CIVILIZED MURDER IN ROUMANIA
Levinson, Edward
Civilized Murder In Roumania Socialist Leader Dying by Slow Torture By Edward Levinson TN THE salt mines of tbe blessed Queen Marie's Roumania there still langush peasants Imprisoned for...
...ROBERT B. WARSHOW...
...It is a hideous background of working class suffering in a state that is absolutely ruled by the most powerful capitalist interests in its borders...
...This might go with Marvin's morons but not with Senators who discovered that Fred had also annexed some army officers as a depart•ment of his industry and through them his stuff was actually being mailed free under the government frank...
...It is inconceivable that such squalor, suffering, misery and distress should be tolerated," said chairman Gooding...
...Bat I thought It wee God's owe plan...
...Something can be said for the dignity and culture of its aristocratic ancestry but the gentlemen leaders passed with the death of Webster and Clay...
...I served for my Boaster's ease...
...Mind you be wants it without any need...
...American Socialists who read these lines, wQI experience a feeling ef revulsion at the beartleacness of a government which can subject a human being to the suffering which has been meted out to Comrade Bujor...
...The thing declares that "nine-tenths of the 13,000 employes are loyal members of the Brotherhood...
...It has no vision...
...Even the liberal opposition to be found in other countries and in their parliaments is alfSent here...
...What there is of liberalism functions outside of politics and contents itself with expression of opinions in a few journals and through publicity in the daily press...
...He believed that by means of complaints and protests he might get tbe laws and regulations applied also to himself...
...My pen is too precious, my minutes too few...
...Joined the Socialist movement in ',903 and rapidly rose to a position of rust, for some time editing the prinipal Socialist newspaper...
...It may be that the American Socialist* and readers of the Mew leader can do a little toward helping the Roumanian Socialists in their efforts to wm freedom for Bujor...
...And then they wm try la vain To halt the march of famished men With sanctimony's sigh...
...Everybody watches your stottsuea Everybody uses encyclopaedias to check you up...
...I heaped for him hills of dasillng discs, I bowed to his "do" and "must...
...Or it will find something to do...
...And it was the Hon...
...Another situation in the service has issued out of his discharge of nineteen workers for being members of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes...
...Most reluctantly after we had for a long time implored and urged, yes even scolded him, Bujor against his will and even with disgust consented to picture in .detail tbe treatment to which he is subjected...
...Knowledge of this economic interest of the judge also gave the members of the committee a surprise...
...An American Swine-Pen ^LMOST ten months after the miners have vegetated in idleness and misery a committee of the United States visited the bituminous fields of Pennsylvania...
...Strange . . .! I who was born to work, Sprang from a worker's seed...
...Loved ones must go forever away, For the capitalist wants more money today...
...He sits In his cosy steam-heated home, like Nero who played at the burning of Rome, Some days tbe minds of men will be sound...
...Jim Junior...
...I corse...
...with special noises at night on the walls and the door of the cell...
...Bujor was sentenced to hard labor in the company of other men...
...Smug and arrogant, enjoying rich pickings, he returns to the same old stand year after year and gets away with the goods...
...Fred...
...Hedley begins his performance by placing this figure on his knee, adjusting his fingers to the springs in the back of the neck, and the wooden jaws begin to open and we hear the thing squeak...
...The figure winks at the crowd and Hedley chuckles over his skill in operating the mechanism...
...In May 1022, Bujor delivered a speech .t the funeral of a Socialist comrade...
...At the time of the bunding of the Third International, he leclared the act to bs a crime against nternatlonal Socialist unity...
...Though he worked with the Bolshevists n Odessa, Bujor Is not .a Communist ind therefore the Communists have all nit forgotten him...
...Rule and charges aad ether things That make for expenses, grew...
...Giving away all the marrow of me, In a game where I never could win, Aad keeping the waste that was left of me, As though I had sloughed In sin...
...Stars like pieces of metal, brittle and cold...
...And Solar's bravery win be an inspiration to tbe Socialists of the world, young and old...
