New York Times
WISCONSIN TOWN EXPELS
PACIFISTS
Lochner and Others Forced to Return to Minneapolis with All Arrangements Upset.
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FARGO PLAN ALSO GIVEN UP
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New York Delegates Leave Without Knowing Where They Are Going..
MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 30. — The advance guard of the so-called People’s Council of America was placed on a train by angry residents of Hudson, Wis., tonight and told never to return. Earlier in the day Hudson had been picked as the meeting place for the council’s proposed convention following action by Governor Burnquist of Minnesota in banning the convention in that State and protests from citizens of North Dakota when Fargo was mentioned as a possible meeting place.
Milwaukee is not being considered by the council’s advance agents. The special train carrying delegates from New York will likely be held in Chicago until a haven is found.
When the people of Hudson, a little city thirty miles from Minneapolis, learned that the council wanted to meet in their midst they called a mass meeting in front of the armory. At the same time the City Council of Hudson sent a protest to Govern Philipp of Wisconsin, saying that the peace-at-any-price convention was not desired there.
Louis P. Lochner, Executive Secretary of the pacifists, tried vainly to appear before the City Council; but the members would not hear him.
Seven Minutes to Leave Town.
A committee from the indignation meeting called on the peace advocates at the hotel and ordered the members from Hudson. Those in the People’s Council party included Louis P. Lochner, William E. Williams, publicity director; Charles S. Kruse, President of the International Brotherhood Welfare Association; Florence Margolies of New York, Minnie Rimer of Seattle, and May Lennon and Moya Regan, stenographers.
Major Campbell of Hudson placed a petition before Kruse protesting against the conference and demanded that he sign it. Kruse declined.
"Get a rope" some one shouted. "Get the tar and feathers," said another.
The crowd pressed forward and a half dozen hands were laid on Kruse. County Attorney Varnum jumped on a chair and succeeded in restoring quiet on the promise of Kruse and the others to leave town at once. In seven minutes they were bundled into an automobile and rushed to the railroad station, where they were placed aboard a train for Minneapolis. Beyond hooting and hissing at them, no violence was offered on the way to the depot.
When Mr. Lochner and his assistants reached Minneapolis it was announced that the convention had given up its plan to meet in Hudson. "We will hold the meeting just the same," said Mr. Lochner. "We are not going back to Hudson."
Yesterday, despite the welcome extended by the non-partisan league Governor of North Dakota, citizens of both Fargo and Bismarck intimated that there would be serious trouble if the council delegates went to either place.
Following Russia’s Model.
"The People’s Council is an organization composed of American citizens," Lochner said. "We have no constitution, but to be a member one must be in sympathy with American ideals and principles of democracy. We have no aliens in our membership, and those of foreign descent are largely Russians and Jews. Persons of Scandinavian ancestry come next, and then those of German descent.
"The council, which is the outgrowth of the first convention of the American Society for Democracy and Terms of Peace held in New York City May 30 and 31 last, is a clearing house for sentiments of peace and democracy. Our purpose is to crystallize sentiment in theis country similar to the aims of the Russian Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates, which stands for an early, general and democratic peace, international co-operation to maintain peace and safeguards for labor standards."
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MADISON, Wis., Aug. 30. — Governor E. L. Philipp denied tonight that he had given permission to the People’s Council to hold a convention in Hudson. The Governor said that not only had he not given any such permission but the statement he had was made without any authority from him.
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PACIFISTS IN A DILEMMA.
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Leave City for Council and Don’t Know Where They’re Going.
One hundred and fifty pacifists gathered at the Weehawken Station of the West Shore Railroad shortly after 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon. They were "all dressed up and no place to go." A reporter was told by some members of the party that they were going to Fargo; others said they were going to Minneapolis. The most reliable information came from the officials of the railroad, who said the train was going to Chicago, and the road didn’t care where the pacifists went from that city, because their train had been paid for.
In the delegation were seen Crystal Eastman, sister of Max Eastman; Jacob Panken, the east side agitator, and Algernon Lee, who once ran for Governor. Morris Hillquit and Rabbi J. L. Magnes were not seen. In the vanguard of the delegation were two men distributing literature which bore the stamp of Mother Earth, which Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman ran until Marshall McCarthe stopped them.
An official statement of the council
( 11) said there were 300 in the delegation. A count showed 152 persons who got on the train.
