Reds in America - Richard M. Whitney




Radical Publications and Literature

The number of radical publications issued in the United States including those published abroad and circulated in this country almost trebled in the year 1922. This is due to two facts; the tremendous increase in the growth of the Communist party and its "legal" branches in America, and the fact that a number of radical publications suspended after the raids by the authorities in December, 1920, and January, 1921. There are known to be at least 227 radical publications printed in foreign languages and seventy-three in English issued in the United States; there may be others, for many of them are printed secretly and circulated surreptitiously, and it is more than probable that some such papers find their way only into the hands of those whom they are intended to reach. In addition to these there are 269 papers printed in various languages abroad, including English, and imported into the United States in large quantities, as well as forty-two papers published in Argentine, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Porto Rico and Uruguay, which are brought in increasingly large quantities to this country to aid in the drive of radical propaganda. This is a total of 611 periodicals known to be circulated among the people of the United States, directly or indirectly aimed at the overthrow of this Government.

In addition to the daily papers, weekly magazines and monthly reviews, included in the above list, books are published and circulated for children and adults, all of them very cleverly presenting propaganda for the purpose of instilling Communism in the minds of the readers. Most of these books are prepared in Russia and many of them are printed abroad, being brought to the United States by smugglers. Picture post cards, some of them of high artistic merit, are also secretly brought to this country and efforts are constantly being made to give them wide distribution; but as these post-cards are unmailable, under the laws of the country, they are usually confiscated. No attempt is made, however, to distribute the books except from hand to hand, and through the underground organizations of the Communist party. The subtlety and excellence of these books are worthy of commendation but for the message they bear'—that the Government of the United States must be overthrown and the dictatorship of the proletariat established. Several different volumes of fables, imitating the Aesop classics, especially designed for little folks, are widely read by Communist children and the children of radicals of other stripes.

Many of the Communist books, also, may be obtained at public book stores. Care is taken in the preparation of these books—this refers solely to the reading matter for mature people—to make them accord with the laws of the United States so that the propaganda may be more widely distributed. These volumes are largely philosophical and bearing on industrial conditions. But the single moral pointed, the single lesson conveyed is that all capitalistic governments must be overthrown by violence and Soviet governments, patterned after and under the direction of the central Soviet government at Moscow, established.

At first the Communist, anarchist and other radical papers published in this country were crude affairs, frequently printed on coarse, brown paper, and typographically barbarous. But today these papers are excellently printed, many of them on better print paper than is used by most metropolitan newspapers, and the make-up and typography of a nature that would please the most exacting journalist. Colors are frequently used—though this applies exclusively, perhaps, to magazines and pamphlets. And whereas the reading matter in the early publications was crudely put together, usually nothing but the most blatant excoriation of government and praise of the Soviet regime, and almost invariably showing ignorance of composition and of English, the present publications are excellently written in blameless diction, and present their propaganda in far more insidious and interesting style. In fact, some of their newspapers and magazines are fascinating in their cleverness. The chief propaganda articles. are logically constructed (on false premises, to be sure) and the best American in the world would have to be on his guard to keep from falling into agreement with the writer. These publications are well illustrated with cartoons and photographic reproductions and have various departments, even columnists and jokes, all carefully built to further Communist propaganda.

One excellent series of pamphlets is entitled "Children's Stories of Soviet Russia" and is issued by "Friends of Soviet Russia Famine Scout Clubs of America." This is patently an effort to make use of the boys' and girls' scout organizations and the pamphlet is purely a Communist organ for the dissemination of Communist propaganda through the Communist "legal" branch known as Friends of Soviet Russia. It is profusely illustrated, with covers in colors, and contains a number of stories about and for children. The blow at capitalism is struck at the outset in the following paragraph, as a preface to the stories:

"The rich capitalists all over the world tried to crush the government of the Russian workers and farmers. They blockaded Russia. They crippled her factories and destroyed her farming machinery and made Russia fight for her life at a time when she was beginning to make life happy and free for all workers and their children. Then came drought, starvation and death for millions."

