Reds in America - Richard M. Whitney |
In the conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States by "armed insurrection" the Communist party of America, coached specifically by the Communist International of Moscow, aims first to undermine the military force of this country, including Army, Navy and local police organizations. The handling of the local situations is left to the Communists of the various cities, but the question of the Army and Navy is squarely before the national organization. The illegal Bridgman convention was to have considered this feature of the Communist work, but as the conspirators were rudely interrupted by the Michigan authorities they did not get to this part of the convention program. However, certain documents found by the authorities after the raid show plainly what the plans were.
It should be mentioned here that the celebrated Boston police strike, before the Communist party of America was organized, was a part of the Communist movement in this country. It was engineered by the Left Wing of the Socialists, which had seceded from the Socialist party and was awaiting the coming of organized Communism to the United States. These Left Wing Socialists, who later joined the Communist party, boasted of their success in precipitating the police strike and they were officially credited with this manifestation of their strength both at Moscow and by the Communist party of America, when the question of amalgamation came up. The incident has been cited more than once by the Communists as evidence of the ease with which the police can be handled when the great general strike comes which is to result in the overthrow of the Government.
Two distinct lines of attack, based upon the success of the Communist organization in Russia when the Russian Government was overthrown, are being used in the Army and Navy of the United States. These lines of attack were dictated by the Moscow officials to be put in practice in the United States. The orders, issued from Moscow, are on record. They are subtle, as are all the methods of the Communists when subtlety is necessary, but the plans and the working out of the program are known to the high officials in the Army and Navy departments of the Government.
First, all ideas of pacifism are to be encouraged. This includes the use of civil organizations devoted to pacifism, disarmament, "no more war" days, and any movement which will tend to reduce the military forces in size and ability. In all such civil organizations the Communists are interested and in many of them they appear as members, sometimes under the disguise of reputable citizens, in others openly as revolutionary workers.
This is aided by propaganda, printed and circulated by word of mouth by Communists within the ranks of the Army and Navy, full of references to the "horrors" and "cruelty" of war, with many citations, some real and others imaginary, of hardships suffered by soldiers. The life led by the officers is always pictured as one of ease and luxury, while the ranks are driven to a dog's life by these officers, so falsely painted.
The second method is more difficult and more subtle, involving the enlistment of men in Army and Navy for the creation of nuclei of Communism. Great care is used in selecting the men for these important posts for the dissemination of disloyal and treasonous ideas and theories, for the work must be handled with the greatest finesse. The duty of these men is to make converts to the cause of Communism within the ranks of the soldiers and sailors, so that when the great occasion comes the men will revolt by companies, battalions and regiments, as they did in Russia. The example of Russia is always cited as to what may be accomplished if the preliminary work is well done by the men to whom it has been entrusted.
The Secretaries of War and Navy, in the cabinet of the President of the United States, are aware of the efforts which are being made by the Communists to undermine the fighting forces of the nation and to make them either ready to turn their weapons on their officers or to disintegrate in the face of danger. Both of these tactics were employed by the Communists in destroying the Russian army and navy as weapons of the Government, and with that experience in mind and always kept in the thoughts of whomever can be found to listen, the Communists are patiently but persistently working within the forces of the United States. Secretary of War John W. Weeks, in 1922, after pointing out that army training has always been conducted with a view to "teaching loyalty, love of country and a spirit of sacrifice," said:
"The War Department has been aware that the Communist program has stressed the breeding of disloyalty among the Army and Navy personnel as well as among citizens at large. Though all opposition to the military establishment is not occasioned by such influences, undoubtedly many loyal Americans have lent their support to movements inspired by radical organizers.
