HIRE A HALL
WOLFE, BERTRAM D.
"HIRE A HALL" By Bertram D. Wolfe Some Adventure on a Lecture Tour Through the Land ot free Speech "The Wrsr fr**4»m It fr—tom f Speech mad I ,Pr«f verywbara la tkm Wmrid." —frmmkllm 0....
...ThIS hilarioas accaaat af a teeter* tear through tha land af fraa speech is the •rat af twa articles by Bertram D. Wetf* aa sees* epissd** that attracted aatioa• * wide attaatiea last Aagast...
...To the preparations I had suggested, the Quakers sdded others of their own, involving the use of silent meditation and prayer...
...Their disgrace.rr.niaatiooa they elabmed ajattatiot, « « , aad aaaatjtu+ od n momeee » th* p r i s m a s * , of asmou a c y - • • a -MJr.aMQir glf iu leading editorial, headed "Hire a Hall," the flattie Patt-IntaUigenaar reminded its readers that a)*se were the tactics which "Hitler's brown-ehirted ihwm troepera" used U undermine free speech under fje German republic "There is a time-honored Amer ksui tradition that the group or party which stages ay aasetinff shall be permitted to conduct it in peace, fhe sponsors of the Institute deserve the right to hold ijhtir meetings in peace...
...But he was unable to sell any bonds and retired in confusion...
...Chairman Freeman first pushed Terry Pettus (nonviolently of course...
...Go quietly to your homes...
...Thar* must be no free speech for them...
...I lesve it to the reader to imagine the feelings of the Communists who had just jumped the platform and stood amidst the sudden silence fscing sn audience with bowed heads...
...But he was one day nearer to the talk on Russis...
...Only three interruptions punctured the profound silence of several minutes' durstion...
...He spoke for 20" minutes criticizing soma of the speakers and in his last sentences urged th* audience to "buy war bonds and keep production going...
...Communist steering committeemen, caught off guard, ran up and down the hall calling upon their followers to rise and bow their heads so ss not to be "isolated from the others...
...1 must have spoken all of three quiet minutes before the first interruption occurred...
...Glenn Kinney, vice-president of the Machinists, to be added to Stat* .Senator Rabbitt, State Representative Pen nock, and Congressional Candidate...
...Let those who object hire gVir own hall" ' t h e Cummuiii»ts were astonished at the hornets' nest '•hry hsd brought down on their own hesds...
...After they penetrans* into tha weak D*mo«rati« Party h* Was nominated for Congress...
...When it becomes clear that we have done all we could, we should announce the same address to be delivered the following day...
...Then the State Federation of Labdr took notice * i " of the matter...
...The third, from the platform, the voice of the speaker of the evening: "While you people hsve your heads bowed in prayer, this man is stealing the mike...
...As assistant Research snd Educstion Director of the CIO, Eby was invited to present its official program...
...A first page story carried the text of the r m l l S t t l S , It spoke of the "vicious and raphlaive company* of slander" which preceded the disruption...
...My speaking schedule included Seattle, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Passadena, Whittier...
...The policies of Krueger and Wolfe are both a faithful echo of the Berlin radio propagands...
...When on* had interrupted for the third time, I called that fact to the attention of the audience and asked him to state his name, affiliation, and purpose in interrupting our deliberations...
...He is working an sa interpretation ef the Rassiai Revolution tentatively entitled "Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin: Thr** Who Msde • Revolution...
...I do not know...
...Neil Crow* of the Maritime Union...
...He lived ia Mexico far a while aad became a friend •f Diego Rivera, the noted painter...
...I returned to my talk once more, but Del Castle of the Ship Sealers, Burt Nelson and O. L. Reavinger of the Longshoremen, Neil Crowe of th* Maritime Union, Terry Pettus of the New World, and an unidentified man jumped the platform and surrounded me...
...Th* Reverend Elmer Christie, Rector of Epiphany Church, said he would take ne steps to protect his church but that "any one who stand,* up in church and shouts is a hoodlum...
...my talk Vas heard or read by hundreds, perhaps thousands, who would otherwise never have known of the Institute's existence...
...But insofar as your objective is to hold a peaceful meeting of an Institute and have an orderly discussion, you are probably going to lose the battle tonight...
...We thus got self-identifications from Terry Pettus, editor of the New World...
...Congressional candidate Hugh de Lacy and State Senator Thomas C. Rabbitt, both Communists running on the Democratic ticket, took the floor to denounce Krueger...
...It was a portable mike, and while the Chairman's head was bowed, he had grabbed it with the intention of beginning to speak as soon as the prayer was done...
...He waa a resident in Moscow far several years as representative af th* C.P.-U.8.A...
...My subject was to be "Russia and the Peace...
