If, as you say, Socialism means a substitution of power, it at least means a different kind from Capitalist power. A power that will work for the benefit of society at large, and not for the few as now.
You say a man can be master of his own fate. How can you say that when you know what struggle it is for all? How can you expect “pride of workmen in their work,” when the workmen are giving their very all to Rockefeller? He takes it, and gives back, not to them, but to others, and considers himself a great philanthropist for this! You say the worker gives as little as he can. Does the capitalist do more? Why do you expect politeness from those who serve us? Are we worthy of being served? Yes, it is absurd to talk about equality—equality of soul—when it is only equality of opportunity we want, with special privileges to none. The “truck horse” and “race horse” have nothing to do with the question; let us all have a chance. Man is not responsible for his birth, but because he is born he has a right to live.
Yes, it is, as always in California, sunshine, flowers, and birds. It is difficult for us to believe that there is misery anywhere; and yet we know, we parasites, here on the “roof garden of the world,” that we live at the expense of others, who slave in sordid surroundings so that we few may enjoy. How can we enjoy when we think at what cost!
Let us work to change it, that all may be free and happy.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
April, 1921.
EUGENE V. DEBS,
Federal Penitentiary,
ATLANTA, GA.
Dear Comrade: I have not written you before to thank you for your kindly message inscribed to me in Ruth Le Prade’s book to you, because I could not find words to express how grateful and proud and honored I feel to have the very first of these books, although I know I do not deserve it—for what is a money contribution compared to the work of love by Ruth and the ability of Sinclair to “put it over”? It is only because she knows I have a deep feeling and admiration for your great courage and loyalty to the cause of human freedom and liberty. I did not think the American people would let you stay in prison over night. It simply shows how helpless we are under the system and that liberty and freedom and justice have actually perished from the earth. We cannot recognize our own country, and its much vaunted high principles. But it is thrilling to know that there is even one who is compared to Christ, and that one is you.
So you must be very happy in your confinement, knowing how much we all appreciate your sacrifice and example, as well as that of your faithful and devoted wife.
Very gratefully,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
April, 1921.
AMERICAN LEGION,
PASADENA, CAL.
Dear Soldier Boys: Read over your quotations from the “Examiner,” and see how many truths were quoted unwittingly by you! Get your own eyes opened, and try to make your country right by exposing wrongs, and not by covering them up. We have much to do—but not the way your organization is doing it. The mystery is that you who have been to war can find any justification for it. As for Dr. Scherer, he has sung the hymn of hate better than any German—and he a missionary and preacher of the Gospel! Let our fight be for a better world for all humanity to live in—but by education, and not by slaughtering the innocents. Your organization is carried on in a spirit of vengeance; yet you condemn it in us—who do not use it or believe in it!
Your business should be to forget hatreds, and to promote love and justice to all humanity—even the Germans, whose people had nothing to do with the making of the war. Do your protesting against states which drive their children into the shambles! You should stand behind the Anti-militarist League, Civil Liberty, Labor Defense, and all organizations fighting for a better, freer world, without bloodshed but through reason.
Our greatest thinkers say that Nationalism is a stage of progress we must outgrow; it causes rivalries, and rivalries cause war.
Yours for a better America, an example to all others,
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
April, 1921.
JOHN STRONG,
Care of Los Angeles Times,
LOS ANGELES, CAL.
Dear Sir: I have read your article entitled “Noblesse Oblige.” I wonder that a man should write these words over an article containing so many misrepresentations. You say “the Communists and Bolshevists are trying to get ahead at the expense of others.” That is just the opposite of the truth. Communism means co-operation, instead of the deadly competition we now have. It is working toward a better social system for all humanity, not merely the privileged few. The Communists wish that there should be one class and not two classes, one exploiting the other. You say that we have equal opportunity, and yet you know that Capitalism has the power to shut down factories and throw men out of work. The only freedom that such men have is the freedom to starve.
Yes, capital is built up “at the expense of others.” It is built of the emaciated bodies of little children and their mothers. Even in Russia, where so many are starving, the Bolsheviki feed and house and clothe the children, and give them opportunity for education, work and pleasure. And you, who denounce it, what have you to offer in the way of a juster, saner system? To talk about “Noblesse Oblige” in our present society is absurd. In the very nature of the system men must fight for existence, and co-operation and kindness are impossibilities. It seems to me that the first law of “Noblesse Oblige” would be that no one could be happy or satisfied until the fundamental needs of all are satisfied, until we are really what we call ourselves, “a human family.”
Yours truly,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
May 10, 1921.
EDITOR,
The Star-News,
PASADENA, CAL.
Dear Sir: To the man who wrote the editorial on, “Federation of Patriots Opposed to Radicals,” I put this question: Why is radicalism? Because of some injustice. The only way to overcome it is to remove the cause. Why are you afraid of overthrowing the government? It is ours. We have a right to change or abolish it, as Thomas Jefferson said; he also said we should have a revolution every twenty years. So why should we be prohibited from discussing it?