In view of the situation in the Near East at present, it is interesting to note that secret instructions were sent out early in 1922 by the Bureau of Western European Secretariat of Propaganda under instructions of the Third Communist International. The United States is subordinate to this western European bureau, and the instructions were received by the Communist party to be used here substituting the United States for England or France where the names of those countries were used. These secret instructions were largely devoted to work in the Army and Navy establishments of all "capitalist" countries, because although Russia has a well-trained, well-equipped, well-clothed and well-fed Red Army of approximately a million men, the Communist parties of other countries:
". . .. possess but a trifling number of weapons," so read the instructions, and "one must come to the conclusion that the military organization of the Communist International lacks the forces which it could lead to a decisive battle with capitalism, without which, of course, it is impossible to obtain a victory over capital, and the World-Wide Soviet Republic," The secret instructions continue:
"Such a condition of affairs has long since prompted the necessity of devoting attention to the army and navy of the capitalistic States, and by increased and intense work utilizing the experience of the decomposition of the Russian White Guard Army, to attain such a condition of affairs that in the ranks of the capitalistic armies there would be Red sections which would decompose the Army as a whole and turn their bayonets against the capitalistic class. "This was considered by both the Second and Third Congress of the Communist International in compiling the thesis on propaganda and work, but unfortunately the work in this respect gave absolutely no results. This must not stop the active Communist forces from continuing the work commenced in this region. But, to the contrary, particularly now, the phantom of impending capitalistic wars is hovering before the world and the armies and navies of the capitalistic States, manned by compulsory, obligatory, or voluntary enlistment are almost entirely consisting of the most anti-militaristic youths inclined to adopt the Communistic idea.
"The work and organization in this section must be placed at the head of all the future work of the Communist International and its members, and all its strength and means must be devoted to it.
"The principal attention in the first place must he devoted to the personnel of the Navy, where the soil is particularly fertile for active Communist propaganda and work, particularly in the English and French navies. It is necessary to work under the following general conditions:
"In the final summary one should not forget that sailors are least of all subject to subordination and are very much inclined to insubordination and disorders. In this respect the example of the Great October Revolution [Bolshevist] where an honorable part was played by the Kronstadt and Baltic Fleets, and the German Revolution, where the principal participants were sailors, are convincing facts. On the basis of all this the Bureau and the Russian branches of the Communist parties must strive to create in all the principal ports special nuclei of organizers and agitators who must strive with all their efforts to get into contact with the personnel of naval vessels, to organize among them nuclei with their own people in them, and to distribute energetically special literature. The nuclei on the ships must maintain a permanent contact in accordance with the movements of the ships with the port organizations of the Communist party and the latter must regularly maintain the contact among themselves and inform one another of the movement of ships, countersigns and conditions of entry.
The port nuclei must not limit themselves to the establishment of contact and the transmittal of literature, but must strive also to the bringing together of the crews of ships and the proletarian population of the ports and to the generalizing of their ideology, remembering always that the fishermen principally are the source for the supplying of the personnel of the fleet and that their influence can reflect very much on the attitude of the sailors now and particularly during possible mobilizations. Simultaneously the work already commenced in the occupied territory (on the Rhine, Upper Silesia and Constantinople) among the territorial armies of the Entente must continue to grow and to spread into the detachments already in England, France, etc., proper.
"At the present moment it must bear in mind the youths which are entering the Army on the latest drafts, among whom there is a particularly favorable soil for Communist agitation and the propaganda of pacifist ideas. In this respect it is necessary to give the French, German and English Communist parties full initiative in the sense of determining the tactics and program of agitation obligating them to conform their work to local conditions.
"With this it is necessary to point out that their agitators should strive to utilize as often as possible the thousand and one little details of the daily life of the soldier in order to undermine his obedience to the officers, the bourgeois discipline and his duties in defending the bourgeois peace. Along with this there must be conducted on a broad scale an increased propaganda of pacifist ideas, ideas of disarmament and to prove that it is only for their own benefit that the capitalists and bourgeoisie create big armies and are preparing for their own game new conflicts of peoples when they wish to live in peace.
"The general slogan: Only if the proletariat be master in every country will the cause for new conflicts disappear."