...A few facts were disclosed regarding Judge Langhan who issued the sweeping injunction which even prohibited miners from singing hymns, ft appears that the miners had not been heard in the injunction proceedings and that the judge is an investor1 in coal mines...
...You don't have to be so accurate...
...Referring to an article which appeared a year ago in the 'Socialismul'— the first newspaper article which by chance came under his notice and which stated that he was a victim - of a savage treatment—he uttered an ironical protest against this description of his confinement and asserted that he was treated in a civilised, altogether civilised fashion...
...He may not have any interest in the mines covered by his injunction, but the fact that he has investments in the industry is significant...
...The sweet Queen, subect of rhapsodical editorials in the American press, has found herself unable 0 forgive the peasants for their agonred rebellion 30 years ago...
...But what a diSerenae between the hat visit and this second one...
...Returning to us the victuals and warm clothing we had brought him, Bujor begged our forgiveness, begged us to do nothing more to alleviate his fate, since ere long this terrible regime under whose yoke he had been for so many years, would for him have ceased to exist "But Bujor must not dies, be mast bs rescued...
...At first he believed he might be able to modify this regime in the idea that possibly only the local management of the prison was responsible for It...
...Dedication The gods have blessed me with a nimble pen For an hour, and I long to write Of the things that I love— Roses, Stardust and ships from Spain— And the hour is short...
...His culture was a flag to mask the looting appetites of the mercenaries...
...And if I go out in conjecture, tbe Jim Junior of these poems below Is none other than Jimmy Oneal's own charming daughter of hardly a dozen summers or little more...
...And WbaS the printer makes an error, or leaves out a word, whs* a ha-ha yea get from friend and foe alike...
...These have not tbe prophetic thunder of Robert 8. Wkrahow's War polemic...
...So tonight I will write of a workingman...
...By It's hand desolation and rain was sown...
...The program of nationalization which was formulated some years ago has been snunted into the background when it could have been used to place the anarch owners on the defensive...
...CreaUng crescendo of viol chords i Like living fire, a white arm stops Its broken arc, And as in storm-swept fjords...
...We feel the same way regarding Frank Hedley, president and general manager of the Interboro Rotten Transit Company...
...We are sorry for you...
...Bryan who, as Secretary of State, observed the crucifixion of Haiti without a protest...
...To complete the portrait, the monthly organ of the G. O. P. at Washington, The National Republic, runs each month a department on "The Enemy Within Our Gates" to combat all "subversive movements...
...They are breeding places of sickness and crime...
...And wanting for little, I hungered for lees, And knelt to the Godly creed...
...in s special cell which is damp, cold and dark, nourished with special air which he can only enjoy alone one or two, or at most .hree hours per day: under the special supervision of a warder and latterly also jf an assistant who inflict all possible annoyances on him...
...Some of the stuff he has sent out has been so absurd that even some perfectly safe and sane Senators at Washington are itTTevolt...
...Henry Cabot Lodge presented the transition from the gentleman to the vulgarian as he was something ,of both...
...Despite tbe fact hat It was proved that he had given his irlsoners the most humane treatment xjssible, Bujor wss convicted and senenced to 20 years at hard labor...
...And it would be an insult to savages to describe ss savage such a treatment which is only thinkable in a civilised society with all the refinements of civilisation...
...There comes to hand a bulletin from the National Council for Prevention of War which is typical of much that is labeled "liberalism...
...Let each one who reads this article sit down immediately and write a short and vigorous note of protest to the Rumanian minister In Washington, telling hbn ef our disgust at tbe continued imprisonment of Comrade Bujor and uciiititdln) his immediate success...
...Governor Fisher holds only one stock in the coal company at present but are we to believe that this executive with his intimate associations with coal and railroads is any the less affectionate toward the corporate oligarchies...
...On the first occasion one could still ibserve In him a will to live, the hope of surviving this frightful confinement, tad at parting he folded me In his arms, jade me return as often as possible and declared to me that be was soil the same Socialist' who had shared with me s whole lifetime, and in the event of his dying he would carry with him into the grave the same ideal under whose auspices we both grew up...