Radical periodicals are published from Boston to Los Angeles, from Seattle to Florida. The place of publication of the most radical is unknown; they simply appear. They are printed in many languages including, besides English: Russian, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Esthonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak, Spanish, Roumanian, Danish, Lettish, Slovenic and French.

Many of the papers, such as The Communist, the official organ of the Communist party in America, are printed in various language editions. The editors of the different editions attend a regular round table at which the editor-in-chief dictates the general policy to be followed in each article. This policy is discussed by the polyglot circle and the translations are made to conform, not in words, but in sentiment, to the policy dictated. The same is true of the books, pamphlets, circulars, posters and magazines, which appear in many languages, directed to bringing about the one definite result. This part of the Communist party work is thoroughly organized and is progressing without a hitch. These publications are practically all the reading matter the foreigner in the United States gets. They are carefully prepared to keep his mind alien to the interests of the United States, and are devoted to inspiring and maintaining interest in the "class struggle," which is preached to him continuously from the time of his arrival in America. His only companions, frequently his only associates, speak his language, and here is a newspaper, a weekly and a monthly magazine, and even books in his native tongue. There is little in reading matter that falls into his hands to urge him to become American because everything he wants in the way of reading matter is furnished him in his own language. And therein lies the seriousness of the foreign press situation in the United States. With few exceptions the reading matter that comes to his hand in his own language preaches either openly or by innuendo the "necessity" for the violent overthrow of the United States Government.

The radical press was largely concerned with the strikes of 1922, as was to be supposed. The radical and labor press was interested in the period of unrest as an example of the larger, broader fight between capital and labor of which the strikes were regarded as but preliminary, although very important, battles. Characteristic is the sentiment expressed: "Capital is advancing; Labor is on the defensive." Not in part alone the fault of the owners and operators, according to this press, but the coal and rail strikes were entirely so—an unprovoked assault upon the living rights of the workers. Hence, also, the almost universal plea for the united front, the general strike, as the only hope against the unity of purpose and power of the enemy, the ultimate end, of course, being "the complete abolition of Capitalism." Certain of the editorials in recent numbers of the Communist and other radical press on the strike situation are very bitter. "If they do not in actual words urge measures of direct action, words are scarcely needed in the light of the inflammatory picture painted. To assert, as one of them does, that "the bourgeoisie stands in a fighting line—ready to shoot you down like dogs", and then add that "To give in means—Death! To struggle means—Life! Struggle!" does not require more in the way of exhortion to forcible resistance.

As Moscow is the headquarters of the entire Communistic movement, all important orders affecting Communism throughout the entire world come from that city. Berlin is one of the chief, if not the chief subordinate headquarters, for it is in the latter city that the governing body of the parties in Western Europe and America sits and directs the work done in those two important sections of the world. The propaganda work in the United States has its headquarters in Berlin, always, of course, under the supreme authorities in Moscow. Early In the summer of 1922, Jay Lovestone, secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America, brought from Berlin $35,000 for propaganda work in this country. Later, A. A. Heller of New York, representative of the Supreme Soviet of People's Economy in the United States, received $48,000 from Berlin for the same purpose. This latest consignment of gold was for work in connection with the drive of the Friends of Soviet Russia for additional funds, the major portion of which goes into Soviet coffers in Moscow.

Bearing in mind that the United States, then, is fed with Communist propaganda from Berlin, it is interesting to know that this propaganda is prepared at the Berlin headquarters in English, printed on sheets on one side only and thus distributed so that the English radical papers can reprint it simply by using shears and paste in its preparation. This material is also furnished the foreign language press here in whatever language is desired, and in the same way. The Berlin organization is no secret abroad, for the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung published an excellent chart of the ramifications of the organization with the following interesting article:

