THE RED ELEMENT

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 144, 16 December 1919, Page 16

THE RED ELEMENT

PREVALENCE IN GARY

STEEL STRIKE HISTORY

REMARKABLE EVIDENCE.

(PROM OUR OWN COBRES-ON-EHT.)

LOS ANGELES, 15th November?'

Some sidelights on anarchistic activities in the steel strike in Gary, Indiana, were given in evidence to the committee set up by the United States Senate to investigate the strike. Lieutenant D. C. Van Buren, intelligence officer on ihe staff of Major-General Leonard Wood, made some very interesting statements.

"Our first interest in Gary," he said, " camo when Chief of Police Forbis, of that city, visited Chicago last spring with a request for machine-guns and military intervention. He told us the ' Reds' there were planning to parade on 4th May and start a revolution. Two names were given to us as those of loaders of the Anarchist Club at "Gary—lnvestiga-tio Ivanhoff and Degeorge. They were Russians or Austrians. Degeorge was a ch_rrust, and we learned later he was operating near the Aetna explosive works,. outside of Gary, where guncotton was available from the wastes outside the mill."

Replying to the Chairman, Senator Kenyon, Lieut. Van Buren said a report was made to the Department of Justice, but so far as he knew there had been no prosecution. The two men had left Gary.

Describiig military intervention, he said: "No ona has even sustained a black eye since." ANARCHIST BOOKLET, The witness read extracts from a book seized at Gary. It urged revolution upon all workers in all lands, in the name of the "conquering proletariat of Russia." "All the Radicals in the country are centring on the propaganda of Lenin and Trotsky," he continued. " The book was printed in Chicago by the Arbeiter Zeitung Publishing Company, which is significant." "Is this stuff going through the mails?" inquired the Chairman. " Oh, yes," came the reply. " Are there any organisations in Gary which support this programme?" " Yes; I have a list of them!." He commenced producing a series of documents printed,in Russian, with the names of societies attached. "How many foreigners.are taking part in this strike?" asked a Senator. " I haven't fomid an American yet, though some of the leaders have their second naturalisation papers." " Here are some of the productions of the Union of Russian Workers, "he continued. " That is a straight anarchistic society. ' Here's ono of them, entitled ' The Crimes of God,' an anti-religious pemphlet discussing war." . The Chairman: It has been alleged that this material was sent into Gary to create prejudice against the strikers.

.LENIN AND TROTSKY HEROES. "We only know we found it there," Van Buren returned. "The people who had it usually had a large size photo of Lenin and Trotsky We actually found thousands of these photographs. It was reported to us that Richard Verhagin, vice-president and: treasurer of the Steel Workers' Council at Gary, was a revolutionist. I asked Paul ' Glaser, attorney for the strikers, if he was a Bolshevik. He said, 'You bet I am.' We recommended the Department of Justice to take steps to cancel his citizenship papers."

Russians in Gary started a movement last summer to organise a "Red Guard" in preparation for a revolution which they believed was coming, the witness said : the Russians wanted, to get all the former soldiers in Gary into a group and drill and equip them. Agitators, he said, were constantly working among the people of Gary, telling them to prepare to manage and operate the industries. The military authorities had investigated the records of some of, the agitators and as_ed that they should be deported. OFFICERS' STATEMENT. Lieutenant Van Buren presented statements of a set of officers and members of the Hungarian Society, arrested during a raid.at Gary Kearly all of them said they were members of the I,WW. and professed adherence to the "one big union" idea-. All were participating in the steel strike Most of them had an I.W.W._ membership card, an American Federation of Labour card, and a picket badge to use when they were on duty in front of the mills trying to get others to join the strike "I think most of the Russian literature is provided by Ludwig Marten's bureau of New York," Van Buren added, "Marten is the representative of Soviet governments of Russia in the United States."

"Here is a list of members of the Hungarian Socialist Federation, and heading it is the name of Oscar E. Anderson. Anderson, heads the organisation in Gary Don't you, Anderson?"

He turned to the audience as he spoke, and Anderson, who had been summoned by the committee, nodded. _ "We looked up several men on this' list," the witness continued, "and recommended that they be deported The Immigration authoi^ties refused to act, however, though one of them admitted he was .a Socialist, an 1.W.W., and a Bolshevik. It seems you have to get them with a bomb in their hands before the officials will act. UNION LEADER'S DENIAL. In his evidence, Anderson put in a staunch challenge to most of Van Buren's conclusions. "There are not more than 250 or 300 Reds in the 75,000 people of Gary," he declared. "They don't count. We don't pay any attention to them. In the Labour Movement they are regarded as 'loose upstairs.'" "You consider this a strike for eight hours and a living American wage," the Chairman began. "jJon't you think you would get further before the public if you got rid of these Reds, purged your organisations completely of them and went ahead without them?"

"Yes, Mr, Anderson," Senator M'Kellar interjected, "why don't you pitch them out? This committee has sat here and listened to anarchists who have been taken into council on your strike matters and heard them boast of it. Don't you know that this prejudices the public wholly against you and your cause?" "Yes, I do," Anderson responded. "But you can't tell' how these men are affected until a strike actually comes along. We dqn't make religious and political distinctions in calling a strike." The whole issue in the strike, he staid, was the eight-hour day