Brisbane said this morning, “No Government is so good that it cannot be bettered.” Some other great man said, “Governments are a necessary evil—the less of them the better.”
Let us try to make them work for the good of all, not for the few as now, and forever quit imprisoning for opinions as now. This is foreign to the intention of our Constitution—which, of course, has been only a scrap of paper these last five years, because we jail those who upheld it. We are far behind other countries in this respect. I for one feel disgraced and far from proud.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
July 21, 1921.
REV. R. P. SHULER,
Trinity Methodist Church,
LOS ANGELES, CAL.
Dear Sir: I read in last Sunday’s paper an extract from your sermon regarding the habit of the unemployed to protest against social injustice in Pershing Square. Presumably your remarks are intended for the public to read and discuss, and I, therefore, take the liberty of expressing to you my opinion of your utterances. First, let us agree upon one or two facts. There are at the present time several million men out of work in our country, and many of these men are homeless and starving. This is a great social evil, a wrong to our men against which they certainly have a right to protest. Do you deny them the right to make their protest in a public place where the public can hear them? Do you deny them the same right of publicity which you assert for yourself, both in your pulpit and in the newspapers?
The next fact of which I wish to remind you is that you occupy your pulpit in the name of one who was in His own day a common working man, and said that He had nowhere to lay His head. Furthermore, He protested against social injustice in language fully as vehement as anything that you will hear in Pershing Square. He protested so vehemently that he was arre
sted for “stirring up the people,” and He was executed as a disturber of the social order. He was executed for disturbing Roman Capitalism, and you are now denouncing men who are disturbing American Capitalism. Has it never occurred to you to think of the embarrassing possibility that you may be denouncing the Son of Man as a “human copperhead,” and calling for His exclusion from Pershing Square? You will hardly need to be reminded of His saying that “As ye do it unto the least of these, even so ye do it unto me.”
You are supposed to be a preacher of love and brotherhood, but it has been a long time since I have read a more dreadful hymn of hate than the one which you preached to your congregation of comfortable Scribes and complacent Pharisees. On the chance that you may never have thought about this matter, and may be persecuting your Master in ignorance, I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of “The Profits of Religion” by Upton Sinclair, and I invite you to read it and give your soul a chance to be saved.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
July 27, 1921.
EDITOR,
Pasadena Evening Post,
PASADENA, CAL.
Dear Sir: Through an accident I failed to see your editorial concerning myself and my views on Bolshevism, hence my delay in responding. Ever since you have started you have, along with all the other American newspapers, been publishing false news about the Russian revolution, and you have apparently succeeded in persuading yourself as well as your readers; so it is natural that you are puzzled when you find that someone, who has taken the trouble to find out the truth about Bolshevism, does not agree with your point of view. Americans should take into consideration the frightful oppression which the Russian people have suffered through the centuries, and should understand that violence breeds violence, and that it was impossible to overthrow the Tsarist regime in Russia without terrible blood-shed and suffering. This should need no telling to Americans. Our own revolutionary ancestors understood it clearly. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
What I am contending is that we should try to understand, the Russian revolution, and to help the Russian people, instead of blockading them and starving them both physically and intellectually. At present there is famine in Russia, caused by drought, and we are hypocritically blaming this upon Bolshevism, and we refuse to save the starving children of Russia because the Russians have six Americans in prison. We have a great many Russians in prison, and we have no idea of releasing them. We accuse them of conspiring to overthrow our government, and that is exactly what the Soviet government has proven against the Americans whom it holds. But we think it perfectly proper to conspire against the Soviet government, and to back with our money and munitions a series of murderous Tsarist generals and admirals. Kolchak, Denikin, Judenitch—a long list of names, so many that I cannot remember them.
The reactionaries, at the time of the French revolution, made war on the French republic because it had murdered its king and queen; but is that all history has to say about the meaning of the French revolution? It is perfectly well known that the Bolshevist government did not desire the death of the Tsar and his children. They were killed by disorderly ruffians, and the leader of these was executed. I venture to assert that the Wilson government in the United States was responsible for many atrocities against the liberty of both Americans and foreigners, and many people were killed by disorderly ruffians who were never punished.