"The chart shows the organization of the Bolshevik propaganda as spread throughout Europe. Its management is being conducted by the propaganda bureau, which is a division of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, having as its object the propaganda within the country, in the army and abroad. The latter is divided into two sections: the Eastern and the Western. The Eastern section consists of eight groups, those of China and Korea, Japan, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Persia, Caucasus and the Nomadic nations. The Western section embraces, outside of the European countries, the United States of America. The propaganda bureau is headed by the propaganda committee, the members of which are Zinoviev, Radek, Chicherin, Lunacharsky, Krassin, Litvinov and others. The committee is again divided into an Official Section, containing the diplomatic and commercial delegations abroad, the press bureau, the news agency 'Rosta' and a number of wireless stations as well as the secret sections A and B, conducting a special information and communications service under the management of a member of the Extraordinary Commission, the Che-Ka. The official section is conducted by Litvinov in Reval. Here are the printing offices, the information bureaus, and warehouses for goods that will be required, should rapprochement with other countries be perfected,

"Litvinov also has charge of the Central offices in Helsingfors, Riga, Kovne, Prague, Vienna, Rome, Stockholm, Copenhagen, London and Berlin, The Russian money for the feeding of the chest of the Russian missions is being forwarded by Litvinov either directly to those offices or to Berlin for further transmission. It also is being used for the support of the Communist groups, mainly those in Vienna, Prague and Berlin.

"Berlin is ranking first among the Bolshevik central offices. It is overrun with Soviet agents. Its head is Wigdor Kopp, with his secretary, Stomuniak. The main offices are located in the Massenstrasse, Nr. 9. With this there are connected further separate bureaus constituting together an enormous administrative apparatus. The Berlin office is supporting the paper. Rote Fahne, and is conducting the Red press bureau in the Muenzstrasse, 24, issuing reports which are being scattered in enormous quantities through Europe and the United States. The office is directed by the German Communist, Anna Geier. The Berlin central office disposes of vast funds. It is obliged to maintain, however, an army of agents, informers, couriers, clubs, newspapers, etc. Kopp also is subsidizing a shipping company; his real name is Kopelevich. He places great confidence in the organization 'Peace and Work,' which is managed by Prof. Stankevich and the journalist Gotubsov, endeavoring to reconcile the Russian emigres with the Soviet Government.

"The secret sections are working by means of strikes, sabotage, provocations and economic crises. Their Central Office is administered from Moscow and is under the direction of Zinoviev, Dzierzinsky, Kamenev, Kursky and others. Every foreign country has there its representative. Among them there is the Englishman, MacLean, who was arrested recently in England during the demonstrations of the unemployed. The main and sub-arteries are indicated on the chart. Seven of them are connecting Moscow with the centers of Europe. [The United States comes directly under Berlin—Author.)]

"The second place after Berlin is Prague. It is the connecting main between Moscow and Paris. The office in Milan is directing the Italian, the Swiss and the Yugoslav Districts. Offices of similar importance are situated in Rome, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sofia, Adrianople and Constantinople, all of which are directed from Adrianople. Roumania is under special direction of Rakovsky in Kiev. The well-organized Western sections of Zurich and London under the management of Rubalsky are worthy of mention. London is a subdivision of the Paris section and is receiving special attention from Moscow. Toulouse is connected with Spain, while Belgium and Holland are connected with Paris,

"This enormous organization could not be changed or overthrown in a night. Changes of individuals might take place but they could not disturb the entire structure. The organization of the Bolshevik propaganda as outlined here is working for the only great goal for which it has been created, which is Universal Revolution."

While the Berlin organization, with the multitude of tentacles as outlined above, serves to direct the attitude of the papers of the United States and various other countries as well, along lines for the general Communist movement, editors of the radical newspapers are permitted great freedom in handling their local situations and problems. Every strike, every political disturbance, every racial clash is seized upon to promote the cause of radicalism and to serve as an agency for an attack upon the "capitalistic" state and form of society. On these lines the radical press in the United States leads the world, for the Communists abroad have passed the stage of development where they have to be continuously aroused. The foreigner in the United States, dependent in large measure for his information and almost entirely for his reading matter upon the radical press, needs to have his mind concentrated on his "wrongs" in order to keep him at the proper pitch of rebellious feeling.