The council issued a long statement last night in which it said in part:
"The Constituent Assembly of the People’s Council of America, barred from convening on Sept. 1 in Minneapolis by the drastic edict of Governor Burnquist of Minnesota, later invited to meet in Fargo, N. D., by Governor Frazier, will be held in Hudson, Wis.
"This change in plans was telegraphed to the headquarters of the People’s Council, 2 West Thirteenth Street, yesterday by Louis P. Lochner, Executive Secretary of the council, shortly after the special peace train bearing 300 delegates to the assembly had left at 2:30 o’clock from the Weehawken station of the West Shore Railroad.
"At Hudson, which is about an hour’s ride from Minneapolis, and which lies across the river from St. Paul, the biggest hall, the Arena, has been engaged for the Constituent Assembly. This hall seats nearly 7,000 persons. And addition hall has also been engaged to be used as a second meeting place."
While it was still supposed that the council’s dove of peace would have a resting place, perhaps, at Fargo, the National Security league took steps to combat its influence. The league made public the following telegram received yesterday from Tom Parker Judkin, editor of The Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald:
"This is an urgent appeal. People’s Council propaganda centering in North Dakota. We need any assistance you can give. State Government strongly socialistic and in sympathy with propagandists. Local patriotic citizens appeal to you for aid of any kind at once, publicity, literature giving information on personnel, &c. Can you get notable speakers here soon?"
In reply the league sent Mr. Judkin this telegram:
"Glad to respond to your appeal. Fully appreciate your situation. Information will promptly follow. S. Stanwood Menken, President of the National Security League, will, if you wish it and can arrange a meeting conveniently, go to Fargo or Grand Forks and speak Saturday night, Sept. 8.
"The American Defense Society yesterday has read with great satisfaction your masterful edict directing all peace officers within your State to prevent the holding of the meetings of the People’s Council. This is unquestionably a step in the right direction, and the society wishes to comment the courage and wisdom of your prompt action in stamping out treason, sedition, and disloyalty, which will no doubt serve as a precedent in other States of the Union."
The Labor Loyalty Conference manager spent yesterday regretting that they were not to clash at close quarters with the council, and kill its claim of the right to represent 2,000,000 working people of the United States. Conference Committee refused to take seriously the statement of the council leaders that they would gather in Hudson, or, at least, thinking they might find themselves again mistaken, sent a message last night to Governor Burnquist asking him to let the pacifists meet in their circus tent next to the Minneapolis Zoo. The telegram, which was signed by the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, of which Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, is Chairman, follows:
"So-called People’s Council special left New York, destination undecided. We realize menace of this organization, but are anxious to meet them face to face in the open and fight it out. We believe they should be given no color of excuse for crying suppression of free speech and are anxious for you to permit them to meet in Minneapolis, at least until their utterances actually become treasonable.
"Democracy need not fear the arguments, so called, of this aggregation. Will it not be possible to let these people know before they reach Chicago, traveling via New York Central, that they may meet in Minneapolis, as planned?
"This organization earnestly asks you to reconsider your decision, appreciating that you acted in the belief that you were serving the cause of America. Proper policing should prevent disorder, and it would be of great value to meet face to face, putting before the public the cause of America against the cause of pro-Germanism. We have nothing to fear from open argument. Only secret plottings we need fear."
The alliance, which had agents watching the departure of the pacifists, issued a statement last night, saying that the pilgrimage was doomed from the start.
"The pacifist pro-German propaganda of the so-called People’s Council stands convicted on its own showing," the statement said. "It was a sorry show when they left, without music or enthusiasm. They managed to scrape together a bare sixty-six men and women for their intended talkfest ‘somewhere in the West’ — for they don’t even know where they are bound. Perhaps the best indication of the spirit of the whole thing was the fact that the first thing to reach the West Shore Station was a package of Emma Goldman’s anarchistic literature containing copies of ‘Mother Earth."
"The pacifists had months and months in which to prepare, and their going from the point of view of public interest, was a flat failure. It is significant that many of their leaders backed out at the last moment.
"With practically only ten days’ time, the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy has arranged for the transportation of many time the number who accompanied these anti-American soapboxers on their illusory quest for peace at any price. Our conference will open in Minneapolis next Wednesday, and the response from men and women eager to make the trip in the interest of labor and loyalty may cause us to enlarge our special train."
The patriotic delegates will leave Grand Central Terminal at noon Sunday. There will be an elaborate program marking the departure.