The word “Bolshevism” is just a bad name, so I will not try to discuss it. But the Soviet government represents a new form of social organization by industries, instead of by geographical location, and many of the greatest minds of the world are supporting it today. I will name for example, Anatole France, Bernard Shaw, Romain Rolland, and Henri Barbusse. I for my part am willing to investigate new theories—anything to relieve humanity from the oppressions under which it is now staggering. Our so-called civilization has brought us to the verge of destruction; in fact our government, according to its own statistics, spends 93 per cent of its income upon destruction—payment for past wars and preparing for future wars. Is it not time that we reversed these figures, and spend more than 7 per cent of our national income upon something of use to mankind? Am I not right in saying that we can now produce wealth so easily that no human being needs to live in poverty? You cannot understand why I denounce a system which builds up fortunes for myself at the expense of thousands of others. To me such a system is wrong on the face of it. I cannot understand how anyone can deny this, and I shall never rest until the day arrives when all men receive a fair share of what they produce, and all who are willing to work have a job. We say to ourselves that “God’s in His heaven, All’s right with the world,” and then we settle down and drift. We say “we believe in evolution, not revolution,” and I have observed what this formula means is that evolution is any form of drifting, and revolution is any form of action.
You understand that revolution means bloodshed, but I do not take it so, nor do other Socialists. The people who really believe in bloodshed and advocate it are our present rulers, those who support war—and you are among them. I dare to assert that there was very little bloodshed in Russia until foreign intrigue began, and until the White Terror showed the Russian people what they had to fear from reaction. We have been among the leaders in this cruel reaction. Our Red Cross was even wicked enough to burn its supplies in the border states of Russia, rather than permit them to fall into the hands of the Soviets.
You say that you have often been called radical, because once in a while you cry out for justice, admitting that is what radicalism consists of. Well, I thank you for that admission at least, and in conclusion I ask you to state what it is that you mean to do to abolish unemployment and to bring about social justice. You denounce the profiteers. Is that all you mean to do? In Russia they jail the profiteers, or execute them, and that is called revolution. In America we write editorials against them, while continuing to allow them to plunder us and secretly control our government—and that is called evolution!
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
December 1, 1921.
THOMAS LEE WOOLWINE,
District Attorney,
LOS ANGELES, CAL.
Sir: Why should your office be associated with such a low-down character as Dymond—a man who has turned traitor to his class for money? How can you trust him, and what right have you to take $350 a month of the people’s money and hand it over to such as he, and send him back and forth over the state to testify against workingmen, whose only crime is that they are members of the Industrial Workers of the World? You allow Dymond to arrest a witness, simply because he was defending his cause! The business of your office seems to be, not to prosecute, but to persecute. Why not inject a little humanism and a little mercy? I know that many of the men your office has sent up are idealists and not criminals. I have heard you speak many times, and find you very bitter, and willing to resort to any length to gain conviction. I can’t understand your joy in sending any man to jail. I want to see the time when there are no jails, but schools and sanitariums for those who are sick at heart and mind, and victims of an unjust social system.
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
December 3, 1921.
PRESIDENT W. G. HARDING,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Sir: I want to implore you for mercy to those now languishing in jail because of conscientious scruples against war. Three years have passed since the armistice was signed, and other countries released their prisoners. Why do you not live up to your high words, spoken on the first day of the disarmament conference: “How can Humanity justify, or God forgive war?” The conference has drifted back to war preparedness or limitation of armaments. The last war was to end all war; so “let us see that these dead have not died in vain.” That was why our boys accepted conscription, and those who would not were imprisoned. I ask you to demonstrate your “love and good will that sh
ould be regnant everywhere.” Even now it is not too late to make reparation for the three years stolen from the lives of these true Christian men, more Christian than the preachers in the pulpits, who did not dare to preach “Peace on earth, good will towards men,” as did Debs and all other conscientious objectors. I weep at the injustices perpetrated by my country, whose boast was Liberty, Justice, Humanity. But instead, the treatment meted out to those prisoners was barbarous and cruel in the extreme—dungeons, chains, beatings, and this in a so-called civilized country. Why cannot our country lead all others in the ways of righteousness? Why must we deport idealists whom we cannot understand, and then call them dangerous? Dangerous to what? To the system of exploitation and imperialism. They simply want a juster, saner system than the one under which we now live, where poverty and unemployment are rife, where one man can accumulate one and a half billion, and thousands stand in a breadline.
We go to Congress and we beg, and we beg, and we beg. The few men who have vision are such a small minority that they have no power in the face of the stand-pat reactionaries, who thrive under the system at the expense of the masses and consequently cannot be moved. As human nature cannot be changed, we must work to change the system, where no man will have to ask another man for a job, or the right to live, and in which his family will be secure and free from worry about the future and old age, and where there will be no child labor, nor human exploitation, but where all will be on the same high plane of brotherhood.
Sincerely,
KATE CRANE GARTZ.
December 24, 1921.
EDITOR
The Los Angeles Times,
LOS ANGELES, CAL.
Dear Sir: Of course we Liberals, and Radicals, and Socialists would expect such a tirade as your editorial expressed today against Eugene Debs. We all know you hate him, because he is opposed to the capitalist system, under which you thrive while exploiting millions.
Kate Crane Gartz Page 5