Therefore, the radical press pursues its tireless course with steadily increasing skill in fastening upon those issues in the industrial and political life of the United States which lend themselves, often neatly enough, to the cause of radicalism. The characteristic feature about this attitude of blame, contemptuous or ironic, as the case may be, is that never by any chance is a fair or good word, even an extenuating word, said for the existing state of things. Never, by any chance, is an effort made, never even a suggestion, to improve conditions that exist; the sole aim and object is utterly to destroy the present social system before considering the moves that will have to be made in effecting the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in America. Everything that is, is wrong, they say; all is black, and there is no relief or betterment in sight because relief and betterment are not to be looked for in a cesspool of iniquity. Read their press day after day and its influence will not be denied. A blatant chauvinism might be proof against it. An intelligent appreciation of it, pro and con, is not to be found belittling it. How a full sympathy with it must be nourished and strengthened, it is disconcerting to think.

The proletariat of the United States, the Communists and other radical leaders believe, has passed the stage where wild excitement is necessary to waken workers to appreciation of what they must do. Accordingly a change appears in their press. In 1920 the efforts of press and agitators were devoted to exciting the workers to radicalism in thought and deed. The most inflammatory appeals were printed and broadcasted by every means that could be found in which the law could be evaded. But today the propaganda is far more insidious. The minds of the workers have been filled with the necessity of overthrowing the Government by violence and now they are being trained to the work which is regarded solely as preliminary to the great "mass action". That is why the united front is being preached and stressed on every occasion. The Freiheit, the daily organ of the Jewish Federation of the Workers' Party, the "legal" political branch of the Communist party of America, in discussing strikes editorially, said in the Autumn of 1922:

"The 'right to work' has no meaning to them [the employers] when they lock out the workers, reorganize the factories, have the work done outside (in order to deprive their own workers of work) and demand for themselves the right to discharge employees. The worker is to them of lesser value than a machine.

"A machine is not thrown out when there is not enough work to keep it going. The worker, however, who creates all the wealth for his employer through the sweat of his brow is thrown out in the street when there is not enough work to keep him busy.

"We are not discussing this with the railroad companies or other employers. We do not want to preach morals to them. We only want that the workers themselves conceive fully the 'sacred right to work.'

"The present crisis will not last forever, and not always will the present masters have the upper hand. The time will come when the workers will realize their power and will remind themselves of 'the right to work'.

"The workers will acquire the right to work with the abolishment of the rights of the employers over the industries and with the substitution of the dictatorship of the masters with that of the workers."

As an example of the radical press' efforts to keep the spirit of the workers up to fighting pitch, a couple of paragraphs from a recent number of Uj Elore, a Hungarian daily Communist paper of New York, will suffice, This paper, in an editorial printed in September, 1922, shows the characteristic hope that out of the railroad and coal strikes, or any other similar strikes, may gTow the means to the great end, the triumph of Communism through the general strike. In part this editoral says:

"The new factor of the American labor movement is the spiritual trend which fills with revolutionary solidarity the awakening masses. Soon there will appear, in every fight of the workers, that feeling of revolutionary solidarity which gives the masses participating in the fight a strong push, which makes them feel that they no longer fight only for temporary advantages, not only to preserve the attained results, but that they enter the fight on a wider basis, affecting the whole working class. The revolutionary aim steps to the foreground.

"The Communist self-consciousness of the workers has become a powerful weapon against capitalism which is already shocked by this strength, although the workers have not even used yet the weapon that has become hardened (as steel) by solidarity. What is this weapon?

"The thought of a GENERAL STRIKE is this weapon which has become manifest among broad ranks in spite of all the soothing efforts of the trade union pashas. The workers want to employ this weapon, they demand that it be employed. . . The mass has issued the password that the terror of the government must be answered by. a general strike."

"The masses grow more and more in favor of the revolutionary fight and with this they voluntarily accept Communist leadership. In trade unions the members know already that the bourgeoisie do not represent the interests of the workers and the court injunction has made even those sober who up to now supported the Gompers policy."

