Americanism versus bolshevism

Dedication

I dedicate this book to all Americans who love their coun¬ try, revere its ideals, understand and support its institutions, and are willing to give their all in order that “ our Govern¬ ment shall not perish from the earth.”

I dedicate this book to them, caring not from what hu¬ man breed they sprang, regardless of their length of residence, despite any difference in religious creed or political faith, only requiring that they place our country, the United States of America, First, Now and Forever!

Preface

I undertook the writing of this book for the pur¬ pose of placing before the people of my country the truth in relation to bolshevism and its American mani¬ festation, I. W. W.’ism; as well as stating in plain language just what the concept of Americanism means to me.

I am tired of reading rhetorical, finely spun, hypo¬ critical, far-fetched excuses for bolshevism, commun¬ ism, syndicalism, I. W. W.’ism! Nauseated by the sickly sentimentality of those who would conciliate, pander, and encourage all who would destroy our Gov¬ ernment, I have tried to learn the truth and tell it in United States English of one or two syllables.

Every statement made, every principle enunciated, every record quoted, almost without exception, is taken from the records of the syndicalistic and bol¬ shevistic organizations; from the columns of their maga¬ zines and propaganda newspapers; from their text books; from the lips of their leaders and from other authorita¬ tive sources, agreed upon and repeatedly quoted by their propagandists.

In searching the pages of its brief but eventful his¬ tory I could find no more terrific indictment of bolshe¬ vism and I. W. W.’ism than its own authoritative rec¬ ords, which prove conclusively that bolshevism is the

vii viii PREFACE

autocratic rule of the lowest, least intelligent, least able class who believe that by “direct action” and “force” they can terrorize our people into turning over to them the conduct, ownership, and control of every¬ thing. Strikingly ignorant, malignantly cruel, with no concept of history, with but an elementary knowledge of social production, with little productive capacity, with no constructive ability, this movement in our country would be ludicrous were it not for the senti¬ mental, weak-minded followers who, steeped in idealism and fanaticism, really believe in a bolshevik Utopia, where free milk will run in the water mains and life may be supported without toil, where knowledge may be gained without effort, and where the established truths of the centuries will be overthrown by soviet resolutions.

With syndicalism — and its youngest child, bolshe¬ vism — thrive murder, rape, pillage, arson, free love, poverty, want, starvation, filth, slavery, autocracy, suppression, sorrow and Hell on earth. It is a class government of the unable, the unfit, the untrained; of the scum, of the dregs, of the cruel, and of the fail¬ ures. Freedom disappears, liberty emigrates, universal suffrage is abolished, progress ceases, manhood and womanhood are destroyed, decency and fair dealing are forgotten, and a militant minority, great only in their self-conceit, reincarnate under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat a greater tyranny than ever existed un¬ der czar, emperor, or potentate.

The anarchist was courageous; he risked his life to take a life. The nihilist was a man , despite his crimes

PREFACE

IX of violence; but the bolshevist (the I. W. W.) is a sneak and a coward per se, made so by the absorption of a propaganda which teaches violence of every descrip¬ tion, advocates sabotage in the darkness, always, everywhere, saying: “ Do this deed. Terrorize the ma¬ jority , but take care of your own worthless hide /” Mor¬ ally debauching every member by the teachings of cowardice and hate, the propagandists have used the ignorant and the mattoid and the moron for their foul purposes.

The American bolshevists (I. W. W.) fired wheat fields when our army needed wheat, put dead rats and mice in canned food, spiked logs in order to destroy machinery and fellow workmen, set forest fires, placed emery dust in machinery, burned down mills and logging camps, killed vineyards, and did every other damnable and cowardly thing, always taking care that their own life and liberty were safe.

Their real and avowed purpose is the overthrow of all order and government and the making of our coun¬ try an experimental station for the purpose of trying out the blind vagaries and nightmares of the intellectual pismires and spittoon philosophers who would then be¬ come the autocrats in control of all things.

In this book I have briefly sketched the history of syndicalism in France, Germany, England, Russia, and the United States. I believe I have conclusively proven that the syndicalist, whether called bolshevist or I. W. W., is simply a revolutionary criminal; that each and every one teaches the commission of crime, that each and every one commits crime in the exact propor-

X

PREFACE tion as his courage and opportunity permit. The methods of syndicalism consist of force, direct action, sabotage, strike after strike, in order to foment class hatred, and then the general strike which if successful brings revolution.

