N, the court room, in the presence of the ina ewan the “witnesses, I shall show you, Mr, Depu “the traces of the tortures which I have undergone, att you will be able to see that the sufferings which I have endured were the most inhuman. They have killed the feeling of responsibility in me for all that I have put forward. The chief culprit and the initiator of my false confessions was no other than the commander of the Defensive, the commissioner, Kutzuper. I have been maltreated by Agent Jan Wodnizki, who, in order to deceive me, called him Janusch Dembzki, and by two other agents whom I do not know, but whom I shall be able to recognize. . You can make use, Mr. Deputy, of the material that contains the confessions which I hava written in prison and which I have sent to the courts, to’ the attorney of the district tribunal) of Wilna and Nowogrodek, to the Court of Appeals and to the Court of the Tribunal. Up to the present, I have not yet received a single reply and the victims of my bad actions are still re- pining in prison. I am perhaps unworthy, Mr. Deputy, of having my mistake pardoned by you whom I have so cruelly de- nounced, I hope, by way of com- pensation, that what I write you will have con- vinced you that I was under the in- fluence of a strange will and under the press- ure of unbearable physical suffering whieh I have had to undergo at the hands of the De- fensive, At this moment, I curse my action. I am incapable of describing all this concretely. This Pilsudski’s Military and Police. is only part of my arguments; the rest, Mr, Deputy, you will have at the-special hearing, and more precisely in the court room. I-beg you, Mr, Deputy, to give me your moral sup- port and thus to aid justice, Signed: Bronislav Jancevitch, dom if I would be ready to repeat my con- |