"The powerful weapon flashed up in the hands of the workers of America; the bourgeoisie is looking trembling toward the developments. In the strained situation the sober, earnest and conscious words of The Communist's have a commanding effect. It is up to the workers of America whether they will progress according to the revolutionary finger-post towards victory."

The cleverness of the editorial forces of the various Communist and other radical publications is frequently shown in hints of violence which leave in the readers' minds thoughts of possibilities that will lead to the desired end. Editorials which are almost as "gentle as a sucking dove" are more often than not wholly inimical to the Government in spirit and are bound to leave inflammatory ideas in the minds of the readers. And often an apparently mild, but insidiously terroristic editorial will conclude with a single paragraph breathing violence; as for example, the following paragraph from a recent number of Laisve, a Lithuanian Communist daily published in Brooklyn:

"Only when the workers manifest their solidarity and their clenched mass fist does the Government begin to reckon with them and speak about their constitutional rights—only then does the Government allow the proletariat a certain amount of concessions."

It is impossible to give more than a hint of the work being done by the Communist and other radical press of the United States. Every one of the upward of a hundred radical daily newspapers, not to mention the weeklies, monthlies, pamphlets and books, are filled with matter breathing defiance to the established order of government in the United States and urging the workers to take the reins in their own hands, as was done in Russia, and establish the longed-for dictatorship.

In every city in the country there is a committee of the Communist party of America whose duties are to find ways of presenting their propaganda to non-Communists through the medium of what is called the "conservative" press. Unfortunately, the desire of most metropolitan daily papers to be fair and permit both sides of any question which is mentioned in its columns to be presented, offers an excellent opportunity, of which the Communists are quick to take advantage for the dissemination of Communist propaganda through newspapers which are distinctly loyal. Frequently American publications are imposed upon and print letters and signed articles which have been contributed under various guises and which in fact are merely clever designs of the Communists to establish a connection with a reputable publication for improper use in the future.

The columns of periodicals like The Nation, The Freeman and The New Republic have been freely and widely opened for Communist propaganda to appeal to the so-called "intellectuals" who read those papers. This is not so serious, for the policy of those publications is plainly evident to anyone. They are classed as revolutionary and make no disclaimer to the charges that they are engaged, partially, at least, in spreading the doctrines of the revolutionists. But when a publication like the official Journal of the American Bankers' Association falls into a trap laid for it, one must express surprise. If any organization in the country should he conservative it is that of the bankers'. And when a number of the official organ of that organization came from the press with an article by Ivan Narodny (alias Mueller, alias Ivan Ivanovitch, alias Jaan Siboul, alias Jaan Talue) a suspect during the war, there was reason for surprise. The article, to be sure, was an ostensible attack on the Soviet government in Russia, but it was planted for ulterior purposes after a considerable discussion and carefully laid plans by the Communists here, who had a quiet laugh at the ease with which they effected an entrance to the bourgeois press. Narodny has served time for counterfeiting, has long been and admits that he is an active revolutionist, working from Russia, and has had a career of crime the details of which would fill a book.

All the radical press of the United States are considered official organs by the Communist party, for all the official orders from Moscow are given to each publication in order that the instructions may reach all members of the party. As an example of this there appeared a proclamation signed by the Executive Committee of the Communist International, dated at Moscow July 22, 1922, calling upon "The Workingmen and Workingwomen of All Countries" to keep up the fight for help for Russia. Referring to the demands of the sane countries of the world that private property be respected by the Soviet government before the question of recognition will be considered, this proclamation says:

"As regards the factories and mines . . . Soviet Russia baa stated that she will never and on no account return them. . . . The Russian proletariat will not return them, because otherwise the rivers of blood by which it has saved the revolution will have been spilled in vain. The October revolution which gave the factories and the estates into the hands of the Russian leaders, was the first step made by the international proletariat towards liberation from the capitalistic yoke. No backward step will be taken, cost what it may."