This secret document was signed by Zinoviev, chairman of the Central Committee of the Third International; Katayama, the Japanese Communist who was in charge of the propaganda section in Moscow; and Arngold. the secretary. It was dated in Moscow in December, 1921 and the official copy reached the United States by courier early in 1922. The Communist party of America, obedient to the "iron discipline" of the Third International of Moscow, became active along the lines laid out in the secret instructions. The results were soon apparent to the officers of the Army and Navy and in course of time the higher officers of both military establishments recognized the symptoms. Then it was that Secretary Weeks made the statement quoted above, and Secretary of the Navy Denhy issued the following orders to the entire service:
(Signed) "Edwin Denby
"Secretary of the Navy."
It was only three months after the secret instructions from Moscow quoted above arrived in the United States, brought by Dr. Leo S. Reichel, member of the Communist party and of the Central Bureau of the Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia, and therefore a courier to be trusted with so important a document, that Secretary Denby found it necessary to issue his warning, and Secretary Weeks to issue his statement regarding radicalism in the Army. It is easy to read between the lines that these instructions had been put into action promptly by the Communists and that the effect had already been felt in the Navy. Loyal Navy officials have been particularly watchful since the captain of an American ship in Pacific waters adopted the Soviet idea of permitting the crew to decide what port to make for a holiday ashore. That occurred but a few years ago and the captain was quickly relieved of his responsibilities at that post.
Military authorities are loath to speak of sudden dismissals from the service in recent months of men who were acting as Communist agents in the ranks of the Army and Navy. It was thought best to dismiss them without "making a noise about it" instead of court-martialing the men and sentencing them to prison which would be furnishing material for the Communists in stirring up other soldiers and sailors to resentment and rebellion.
By skillfully used propaganda and personal intercourse the Communists succeeded in planting the seeds of Communism in the minds of many of the American soldiers who saw service in Russia during the war and after the armistice on the German frontier and in Germany. Officers were shocked at the Communistic ideas inoculated in the minds of troops who had served in such organizations on their return to the United States. It is not believed possible that all such seeds have been exterminated, but much has been done toward wiping out the evil in both branches of the military establishment. All of which has made the Communists more determined to push their work with greater vigor.
Whenever police or soldiers are called out on strike duty the Communists become very active in trying to alienate them from their duty. Clever talkers are sent into the strike district to talk with soldiers and police whenever possible; "under cover" men they are sometimes called, for they do not let it be known that they are connected with the Communist party or any radical movement. They present their arguments, skillfully prepared, solely with the view of making the soldiers forget their duty or sympathize with the law violators to such an extent that they will be remiss in their duty, and thus morale is undermined. These carefully selected men never appear among the strikers, never address strike meetings, and to all appearances they are not particularly interested in the strike except from a humanitarian point of view.
Another group of Communist workers are also on duty at all strikes where soldiers are sent to keep the peace. This second group devotes itself to keeping the strikers agitated by speech and circulars and posters distributed among the strikers. They address secret or open meetings of the strikers, urging them to stand firm in their hostility toward the employers and in general adding fuel to the fire by class hatred. A third group devotes itself entirely to the soldiers, placing in their hands appeals printed by the Communists urging them not to oppose the strikers. One such appeal reads:
"SOLDIERS! SOLDIERS!
"Do not shoot your brothers, the railway and mine workers!
"They are not your enemies! Today they are lighting in order to obtain a scrap of bread for their families. They are useful citizens; workers who have produced millions of dollars' worth of wealth for the war profiteers. Many of them fought on Flanders Field. They are now trying to collect some of that democracy and freedom they were promised, just the same as thousands of ex-service men are fighting for the bonus that war profiteers are opposing because it would compel them to disgorge some of the loot stolen from the workers of this country.
"Soldiers! Whether you are in the United States Army or the militias of the various States, do not shoot at the strikers! You did not enlist to engage in the infamous occupation of strike-breakers and scab herders. Refuse to do it! Do not help the profiteers take the last crumb from the mouths of the helpless women and children of the working class.
"Remember this, the workers are never your enemies!
"Soon you may be in their ranks and you would not want to be crushed by armed force!
"Perhaps even now, in some other part of the country, your father or your brother may he in the ranks of the strikers! Would you want them to be murdered because they ask a mere existence?
"It is not treason to refuse to become an assassin of the workers!