The last part of the book is devoted to a discussion and explanation of the cures for bolshevism. In my constructive programme I have discussed Americanism and Americanization, selective immigration, education and educators, private rights, social legislation, deporta¬ tion of aliens, punishment of citizens, and universal service.

A government which will not defend itself cannot stand. We have had enough of weakness, conciliation, and pandering. We must run the United States of America primarily for the United States of America.

America First!

Ole Hanson.

Bolshevism Contrasted With Americanism

XI

Chapter I Why And How I Became Mayor Of Seattle

When I came to Seattle in 1902, 1 pitched my tent on Beacon Hill, a close-in, non-settled part of the city. The first night I arrived I stood on the hill and saw the child-city spread out before me. Below me to the west were the tide-lands covered with bulrushes, with an occasional street on stilts running over them; to the north was the city ablaze with light, with small build¬ ings, narrow streets, a station house for a depot, and hills and hills covered with forests. Around the fire that night I told the curious who had gathered to watch the strangers that we had come to Seattle to make it our home, to be a part of its growth, and that some day I would be its mayor. Of course they laughed at the idea of the red-headed stranger with his team and covered wagon becoming the mayor of their city of 100,000 people. Laughter and ridicule have never bothered me, as I have always believed that if one wants to do anything bad enough, he can do it, and that it is just as easy to fish for whales as for min¬ nows. Man is the only animal who can laugh and surely is the only one who ought to be laughed at. Anyhow, it is always easy to convert the man who laughs.

We built a home on Beacon Hill and lived there for many years, until my family increased so in size that we outgrew the house and spread out into two tenthouses. Then my wife, woman-like, insisted on secur¬ ing a home with fourteen rooms. She said, in order to house the family, but verily, I believe, in order to have more work to do. While we now have a larger home, every now and then I return to the old spot to relive, as it were, one of the happiest periods of my life. And how we worked to plan and then build that first home! I dug the holes and planted the trees, brought the climb¬ ing rose-bush from Oregon, the birch from California, the magnolia from Florida. Really, you know, I like the old place best, and some day perhaps, when the boys and girls have gone out into the world, if I have money enough, I may buy it back and live there again. But we wander.

About Christmas time in 1917 people in Seattle began to look around for a mayor. They said they wanted a war-mayor and were tired of the old cam¬ paign issues. No one came and asked me to become a candidate, but folks generally conceded that if I made up my mind to run, I would win. Few ever ask an independent free man to seek office! Usually those who ask you to run want something an honest man cannot grant !

I happened, one evening, to go up to look at the old place and as I stood on the same promontory where I unhitched the team seventeen years before, I saw, in¬ stead of dank, stagnant tide-lands and bulrushes, hundreds of magnificent buildings; the waterfront was ablaze with thousands of lights; the furnaces lit up the heavens, and the shipyards fringing the bay looked like one great vessel with ropes and spars and with thousands of little things called men swarming about them. Some of the great hills were gone, washed away to replace the ooze of the ocean with solid land — and where were the forests? Cut down, sawed up, and in their places stood thousands of homes.

Seattle, at that time, had 400,000 people living in homes, many of which I had helped to build. For the first time in years real-estate and budding were active and my business was prosperous. I knew that during the war one could amass a fortune in Seattle who knew the building business as well as I did. But our boy, our first born, was suffering from throat trouble. He was five feet nine and weighed but 109 pounds. He was not well and could not serve. I wanted to help and do my share. My parents had come to this coun¬ try from Norway. They came here wanting liberty, freedom, and a greater opportunity for themselves and their children. They found this country to be good, and never tired of telling us, in broken English, what a great country this was and how different from any other land in the world. They loved the United States and so do their children, every one. Both were dead, but I knew that could I ask their advice, they would say, “Our country is at war. Others are going to the front, but you can serve at home. Do your duty!” I owed considerable money (for me), but my creditors were secured and I felt they could wait. Wanting to serve my country in some capacity, I determined that evening to run for mayor and if elected, to abandon my private business and stay on the job during the war.

I did not know whether I could be elected as the political fights in which I had participated had been bitter. My support of the direct primary, the eight-hour law for women, the eight-hour law for under¬ ground miners, and the workmen’s compensation act, etc., had made me enemies, and when I forced the passage of the anti-racetrack gambling bill, which elimi¬ nated a gang of crooks from our midst, the grafters never forgave me. My fight on the red-light district during three city campaigns earned for me the opposi¬ tion of that multitude of wretches who owned and rented property in the district as well as all the boxcoated, pink-cuffed hangers on. The business com¬ munity, just awakening to the righteousness of the measures for which I had fought, still regarded me as somewhat unsafe. The labour forces had never had any fault to find with my record, and I felt that the “old timers” would be for me while the “Reds” and anti-war faction would just as surely be against me. My hope of election, apparently, depended on the great middle class who had no axes to grind, wanted no special privileges, but simply desired a fair, square business ad¬ ministration, ioo per cent, loyal.