The Communist and other radical papers not only have their own cartoonists, of whom Art Young is the most prolific and most effective, and poets and paragraphers, whose ability cannot be questioned, but they have their own press service in the Federated Press. This is in part a cooperative association of labor and radical papers. Its aim has been to collect and distribute all news pertaining to the labor and radical movements. It endeavored to get the sanction of the conservative tabor organizations, but its radicalism was too well known and in this the effort failed. The Communist party of America considers the Federated Press its own press service. organization, and it is certain that several of the officials of the press service are active members of the Communist party. Upwards of two hundred papers in the United States are affiliated with the Federated Press. Louis P. Lochner is European director and acting business manager, and has an office in Berlin, where he is in close touch with the International Propaganda Bureau of the Communist International.

In order to facilitate the collection of funds for the Federated Press and through it the dissemination of radical propaganda, a Federated Press League was organized in Chicago on February 4, 1922. By this League membership in the Federated Press is stimulated, funds are collected frequently from parlor Bolshevik circles and wealthy people who believe they are giving to aid the 'down-trodden' to express themselves and make themselves heard by the rest of humanity. A number of chain papers have been established from Boston to Los Angeles, and agents of the League, who are really working for the cause of the Communist party of America, are active in every city in the country. The officials of the League, elected at the Chicago meeting were: Robert Morse Lovett, president; Mrs. Frances C. Lillie, vice-president; George B. Hooker, vice-president; E. C. Wentworth, treasurer; and Clark H. Getts, secretary.

It is evident that the Communist element is gaining control entirely of this news-gathering organization. Besides the Berlin office, an office has been established in Moscow and the Communist International uses this office for the purpose of sending out manifestos and strong propaganda, to be published in this country. According to Robert M. Buck, chairman of the Executive Board, who is connected with the New Majority, a radical publication in Chicago, the central figures in the Federated Press are Jack Carney, editor of the radical Voice of Labor; Arul Swabeck, a Finn and Editor of Nytio who controlled ten votes at the Chicago meeting; Editor Feinburg, of Solidarity; William Z. Foster, head of the Trade Union Educational League and a delegate U) the illegal convention of the Communist party of America at Bridgman, Mich; Carl Haessler, the college professor who spent two years in the penitentiary; Mabel Search, of Milwaukee; Clark H. Getts, who has served a jail term; Carroll Binder, a college man; Louis P. Lochner, the European representative, and Maude McCreery, the woman agitator who was active in the establishment of chain papers throughout the country.

E. J. Costello was manager of the Federated Press until, because of a wrangle in the board, he was dismissed and Carl Haessler took his place. William Z. Foster, who among his numerous radical activities is a member of the board of trustees of the Garland Foundation, expected to turn over $100,000 of the Foundation to the Federated Press, and told a number of people that he was going to do so, but the row in the management of the organization upset these plans. Among the people to whom Foster made this statement were Mrs. Kate Crane Gartz, the Pasadena society parlor Bolshevik, and Charlie Chaplin, the motion picture comedian. Foster also told them that the Garland Foundation could be depended upon whenever anyone got into trouble because of radical political opinions.

Several of the organizers of the Communist party and its "legal" political branch, the Workers' party, among them William Thurston Brown, of San Francisco, were promised regular monthly salaries by Foster to be paid from the Garland Foundation.

A detailed account of how thoroughly the work of organization and especially of collecting money for the furtherance of the aim of the Communist party is done will prove interesting as well as illuminating. Bruce Rogers, a leading Communist of Seattle, went secretly to Los Angeles, arriving there on the night of March 24, 1922, to raise money for the Federated Press League and at the same time to spread Communist propaganda. These two objects were specified in his instructions for the trip. A secret conference was held March 26 at which Rogers met William Thurston Brown, Ella Reeve Bloor, who was a delegate to the illegal convention at Bridgman, and Alfred Bush. Rogers explained the purpose of his trip and proposed that small groups of "thoroughly grounded Communists" who are members of craft unions travel from place to place and join the local unions during their short sojourns in industrial centers for the purpose of uniting the radical factions and starting Communist nuclei within the craft unions. He said that a group of printers and stereotypers had come to Seattle from Detroit and worked along those lines.