"Central Executive Committee of the Communist party of America,
"J. Davis,
"Executive Secretary."
In Truth, a communist paper, of August 4, 1922, is found an article written with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist party of America, devoted to the need of constantly stirring up trouble and in efforts to make everyone dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs. In this article appears the following sentence: "In soldiers' organizations the bonus issue may be injected to alienate them from the Government".
While the bonus question was before Congress the Communists prepared to use the bonus issue for its own ends, whichever way the question was decided. If it were passed by Congress the Communists were prepared to launch an attack on the granting of a bonus on the grounds that it was a move by capitalism to add more taxes to the poor working man; if defeated it was to be used to show that capitalism was refusing the soldier "his just reward."
In another Communist paper is an editorial declaring that the desertions from the United States Army were at the rate of "one every forty minutes." This editorial says:
"The deserters are to be congratulated. It would have been better still if they had shown the same intelligence before they ever entered the army, but perhaps it is just as well that they learned their lesson by bitter experience. They know now what jackasses they were. They will not be caught in the trap again."
Among former soldiers, men who served in the Army during the European War and have since been demobilized, the Communists are working hard, with many agents. The American Legion as a whole has loyally withstood the efforts to win them over to the cause of Communism, and the organization is unalterably aligned against them. But it is true that secretly the Communists have many representatives in the ranks of this loyal organization and the fight will have to be kept up continually to prevent increases. Knowing that this fight is wellnigh hopeless the Communists have devoted their attention more particularly to the World War Veterans, an organization which is Communistic in principles and which is openly supported by the Communist party. Indeed, among the documents seized at Bridgman were official reports of the World War Veterans which showed a close working arrangement between the two bodies. It is generally accepted that the World War Veterans is one of the "legal" expressions of the Communist party.
The Soldier-Worker, of Butte, Montana, official organ of the World War Veterans of Montana, is as Communistic as the official organs of the Communist party of America and boasts of its connection with Communist movements. It prints with pride a letter of commendation from the Secretary of the "International of Former Combatants," in France. It supports all amnesty and pacifist movements, attacks capital in every issue, and is a part of a national group of similar papers backing the World War Veterans and the Workers' party of America preaching the same doctrine. As an example of the kind of information conveyed in these papers, to the exclusion of news of opposite character, three short items from a single issue are presented herewith:
"A report from Helsingfors stated the French battleship Curacao which was the flagship of the English Baltic Fleet, with a base at Helsingfors, has returned home, after a minor explosion which produced some damage. Our correspondent, however, learns that there is a report in Finnish military circles to the effect that the Cause for sending the Curacao home was not an explosion but a mutiny among the crew on board, who refused to operate against the fleet of the Russian Workers' Republic of Kronstadt. As the mutiny threatened to spread to other ships, the battleship was sent home."
"Reports from Tilsit are that the crew of the French squadron at Libau raised the Red flag. The crews of the warships demanded of their officers to be returned to France immediately. The French vessels were immediately sent home and an English squadron steamed in to occupy their positions at the port of Libau."
"According to a Soviet wireless message, mentioned in Avanti of May 4, General d'Anselme admitted in a conversation with representatives of the Odessa Soviet that the Bolshevik propaganda had 'demoralized' 60 percent of his soldiers."
Not content with using every possible effort to demoralize the Army and Navy of the United States, the Communists have been recruiting for a Red Army of America. Regular recruiting officers are sent out with literature, enlistment blanks and programs for the purpose of enrolling men to fight in the Red army in this country. This work, naturally, has to be kept entirely secret, and because of that fact practically nothing has been printed or known publicly of this part of the movement. It is impossible to say how far this illegal movement has gone. But it is known that the Communists have discussed a certain location in an Eastern State as a suitable site for the gathering and hiding of arms and ammunition to have ready when the time comes for the armed insurrection.
While the American troops were occupying portions of Germany after the armistice they were flooded with propaganda from Communist parties of Europe ihtended to incite them to insurrection and to plant the seed of Communism to be brought back to the Army in the United States. One such bit of propaganda, which was furnished by a former soldier, who brought it back with him from Europe, signed by the "Communist party of Germany," reads as follows:
"American soldiers, do you know why you are here?