...My arrival in Seattle was greeted by the Communist Politicsl Association with an open letter to Mayor l>t in and the Seattle City Council informing him that the Quakers and local sponsors were "Peace Now" advocates, "Trotskyites and Buchmanites," that they should all be investigated and especially that Maynard Krueger »nd Bertram Wolfe should be barred from speaking in Seattle...
...A fall moath after the Institute had haM its last session (there were no further interruptions), the unions of Seattle were still adopting resolutions denouncing the Communist attack en the "First Freedom" in Seattle...
...Naturally I could have nothing to ssy on the question of their principle of non-violence...
...Then he turned to th* audience and called for a session of silent prsyer...
...You want to know who I am...
...In June the American Friends Service Committee asked me to participate in a number of West Coast Institutes of International Relations...
...Whenever things calmed down a bit, I returned to my talk...
...A wsrm welcome indeed to Seattle...
...Pettus completed the • job by handing ont a statement to th* press bearing all th* above signatures plus that of Mr...
...Seversl of his followers have already been jailed for sedition...
...The whole thing had only been a irhrarsal for the folk on Russia which was still two days away...
...When a general knows that he will lose a particular battle his next thought is to prepsre an orderly retreat so that he may continue the struggle Therefore, I suggest that you engage another hsll for tomorrow and rearrange your schedule*of lectures...
...All my suggestions were adopted except thai of having a large number of committee members on the platform...
...The wars of the spirit have their battles, too," I ssid in un-Quskerly language...
...It "deplored the nauseating and reactionary manner" ia which the Communists had nought to use a wounded veteran and a uniform "typical of the line of attach against ufuVr" which vigilantes had used in the Northwest after the last war...
...The Communists may have come back...
...Perhaps a hundred Communists paid fifty cents each for the privilege of contributing to the confusion...
...Charles Day, business sgent of the longshoremen It was a Who's Who of those who were willing to take Communist Party guidance in signing a statement that "Speakers of the Institute are echoing fascist propaganda for a negotiated peace, snd trying to divide the united nations...
...I shell do my best to deliver my tslk...
...to ducuss the application of the Quaker technique of non-violence to the problems of defending a meeting . against disrupters...
...The first time a person interrupted, the Chairman promised him the floor if he would wait until the discussion period...
...The hecklers were forced to msrch up from the back of the hall, beginning to talk as they advanced...
...The local Communist paper, Miw World, a tabloid gotten up to look exactly like I'ii, carried an ink blot on its first page with the scarehead: Wips Oitt This Peace .Vow Blot...
...Dean Mendenhall called for a minute of silent prsyer and meditation...
...At any rate, I delivered the postpo-acd tosh amidst perfect silence, punctuated only by warmly friendly applause...
...Del Castle, secretary of the Ship Sealers' Union...
...James A. Duncan, representative of the International Association of Machinists, and I. A. Ssndvigen, business agent of Hope Ledge 7*, repudiated the men wh* had claimed te speak for their unions...
...Oat af this residence and friendship Wolfe wrote seversl bookmen Mexico, incladiag "Portrait af Mexico," "Diego Rivera His Life and Times," etc...
...This address which was interrupted tonight, will be given tomorrow at' Epihany Hall...
...The disruption was planned...
...Each of them obligingly responded: "You want to know who I am...
...Its editorial called upon the "responsible authorities" to ". , . lose no time in halting the so-cslled 'First Annual Institute of International Relations' . . . sponsoring a motley crew of pro-Axis propagandists . . . making a last desperate attempt to save the Axis from military defeat...
...having the Institute students come early, fill the front seats and keep quiet except when the chairman asked their opinion or cooperation...
...These Institutes, originally founded by the Quakers, have sunk deep roots into their various communities and the Quakers have voluntarily ceded sponsorship to local organisations, churches, universities and the like...
...Ha Is president of Jhe **soclnMon -which pubrfehes the Comwmnbir New Warld...
...Sergeant Frank L. Batterson, the wounded veteran who had used his uniform as an aid to an attack en free speech, was notified that his name had been removed as a speaker at th* Victory Square Program for Russian War Relief...
...All in all 1 should say that the hour duiing which I held the platforms was divided into twenty minutes of intermittent lecture, twenty minutes of intermittent repartee, and the rest sheer bedlam There came a point when the hecklers seemed to grow weary and run out of epithets...
...The paper explained that "Bertram Wolfe is one of America's most notorious Trotskyites...
...Th* Stattle Star published an interview calling for th* defeat, of De Lacy, Rabbitt and Penncock at the polli-* Robert Le Doux, vice-president of the AFL Aer* Mechanics, branded the disrupters "un-American...
...Only in Seattle was the Institute a new affair, setting out on its very first year...
...The second, from the floor: "This is blasphemy...
...And th* meeting began to dissolve...