Soon after our country entered the war Camp Lewis was established near Tacoma, a city of 100,000, thirty-eight miles away. It was here that the soldiers were to be received, trained, and prepared for war. Upon the establishment of this camp, immediate fric¬ tion arose between army officials and Seattle’s city officials. Mayor Gill, since dead, was in office. He was attacked by the army officials for not “keeping the town clean’’ and because “sedition and treason were not suppressed”; because the “I. W. W. still continued their activities,” and because “no soldier could visit Seattle without being handed anti-war literature and hearing speeches against the Government.” It was also openly charged that “Seattle was infested with itinerant women who, reeking with disease, were spread¬ ing the same amongst the soldiery.” Army officials said that “the I. W. W. propaganda was German propaganda and that the women were ofttimes Ger¬ man agents, paid with German money to destroy the health of the soldiers, and that the whole thing was a conspiracy against Uncle Sam and not just a ‘hap¬ penstance.’” Notice was given to Mayor Gill to re¬ move his chief of police and clean up. Gill told them

to go to - and insisted that the town was clean. It

was not clean, but so far as morality was concerned, it was certainly as clean as Tacoma. The Mayor of Ta¬ coma, however, agreed to cooperate, and as I under¬ stand it Gill did not.

One morning Seattle awoke to find that a “ban” had been placed on the city of Seattle and no soldier or officer or any one connected with the army could enter our city except on army business. This was by order of General Greene in charge of Camp Lewis. It was a terrific blow to our civic pride, and every effort was made by determined citizens to cause Mr. Gill to change his mind, remove his chief of police, and do as the army officials dictated. After six weeks of national disgrace for our city Mayor Gill did remove the chief and ap¬ pointed in his stead Joel F. Warren, who had been in the Government Secret Service.

At the request of the Government, Mayor Gill then instituted a quarantine station for diseased men and women under the supervision of Commissioner of Health Dr. J. S. McBride. From that time on (and we are still continuing it), when men and women were arrested for certain misdemeanors, they were given a thorough examination, including the Wasserman and Noguchi blood tests, and if found infected, were quarantined and kept away from society until all trace of the malady had disappeared.

There was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the conduct of affairs at the City Hall, for years every cam¬ paign having been conducted on police issues. We really did not elect a mayor to conduct the affairs of a great business institution, such as Seattle had become, but to become a kind of glorified chief of police. Great issues were forgotten every time and petty police dis¬ putes were in everyone’s mouth. A ten-cent poker game received more headlines than did the municipal light and power plant. The trials of alleged grafting policemen filled our dailies while city business ran any old way. The position of mayor was a trying one. With the city just emerging from its frontier past, some of the old ways persisted and the new laws were often resisted. One crowd or the other, usually both, were against the mayor!

Men fit to guide the destinies of the city either re¬ fused to neglect their private business or were thought unable to secure election. The next election was to be held March 5, 1918, and, as in the past, it was thought necessary to have a chance for success, that the candidate must either become subservient to Big Business or to the labour group. One or the other, poli¬ ticians said, a candidate must have. One or the other, they said, a mayor must serve. I have always held a different theory. It has been my belief since a boy that a candidate for office, playing fair and square with all men, with no special interest to serve, could be elected, provided he was believed to be honest and could get circulation. I have helped demonstrate to the politicians very often in my lifetime that they really cannot run nominations or elections if the people are appraised of their intentions.

After reviewing this situation in my mind I went home and told my wife of my decision. She never favoured my political ventures, but this time she as¬ sented on account of the war. The next day the papers carried notice of my candidacy and things started to happen. I had no campaign committee — they usually talk and seldom work. I wanted no headquarters for political loafers. I wanted no paid workers — they are so often no good. My campaign was to be purely a truth¬ telling one. I would attack no opponent, but would tell the people what I would do if elected, not that someone else had done wrong. It was a new method io AMERICANISM FERSUS BOLSHEVISM

in Seattle and consisted in telling the people: “If elected I will do this.” I had never lied to the people and felt they would believe me. I engaged a stenog¬ rapher and prepared my own printed matter.