"Thousands of miles across the sea are your homes, your friends, your job and your future life. Your family is waiting for your return, your mother or your wife, or maybe your sweetheart is anxiously waiting to become your wife.
"Why can't you go back now?
"Why did you come here, in the first place?
"Your motive was an honest one, an honorable one. You came to Europe to risk your life for democracy, to destroy the beast of militarism, and make the world a better place to live in. You fought bravely and you won. Perhaps the German working people could not have made their revolution and thrown off the Kaiser if you had not delivered such deadly blows at the Kaiser's military machine. You never had anything against the German people—only against the military clique. We know that and appreciate it.
"You have accomplished your object. Now you are lying about camp and waiting. You want to go home.
"You are not here to help us complete our revolution, but to prevent it. Your Government and all of the Allied governments are supporting the same scoundrels who helped the Kaiser throughout the war—the Ebert-Scheidemann Government. The real German revolutionists, the working class, are fighting against the Ebert-Scheidemann Government, because the Ebert-Scheidemann Government helped the Kaiser and will always fight against the right.
"Yet your Government is recognizing them and dealing with them, and doing everything it can against the real German revolutionists, the Spartacus people, as they are called, who have always fought against the Kaiser and have rotted in the Kaiser's prisons and been shot by the Kaiser's firing squads during the war.
"Your officers won't let you talk to the people around you for fear that you may learn the facts about the revolution.
"They make you drill five to six hours a day for fear that if you have time to think you may figure out for yourself why you are here.
"You are being kept in Europe to prevent the rule of the working people. .
"You know that the working people always get the bad end of it from the capitalists. Some of the American boys who have been demobilized have gone back home to ask for their jobs again. The bosses are welcoming the men as 'heroes' and then giving them back their old jobs—but paying them starvation wages, around a dollar and a half a day. The longer they keep you here, the better able they will be to cheat you out of a job or cheat yon on low pay when you get back.
"You came to Europe for democracy, but you are being kept here for the big bankers of Wall Street and of Paris and London and Berlin. You are being kept here to prevent the German revolution from overthrowing the junkers and bankers who supported the Kaiser, and you may be kept here to shoot down French working-men who rebel for real liberty, and you may be sent to England to fight there some more years as strike-breakers against the English working-people who are now trying to get the liberty they fought so long and bravely for. Or, you may be sent to Ireland to shoot to death the new Irish Republic.
"You came for democracy, but vou are not being kept here for it."
As a part of the drive conducted by the Communist party of America against the Army and Navy recruiting for the military establishments, the party circulated a letter said to have been written bv a prisoner in Atlanta penitentiary to Eugene V. Debs, after his release. The name of the writer is not given and it is not known why be is in prison, although the circular says that "it is from a man who served a term of years in the Navy and has been rewarded for his patriotism by a long prison sentence." The circular also states that "it is a fine bourgeois reformation they get at this walled-ininferno." After quoting the letter in full the circular adds two paragraphs intended to check enlistments. They read:
"This man who served the best years of his life in the United States Navy and is now in penitentiary warns young men not to be deceived by the fraudulent and alluring advertisements posted on city billboards and to steer clear of the Navy if they do not wish to enter deliberately upon a period of slavery under tyrannical rules after having signed away their rights as citizens, including the right to make a complaint.
"The warning voice of the imprisoned marine whose eyes are now opened and who would save other young men from sharing in his lamentable experience is well worthy of serious consideration."
The letter from the prisoner, which it is boasted was smuggled illegally out of the prison, is full of the complaints frequently heard in Army posts and among enlisted men in the Navy who have been punished for infractions of regulations. It recites punishments for offences which are known to everyone who knows anything about military discipline and the necessity for it. It contains no charge of anything except what is caused by chafing under discipline and resentment at punishment for violating the rules. One paragraph, however, says:
"The struggle of the oppressed will be won in time and then your name shall be a household word to the new generation."
