The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 11, 1918, Page 7

- gelves raided on one hand by a band . of organized commercial pirates and -among these outlaws; -Indians are not allowed: to sell ‘their _and others told the writer, men would ‘years ago and still face, to a consid- ‘and cheated without high priced le- _letter of the law or not. The farmers ‘law that they paid for. ‘tunity to send their children to -school. ‘on the average, less in some of the ‘They must organize for self protection. inally belonged ‘to the Indians, whites had no ~opportunities for education. For many years they had no protection - of the laws, either. There were no local courts or peace officers. This ter- ritory was attached, for judicial purposes, to the Arkansas judicial district but the Arkansas fed- eral authorities had enough trouble of their own “to attend to and paid little or no attention to “Indian territory,” as the east half of Oklahoma then was called. Outlaws, fleeing from- justice in other parts of the United States, drifted in. After statehood, when some semblance of law and order was established and thousands of poor, often un- educated but peaceable farmers moved in, these outlaws still operated. The Rev. Alfred Henry Noble, a minister whom the writer met while in Oklahoma, said that dur- ing a year he spent in Choctaw county, one of the eastern counties, there were 27 murders—this in a county of only a few thousand peo- ple. There were not only murderers there were cheats and tricksters. In many cases allotments but their children can do so. In cases like these, Dr. Noble hang around the home of a dying In- dian, waiting for him to breathe his last, and then would submit a blank to his children, telling thenm to sign it and they would get enough money for funeral expenses. The children would sign what they thought was a note. They would find afterward that they had signed a deed and had sold thou- sands of dolars’ worth of property for $50 or $100. HOW THE WORKING CLASS UNION HAS ORGANIZED This was the condition that Okla- homa farmers, especially in the east- ern part of the state, faced a few erable extent. They were imposed upon by bankers, by credit merchants, by landlords and other commercial pi- rates who operated largely within the law and. they were bothered as well by outlaws who murdered, robbed gal advice—men who did not care whether they kept within the strict were taxed unfairly in proportion to other classes, and still are, but they got litile or no protection from the For many years they did not even have oppor- Now the country children get 74 days of cheap schooling a year, eastern counties of the state. The Oklahoma farmers saw them- on the other by a band of more or less organized cutthroats and robbers. They decided there was one remedy. On the twenty-fifth day of August, 1914, there was organized just across the line from Oklahoma, at Hobo Hol- low, near Van Buren, Arkansas, what was called the Working Class union. It was organized originally by a group of hoboes, aided by a few tenant farmers. Hobo Hollow is a sort of “jungle camp’’ for the hoboes and tramps. of hobo or wagon tramp himself, it was natural that the farmers of this class should join the itin- erant working men in their organization. The Working Class union declared for control - of the state government by the producing classes— the farmers and the working men. While it was -started principally by hoboes it soon came ‘to be principally a farmer organization, and it swept through western Arkansas and eastérn Oklahoma -like-wildfire. .tween 30,000 and 35,000 members in Oklahoma. -and nearly as many more in Arkansas. ! THE BIG “JONES FAMILY"”: AND ITS SMALL TREASURY ~ In less than three years it had be- “But while the W. C. U. had a big membershlp it could never be called a strong organization. It lacked a definite. program. It stood for a’lot of reforms, but it had no machinery for. bringing = -these retorms about. It had no campaign funds. packing plant. Sinee‘ the tenant farmer in the South is really a sort The ‘W. C. U. started as an organization without dues, then a policy of collecting 10 cents a month from each member was started. But what chance did an organization with a campaign fund of $1.20 a year from each member at the outside (many did not pay dues at all) have compared with the millions that the’ capitalists could pour into the fight? The Working Class union was organized as a sort of secret society. It came to be known popu- larly as “‘the Jones family.” This grew out of a peculiar ritual that they used in initiating new members. When a new member was taken in they would give him the pledge of secrecy and then would ask: ‘“What do you think ought to be done to a man who would break his solemn pledge of secrecy?” Some men would say, “He ought to have his to- bacco