The chairman of the Republican Central Committee announced his candidacy; a former prosecuting attor¬ ney entered the field; the president of the Municipal League filed, followed quickly by a young man who had held mass meetings denouncing vice and who believed himself to be a great man, but who had failed to con¬ vince others. Then came Mayor Gill seeking reelec¬ tion.

About that time a delegation from the Central Labour Council called on me, tendering me the support of their 65,000 members, provided I would agree, upon my elec¬ tion, to let Joel F. Warren, chief of police, go.

I asked: “What’s the matter with Warren?” They said: “Your record has always been fair; in the legisla¬ ture and on the labour committee you were 100 per cent. ; you fought the fight for better conditions, but Joel Warren at one time was a police officer during a strike over across the mountains. He does not suit us.” I then asked: “What did he do?” After several evasive answers they replied: “He arrested and imprisoned the boys when they tried to raise a little hell.” I then told them that I thought their statement was the best recommendation I had heard for Warren; that if he en¬ forced and observed the law, he certainly would remain chief if I was elected. They then asked for the dis¬ charge of the fire chief, a man with an excellent record as an efficient fire fighter and whose reputation in the

AMERICANISM FERSUS BOLSHEVISM n community was beyond reproach. As with the chief of police, I told them he would also remain if I was elected, provided, always, he did his duty. They left with threats on their lips and the next day a man named Bradford, who had been corporation counsel for the city, was chosen by the Central Labour Council Com¬ mittee as their candidate. He had never done anything for labour; he had never accomplished much but quarrel for the city, but “Jim” was subservient to their wishes and would represent them if he became mayor.

At the last moment a millionaire shipping man filed his candidacy. That made eight, but upon reading the charter, a local paper found that the last candidate was ineligible because of his not having been an Ameri¬ can citizen four years, so he withdrew. He was a very good man, able and courageous, and would have secured certain business support which I afterward received.

As soon as the filings closed and the campaign began, I issued my card containing my platform. It was brief, hence I quote it:

I stand for construction, not destruction; more factories and less lawsuits; a square deal to labour as well as capital; for a loyal, united Seattle, a Seattle free from turmoil, treason, and I. W. W. control.

Immediately 1 became the foe of the “inner cir¬ cle” at the Labour Temple. Their propaganda fac¬ tory worked to the utmost to convince the new work¬ ers that Hanson was a bad one. Believing that no “clique” could control the minds of the thinkers in labour , once they knew the truth, I immediately published a letter I had received from the past president of the State Federation of Labour, thanking me for my service to labour in the Legislature and saying: “You are ioo per cent, right.”

With no paid campaign workers, I made a strenuous campaign through pamphlets and mass meetings. Three dailies came out for me and printed the truth, but the I. W. W. element worked night and day spread¬ ing their lies. One evening, as the campaign waxed hotter and hotter, and the Red element at the Labour Temple became more vicious in their attacks on me, I went before their weekly meeting. I told them: “I have not come before you for your votes or your sup¬ port, but I have come here to tell you the truth about yourselves as well as review in brief my history in the state of Washington as far as it relates to labour.” I then quoted from the official record as to my stand on the remedial and reform measures which had been agi¬ tated and sometimes enacted into law. In every in¬ stance the official documents and letters from their own officials showed conclusively that I had made the fight, spent my time and my money furthering the progress of labour. They sat in silence; once in a while one would applaud. James Duncan, one of the Reds and secretary of the Central Labour Council of whom I will have more to say later, tried to interrupt sev¬ eral times, fearing the effect of the truth on the up¬ right and fair members of the council, but so interested were the auditors that he was promptly squelched. In closing I denounced the Reds, the I. W. W.’s and their kind, and said: If elected I will clean you up (meaning the Reds) lock, stock, and barrel. You do not belong in this country. Your talk of revolution has no place where the majority can and does govern. You are fighting the best government yet conceived by man. I shall close every hall where the overthrow of our Gov¬ ernment by force and violence is taught. You shall not parade with the Red Flag; you shall obey the law or you shall go to jail. Neither your leaders nor the leaders of the Chamber of Commerce shall control the city government. It shall be run for the benefit of all the people, not a particular class. You are against me because I am for the government you are against. You know there is nothing wrong with my labour record, but my government record is too loyal to suit you. I defy you and your kind. You make the most noise, but Seattle is loyal and will not stand for your control. I shall see the day when some of you that now hiss and jeer will do so behind prison walls.” Within a year two of my hearers, Hulet M. Wells and Sam Sadler, were in the Federal Penitentiary and others who were present will surely follow when justice is done.