The Communists have planted their agents in Government circles, in departments in Washington, in bureaus in other cities, with the intention of organizing nuclei of Communism wherever possible and of securing information as to what the Government is doing. One of the pledges exacted of Communists, in accordance with regulations adopted by the party in convention, is that no Communist shall accept a Government position "except under Civil Service." At first it was ruled that no Communist should work for the Government in any capacity under any circumstances, but this was modified when the leaders sought to obtain information of Government activities from loyal employees. The safeguard of Civil Service regulations, they believe, will protect Communists in Government employ because if any attempt is made to dismiss them they can raise the cry of "free speech" and have sufficient fanatical support in Congress to save them their jobs.
It is safe to say that not a department in Washington is entirely free from Communists. These men have been "planted" deliberately and spreading of propaganda is a part of their duty to the Communist party. In some of the departments there have been several known Communists at various times who were protected by their superiors in their positions. The most notorious example of high Government officials protecting radicals and encouraging them by word and deed was when Louis F. Post was Assistant Secretary of Labor. Post's radical activities won strong approval from the Communist party officially.
The Communist idea of government and the theory upon which the Communists demand the destruction of the Government of the United States, is brought out in the thesis on the Relations of Number One and Number Two (the illegal and legal branches of the Communist party) adopted at the convention at Bridgman before it was raided by the Michigan authorities. This thesis, which when adopted becomes a part of the regulations of the party, end which was adopted just before the raid, reads like a textbook, as follows:
The thesis on tactics adopted by the Third International sets forth, among other things, that:
"The new international labor organization is established for the purpose of organizing united action of the world proletariat, aspiring toward the same goal: the overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, and of an international Soviet republic, for the complete elimination of classes and the realization of Socialism, the first step toward the communist commonwealth."
Commenting on this, the Communist party of America has officially stated that:
"This definition of the aims of the Communist International laid down in the statutes, distinctly defines all the questions of tactics to be solved. . . . The world revolution, i.e., the decay of capitalism and the concentration of the revolutionary energy of the proletariat, its organization into aggressive, victorious power, will require a prolonged period of revolutionary struggle. . . . The Communists declared, while the the war was raging, that the period of imperialism was making for an epoch of social revolution, i.e., of a long series of civil wars in a number of capitalistic countries, and of wars between the capitalist states on one side and proletarian states and exploited colonial peoples on the other side."
Bearing these statements in mind, with particular emphasis on the plans of the Communist International, through the Communist party of America, it is interesting to read a statement in Truth, which speaks officially for the party, in its issue of August 4,1922, where it says:
"Mere talk, regardless of its eloquence or volume, will not expose the capitalists to the working class. The Communists must put forward concrete proposals. Tangible, immediate demands in line with the workers' interest must be made on the Government. Our activity in Congress is subsidiary to and dependent upon the mass struggle on the outside. The bourgeoisie will do their best to kill all our propositions. They will refuse even to consider the workers' problems. This will materially aid us in exposing the capitalist. This will help us to give a political character to the whole struggle. . . . When we make these definite demands on Government, when we put forward our immediate legislative demands, we do so not with the idea of solving the insolvable—the contradictions of capitalism—but in order to rally the masses around practical concrete plans of combat which will further draw them into the struggle against the state and expose its class character."
Early in September, 1922, a delegation of the Communist party of America sailed for Europe and established itself, where it discussed with the Russian Communist leader plans for an intensive campaign among Congressmen of the United States for the immediate recognition of the Soviet Government of Russia by this country. One of the American Communist leaders stated that certain Senators are already in line for this drive and are all the time working toward securing such recognition. He said that these Senators are in constant communication with Communist leaders here and directly with the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in Moscow. He declared that the Moscow Government has determined to spend several millions of dollars on propaganda for recognition by the United Slates if it could be assured of success as a result of this expenditure.
The general plan to be adopted, thus, was discussed in Moscow with American citizens sitting in the conference. These Americans have already announced to the Communists that they must devote their attention to certain people "during elections both National and State."
This delegation sailed in September, 1922. In the latter part of August of that year Communist representatives went to Washington and held conferences with members of the Congress of the United States.