taken away from him for a month.” Others Sheep are coming to be an important product of Oklahoma farms, though cotton and wheat still have the lead. This picture was taken at an Oklahoma City . The “Big Five” packers control all the important plants and take a heavy toll from the farmer. would say, ‘“He ought to be shot,” or “He ought to be hanged.” ! GOING INTO POLITICS; THE ? RIGHT AND THE WRONG WAY Whatever answer the new member returned, the master of ceremonies would say: ‘““Well, you have named your own punishment. But besides that the W. C. U. hasa rule of its own. The first time any member betrays a secret of the organization, he gets 30 lashes with a wet rope across his back. The second time he gets 60 lashes. If you betray us a third time,; the Jones boys will get you, and God knows what wlll happen to you then.” The W. C, U. or Jones family, as it was better known, had no regular headquarters or officers. A chiropractor, Dr. Wells Le Fevre, was national organizer. When local meetings were held a chair- man for the evening was elected; when the meet~ - ing was over his chairmanship ended. were kept. "No records’ The Jones family realized that the farmers and working men must go into politics to get relief. But they went at it, in the wrong way. Instead of trying to elect a governor and legislature, as North Dakota farmers did, to make laws that would help the producer, the Jones family went at it the other way. They realized that they didn’t have enough of a campaign fund to go into state politics, so they started in county politics, putting up candidates for county clerk and sheriff in coun- ties where they were strong enough. They elected their men in a number of counties, too. But what help could they expect from the county clerk and sheriff to correct abuses in state laws? This was the situation that existed in Oklahoma in 1917 when the United States was drawn into fhe European war. There was a big organization, composed principally of tenant farmers, many of whom were uneducated, even to extent of being unable to read and write. They were organized, not to interfere with the war, bat to remedy abuses that they were suffering, but- they had started on the wrong track and had not made much if any progress. But there were two men connected with the Jones family as organizers, who had different plans. These men thought they saw a chance to start a bloody, revolution in the United States, to seize the United States gov- ernment, if need be, at the cost of the ‘lives of the Oklahoma farmers, and to use the W. C. U. or Jones family to further their plans. HOW ADVANTAGE WAS TAKEN OF THE FARMERS the homa, speaking at these secret meet- ings of the Jones family,and poisoned half-lies, half-truth of their speeches went something like this: : “You farmers have no voice in this government. This isn’t your coun- try; you don’t even own the farms that you work. "'Why should you fight for it? ““A nation wide revolution is being planned, Up North there are 6,000,- 000 I. W, W.’s ready to join you, in Texas there are 1,000,000 more farm- ers ready. “When the draft call comes, don’t go. The government has only a small army and they need all of them to guard President Wilson and the gov- ernor of Oklahoma. They can’t send them here but if they do, we will take to the hills. The women will take care of the army; they will put strychnine in their coffee.” ~ The organizers didn’t tell the right way for the farmers to remedy their wrongs. They didn’t tell the farmers that while they didn’t have any voice in the state government at the time, they COULD have that voice by elect- ing their own men to make the laws. They didn’t advocate peaceful reform ‘by the ballot, but a bloody revolution by the bullet. They went on to talk about other things. They would say: “A bottle of nitric acid suspended over a box of matches will start a fire any time. The acid will eat the cork away and set fire.to the matches. We’re not telling you what to do; we're just telling you what can be - done. This war can be won by coal oil and matches.” ATl this and much more is in the sworn testi- ‘.. mony in the Oklahoma draft riot cases, which the writer went through during his stay in Oklahoma city. * The testimony covers thousands of type- written pages. WHAT HAPPENED IN OKLAHOMA AND THE RESULT Not all of the members of the Jones family listened calmly to these incitements to arson and riot. Most of them were peaceable farmers.” Many of them protested openly at the meetings agalnst the speeches of the organizers. But most of farmers were downtrodden and many of them were uneducated. They had been unable to make a decent living and no one had _offered to show them a way out of their dificul- ~tles.. Many of them -were unable to read and write; ~ others could not afford to take mews- These men went throughout Okla--