Those present at this conference endorsed the Roger plan as he outlined it and decided to get in touch with San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Chicago for the purpose of inviting such groups of militant, foot-loose craft union men to go to Los Angeles and strengthen the local radical movement.

Rogers went to the Labor Temple in Los Angeles, but he later told friends that he had anything but a cordial reception there. He said the Federated Press had been laboring under a misapprehension when thinking that its news represents the viewpoint of the average American-born worker, who, he said, is as yet wrapped up in the capitalistic ideology. He made a short trip to San Diego but returned in time to speak at a meeting of the open forum of the Socialist party. He was introduced as the representative of the Federated Press service and spoke on "The Origin of Newspapers and the Press Service." He afterwards told friends that he was very well satisfied with the way his Communist propaganda was received. His headquarters in Los Angeles were at the Van Winkle Hotel, No. 349 South Olive street, kept by an Irish woman, an old-timer in the radical movement, who has sheltered many Communists in her hostelry.

On the evening of April 6 a secret meeting was held at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Kashub, at which were present Ella Reeve Bloor, Arthur Cotter, a Miss Moran, well known among the public school teachers because of her radicalism, Rogers, a Mrs. Mellentine, who is a member of the Severance Club of Los Angeles, and five others. There were no introductions and the meeting was shrouded in strictest secrecy. At this meeting further plans for the work of the Communist party were agreed upon, especially as to Rogers' work on the Pacific Coast. Rogers was scheduled to speak at the Modern School on the night of April 17, but cancelled the lecture because of the small attendance, for which he blamed lack of advertising. Mrs. Bloor was speaking the same night at a widely advertised meeting at the Shelley Club under the auspices of the Young People's Forum. This led to an arrangement with Emanuel Levin to establish a clearing-house for radical speakers so there would not again come about a conflict of dates.

Rogers worked his way into parlor bolshevik circles, using his connection with the Federated Press as an opening wedge. He was after big game, planning to raise enough money from wealthy radicals in Pasadena, Hollywood and Los Angeles to establish a chain of papers in the Southwest to be controlled by the Federated Press, He was the guest of the Writers' Club in Hollywood, where he said he met a number of men with radical ideas who support the Federated Press. Mrs. Martha Kashub, Mrs. Gaylord Wilshire and Countess Korzybska (Lady Edgerly) gave him valuable leads. On the night of April 12, he spoke at the Shelley Club about the necessity of building up a radical press service in the United States. Much of his lecture was taken from Upton Sinclair's "Brass Check."

(To some of his closest friends he told the real object of his trip to Los Angeles. He told them that the Federated Press, which was the only radical press service in the country, could not exist on the support it received from labor organizations for two reasons: first it did not represent the viewpoint of the great mass of organized labor, being far too advanced and revolutionary for the conservative American-born working man; and second, that no enterprise was ever financed by "passing the hat," explaining that he meant that the small contributions of organized labor were not sufficient to keep the Federated Press going.

Consequently, he said, the Federated Press representatives from Boston to the Pacific Coast had been instructed to go after the wealthy liberals and get as many life members for the Federated Press League at $1,000 each as possible. "Do not offend the liberals and do anything to please the parlor reds," he said, is to be the watchword of the Federated Press. The interesting feature of this is that Rogers and many other representatives of the Federated Press are Communists and their propaganda and money-raising activities pave the way for later penetration on the part of the Communist party whose open emissaries follow the leads and use the "sucker lists" they get from men like Rogers.

