AN APPEAL FROM ACROSS THE SEA.

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 19, 22 November 1913, Page 2

AN APPEAL FROM ACROSS THE SEA.

An urgent appeal to the World’s Workers comes from the tyrant-ridden districts of the Southern States of North America, For years the iron hand of oppression lias been tightening on the throat of worker, tenant, and peon. Vested interest and its tools have carried on the mad and murderous game, recking not of human life in their brutal thirst for profit and power. Savage and semi-legalised murder, and worse, is common in the lumber camps, the peon districts, and the merciless profit-making mills of the “Land of the Free.” Every sterling worker and tenant who raises his voice for more humane conditions is slugged or murdered by the thugs and tools of “ the interests.” Nationality matters not; therb, as here, profit-mongers, combine regardless of creed or birthplace, to crush still further all who come under their sway. When rebels speak out they are shot or imprisoned; when this fails they are confronted with faked chrages before the “ Law”—what a parody on Justice—and every attempt made to run them to long terms of imprisonment or to the gallows. The position of the Labour organiser and the rebel there is more desperate than here; but in spite of torture, dungeon, and gallows, indominitable spirits still speak out for free speech and the right to organise—in face of fearful odds. The position of these fellow-workers of the World’s Industrial Army is well shown by these extracts from Covington Hall’s appeal, as editor of the “ Voice of the People,” to the freedom lovers of the world: — / Soldiers of Liberty. “ Fourteen good men and true are being railroaded to the horrible penetentiaries of the Savage State of Texas, there to suffer shames and tortures that Torquemando the Accurst could not improve upon. . . . “ Serrato already has been railroaded for twenty-five and Louis Gonzales for six years to worse than a living hell. . . . Clines Lawyers, and all his fellow victims not only praise him, but declare him innocent, ... A reporter for the ‘ Express,’ when reproached even by the Associated Press Correspondents for the lies lie was sending out, intimated that he had to have a sensation even if some men had to pay for it with their lives on liberty. “ Rebels of the World, to the rescue! . Remember that their only crime is that they strive against the infamous system of Peonage and Tenantry that has so long blighted the States of Mexico and Dixie with its dehumanising reign. “ They have asked me, Covington Hall, to appeal to you, the militants of Labour throughout the world to defend them from a doom that is worse than death. “You whose duty it is to help, gather immediately all the funds you can, and send them to : Eugenio Aldzalde, Chairman Defence Committee, care Judge R. W. Hudson, Pearsall, Texas, 11.5. A., and be careful to register all letters containing funds.” Covington Hall is a staunch battler in the Labour cause, and is known to Australasian workers. The “ Voice of the People ”is a well accredited Labour paper. Judge Hudson is the leading counsel for the defence. All Australasian workers, not directly involved in the present fight here, can help these fellow workers in America. The tools of oppression are largely controlled by British interests. Capital takes no account of nationality—only when it suits the exploiters to try and divide us. Our fight is International. It may be our turn to appeal next.