...In my mind's ay*, I could already see the headline: 'RABBIT CHASES WOLFE" • • • • versa* Violence On June II, the afternoon bafor* I was to speak, the Institute held a sort pf preparatory caucus, a Round TnIda session under th* leadership of Harrop Freeman, professor Of International Law at William and Mary, •Hugh JD« Lacy was mad* chairman of th* Washington Commonwealth Federation whan tha Communism captured it and reduced it to • shell...
...A Talk ia Usfollmenf> E<ACH night the audience had grown as a result of the disruption and attendant publicity...
...frmmkllm 0. K—f*»lt...
...The chsirman and I must hold the platform as long as possible, try to make clear what the issues sre, who the disrupters are and what their motives...
...la 1129 aad became an editor ef the Barkers Ape...
...I was asked to participate...
...But he finished his address...
...Every hesd was raised suddenly, in time to see one of the disrupters holding th* mike in his hsnd...
...down the stsirs...
...The first, from the balcony: "Look at the Pecksniff, praying...
...Portions of th* book have appeared ia Harpers...
...All that was Isrking were the keys to the city .. . lockup...
...Chairman Mendenhall achieved a degree of order by yielding the microphone to State Senator Thomas Rabbitt, one of the invaders and member of the Building Service Employees Union . .. Sergeant Frank L. Batterson .. . was permitted to apeak at length...
...V Taraa-ffiaf Clrcm I PARRIED their thrusts, giving I imagine at least as good as I got (after all, I had the mike as well as right, on my side...
...On July 6, the Central Labor Council of Seattle adopted a resolution which denounced the disruption as "un-American and having brought shame on the lsbor organisations the disrupters claimed affiliation with...
...Meat Wee*: Th* Mtht wf Sen Francisco...
...Te which the Seattle Times added the intriguing note: "Ona man jumped up and said, '111 buy s $100 bond if yau'v* got it to sell...
...the streamer hiagfhn af the Seattle Post Intalhgemaer at the top a t tha first page read: BOILERMAKERS* UNION SCORES CHURCH MEETING SAID...
...Wolf* left the CP...
...Noncommcmias CIO leaders began wiring protests to P h i Murray...
...But the Chairman, mike in hand, said to the assemblage: "Good people...
...In the language of the Seattle Times, they "shouldered the speaker from the microphone...
...Hugh D* Carey, previously identified...
...You may feel you are victorious'no matter what happens provided you do not compromise your principles...
...a sickening and shameful spectacle- a blot on the patriotism of the Northwest—that should be eliminated quickly...
...Seat*'* Answers lack The next day the newspapers, the churches, the civic organizations, and th* labor movement of Seattle began to rally to the defense of th* young Institute snd Seattle's right to hold peaceful discussion meetings...
...And aa July 14...
...But I suggested hsving s committee on the platform which would make platform-jumping more difficult...
...A stenographer took a transcript of my remarks and the papers snnennred that all who had not been able to return to hear it could receive it free by mail...
...Burt Nelson, and O. L. Reavinger of the Longshoremen...
...Miss Hilda Hanson, executive secretary of th* Seattle CIO Council...
...A wounded war veteran was put forward, after some fuss at his disrupting the order of business, to make an appeal to buy war bonds...
...This is an attempt to lull the American people to sleep while they (Krufger and Wclfe) stsb our fighting forces in the ba*k...
...I am So and So of such-and-such an organisation, representing so-and-so msny patriotic workers...
...he began...
...That night the paid admissions numbered over 750...
...He was heckled...
...Nora McCoy, vice-president of the Washington OH-Age Pension Union...
...The young Institute was stone the worse for the attack upon it...
...Nest day...
...All the newspapers carried their names and the unions of Seattle took especial note ef them...
...Abashed now, he cried, "All right, I'll speak without the mike," and handed it back to the Chairman...
...Jess Fletcher, international vic«pr*sideht>~ef th* Building Service Employees Union...
...When Maynard Krueger, the national chairman of the Socialist Party, spoke, the audience for the young institute numbered more than 250...
...I T I HE next evening Kermit Eby of the ('10 was scheduled to speak on "Labor's Program for the Pesre...
...Bertrsm D. Walfe, author, lectarer, aad critic, was a farmer leader of the American Commaaiet Party...
...II ie is the report of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: LEFT WINGERS DISRUPT MEET "Pandemonium reigned in sedate Plymouth Congregational Church auditorium last night as ten Seattle political left-wingers, all shouting and waving their arms at one*, jumped onto the platform and stopped a session of the Institute of International Relations dead in its tracks . . . Kermit Eby was shouted down...
...K-snhhay Hall wa> crowded to the doors the greatest aadienee the Institute had si) far had...
...Freeman, in one of the shortest Chairman-speeches on record, introduced me to the audience, and I was quietly spesking into the microphone before the Communists had recovered from their surprise...
Vol. 27 • October 1944 • No. 41