That meeting at the Labour Temple clinched my nomination. Truth is a powerful weapon if one can only give it circulation. From that meeting on, the rank and file asked the Red leaders questions which they could not answer. Within twenty-four hours loyal labour men and women called and proffered me their secret help. It meant ostracism for them openly to defy the men who controlled the Central Labour Coun¬ cil. For fifteen years I have always known how elec¬ tions were going. I have my own method of taking a poll, and it has never failed me. This poll showed that i4 AMERICANISM VERSUS BOLSHEVISM

I would lead in the primary, Bradford (candidate of the labour leaders) second, and Mayor Gill third, with the “great young man” last. And so it happened. Under our non-partisan election law the top two are nominated and then two weeks afterward the election takes place.

In the primary I received nearly one half of all the votes, although there were seven candidates. In the finals Mr. Bradford and his supporters endeavoured to offset the charge that the I. W. W.’s were backing him by claiming that his ancestors came over in the May¬ flower. The Mayflower certainly must have had gutta¬ percha sides. His “ancestral father” claim did him little good, for I had a logger friend of mine poll the I.W.W. hall and the result was Bradford 180, Hanson none. This result was published and when the votes were counted on election day, Bradford was over¬ whelmingly defeated, and to the labour leaders’ chagrin and surprise I carried dozens of precincts where no one but union workers lived! Union labour people are the same as you and I. They are for right just as you and I, and when the facts are before the rank and file no fairer jury could be desired.

On the same day I was elected mayor, Anna Louise Strong, who had been educated in Germany and was a member of the School Board, was recalled from that honourable position because of her antagonism to our Government, and she was recalled by almost exactly the same number of votes that elected me mayor. The same forces that supported me voted for her recall. The line was plainly drawn and most of the people took their stand on our side. The entire campaign against my election was because I stood with the Government at Washington, and the Reds knew that their anti-war activities would be suppressed, come what would.

I took my oath of office on March 5, 1918, and within a few days the very men who had fought my election tried to use “soft soap” in order to sway me from my path. The business community had supported me al¬ most to a man and most of the old resident union men had done the same. Within a few days the Chamber of Commerce, which I did not trust, offered to help me in any way they could. It was my opinion they would want something wrong; that they had ulterior motives, and the offer was but a bluff. But I am frank to say it was not. During my entire term of office the business community assisted me in every manner possible and never tried to dictate the policy of the administration in a single particular. They left me entirely alone, but when once embarked upon my course of action, I found helpers in every bank, factory, and business house in Seattle. The great rank and file of labour has supported my every endeavour, while on the other hand the labour misleaders came time and again for favours and privi¬ leges ranging from asking the discharge of department heads to getting out of jail men who had committed crime. I soon learned that overalls did not denote a greater degree of honesty than broadcloth. When I was in the Legislature, Big Business tried to run things; as mayor, I found the I. W. W. demanded control. The Red employer and the Red employee are inter¬ changeable anarchists!

As soon as I came to get the “feel” of my new posi¬ tion I investigated the quarantine of men and women and demanded that the council give me better quarters to house them. This was consistently refused on one plea or another until the date of my leaving office.

I called a congress of the Northwest to consider the “vice” question from a new angle — the sanitary one. Doctor McBride, the Commissioner of Public Health, redoubled his efforts, and within ninety days after I became mayor, we cut the rate of diseased soldiers drafted from Seattle from four out of one hundred to one out of one hundred. The vice congress spread to other states and during the war Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, because of the quarantine of the infected, led the government list. In other words, fewer of our soldiers were found infected upon going to camp than those from any other part of the nation. Despite his wonderful work Doctor McBride became the target of every pacifist, every I. W. W., every pro-German, and every vice profiteer in the city. Everyone who was against the war was against the quarantine.

One man, who pulls teeth by day and practises law by night, had supported me for mayor, as I thought, because he believed I would serve the people. In reality, as I afterward learned, he supported me because he thought I would serve him and his crowd. He haunted my offices continually and waged an open fight against the quarantine station, and collected $1,100, under the guise of attorney fees, from five inmates, these particular inmates being the ones he was try¬ ing to have me release. One member of the City Counoil was his able assistant. Doctor McBride and myself worked v/ith and under the direction of army physicians and to the last had their enthusiastic cooperation. I wondered at the opposition of the council member until his wife called at my home one evening and told me the unprintable story of their lives. Then I under¬ stood his opposition to compulsory treatment and quarantine. The reason the quarantine was fought was because the men who fought it were either against our securing a healthy army, fit to fight, or were engaged in making profit from the unfortunates.