Rogers was greatly pleased with the result of his visit to San Diego although it was brief. He reported that all the labor unions in San Diego had voted to support the Federated Press, and although in nearly every instance there was a motion to divide the money with Soviet Russia for famine relief the trip proved a financial success. He said that support from the "highbrow" radicals was also forthcoming in a generous manner, and that the Templeton Johnsons, a very wealthy family of San Diego, were the only ones who had refused him when he had asked them for a $1000 donation, although formerly they had been among the chief supporters of the Federated Press. He mentioned as one who had given "very liberally" Lyman J. Gage, formerly president of the First National Bank of Chicago, and Secretary of the Treasury under President McKinley and President Roosevelt. Of course Mr. Gage, who was then very old and had for years been a resident at Katherine Ting ley's Theosophical Society colony on Point Lome, had no idea that his money was to be used to further the plant of a conspiracy directed at the overthrow by violence of the Government which he had once served. It simply shows the ease with which the Communists finance their work.

In addition to these wealthy people from whom he secured money, Rogers also told of finding a thriving colony of parlor Bolsheviki in San Diego who pledged their aid to the cause. In this connection he spoke of a certain Dr. Stone and a Dr. Ritter as among his ''prospects." Rogers' trip to San Diego was not casual; he was ordered by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist party of America to go to that city during the convention there of the Congress of Social Workers and to spread propaganda among the many radicals and semi-radicals in attendance.

Robert Morse Lovett, then president of the Federated Press League, Wrote Rogers while he was in Los Angeles, urging him to canvass the movie colony at Hollywood, giving him the names of prominent actors who "helped us before and will do it again." Lovett has since denied having written this letter, but his name is signed to it and affidavits are in the possession of proper authorities testifying to the facts as here stated. This letter, written from Chicago under date of April 29, reads:

"Dear Bruce: Mr. Getts and I just returned from Milwaukee and find your letter of the 15th in which you enclosed $500. A former letter also received while we were away enclosed $700, making a total of $1200 sent into the office this month.

"Mr. Getts will answer your letters himself, but I wanted to take up with you the matter of canvassing the Movie Colony at Hollywood. First I want to tell you that I have personally written to about fifteen big producers and prominent actors at Hollywood, including Wm. C. De Mille, Allan Hollabar, Von Stroheim, Percival T. Gerson, Will Rogers, Charles Ray and Charlie Chaplin. These men are with us. They helped us before and will do it again. Present the situation strong and don't let them get off easy, for we need the money and need it badly. Work through the Severance Club and it will be easy for you.

"I may join you in San Francisco next month, for we must put it over, and put it over by August or we will be out of the office.

"Good lock to you, Bruce. Please work hard. Your commission should be in Los Angeles by the 4th of May.

"Warmly yours, "(Signed) Robert Morse Lovett."

After raising many thousands of dollars from the wealthy supporters of radicalism in Los Angeles, Rogers went to Pasadena where there is a large group of parlor Bolsheviki. On Sunday, June 11, Rogers met at the home of a Mrs. Ellsworth, in the fashionable Oak Knoll District, a number of wealthy radicals, including Mrs. Kate Crane Gartz, Mrs. Gaylord Wilshire, Mrs. Van Toll, Prince Hopkins and others. He addressed them on behalf of the Federated Press, saying frankly that it was the only avenue through which the Communists, the Workers' party and the Trade Union Educational league could reach the working class and all those interested in the working class struggle. He said that the Federated Press was in dire need of funds and that he had been instructed to raise $25,000 in and around Los Angeles. After his address he talked privately with most of those present.

Rogers left Los Angeles for San Francisco June 15. The radical landlady at whose hotel he lived said that Rogers did more for the radical cause during his two months in Los Angeles than had ever been done before. She said that he, under the pretense of raising money for the Federated Frew, had collected more than $20,000 for the Communists. Part of the money, he said, will be turned over to the Federated Press but it will be spent for the same purpose, for Rogers told her, she said, the Federated Press is gradually growing into the one news gathering agency which is firmly controlled by the Communists. Rogers collected money from the Liberals saying that the Federated Press was nothing more than an independent press service interested solely in getting the truth before the people; and from the labor unions saying that it was about to become the official organ of the American Federation of Labor. The latter statement, however, drew forth a rebuke from Francis Drake, editor of the local American Federation of Labor organ, who said that the Federated Press was spreading Communist propaganda colored in the interests of disruptionists like William Z. Foster, Alexander Howatt, and Curley Grow.