...I must be careful In giving tbe exact age of any lady no matter bow young she be...
...This visit served to re-open the case, rhe Socialist International gave the story publicity in ail corners of the world, ibe Roumanian government finally was orced to go through the motions of an inquiry-'' It has now reported "all is veil" with Bujor and that be is receiving "special treatment'' With this the Socialist International Is net satisfied...
...I never balked at my pittance...
...On a dead black sky, and oat in the darkness— A lost bird crying...
...The old time faker was picturesque and admirable, but for unalloyed brass we commend our readers to Frank Hedley of the Rotten Transit Company Song Of The Unemployed n Y YEARS tan* were meant for play, -D I carried the load et a man...
...So long as Fred confined himself to Socialists, radicals and noble women like Jane Addams he got away with it, but even safe and sane Senators could not stand for his version of the oil thieves...
...And who In a lowly place like mine Dare question a Godly plan...
...Then once In a curious light, I nosed for tbe fool I'd been...
...Fred has built up a big industry and the pickings have been excellent, but he seems to have gone too far in capitalizing credulity...
...Then there is Governor Fisher who has served the New York Central Railroad as general counsel and was once director of one of the coal companies that is owned by the New York Central...
...He had besides submitted to the governor an answer to this article which doubtless will never be forwarded to Its destination...
...Today it was no longer the same Bujor who met our eyes...
...Well, we have terrible memories...
...Tossing up stsrflsb and seaweed...
...You know it involves s» much responsibility...
...A few survived after the Civil War like Senator Hoar...
...8. A. de Witt THE CHATTER BOX YF7B INTEND to allow a few young ones to gambol about In this prosy pasture for the week...
...Old conditions cannot continue and the miners can have no peace under them, yet labor statesmanship is conspicuous by its absence...
...Upshaw encasing his manly figure in overalls a few years ago and offering this as a way to solve the problem of the high cost of living...
...Be was a lawer...
...The committee found men, women and children living in hovels which are more unsanitary than a modern swine-pen...
...Bryan fighting imperialism and then using his influence to have Democrats ratify the treaty which fixed the status of the Philippines as conquered provinces...
...He swore his loyalty to So.iaiism and the workers, though in all he years he had received no news of lis comrades' activities...
...Following this performance Hedley places the figure labeled Connolly on his knee for an encore and the jaws again open...
...And maddened by famine, with food la sight, I stab at my Godly creed . . . I stab, aad with gnashing spite, I tear through the hltndtng weave, Aad fiing a nasty sneer at Hun...
...That vas eight years ago...
...One Roumanian political prisoner is 1 well known figure in Roumanian Sola) Ism,—Ml hai O. Bujor, , whose name vas for years linked with,that of ChrisJan Rakovaki...
...One Indiana Republican served a term in the penitentiary and another escaped it on a technicality...
...The hands that would never shirk The meanest task, or tbe quickening brain That calls for creative work, And hears with the leaden thud of doom, Tbe words . . . .There is no work . . . I only ask for work...
...It's much better to keep telling jokes...
...The wild rain's singing she gently mutes Till silence reigns...
...Have nothing to give to these eager hands That they might earn for my need...
...Bui after numberless requests and complaints after bringing his case fruitlessly to the notice of all the inspectors and lawyers, he now utters no further complaint, asks for nothing, affects to view everything as civilised and humane, declines the bad meat and the whole of his food, rejects all special favours, no longer accepts the gifts of eatables sent to him from outside—which indeed could onlyresult in protracting his agony...
...Then there was the fact that the Supreme Court of the United States had placed its brand on the oi'- yeggs and the inference of Fred was that this august body was also involved in the "Moscow conspiracy...
...How this is what I can a real rest after weary weeks of key •oundlng on serious questions tar serious people...
...Fit to Govern" •J^HE Republican leaders always have been proud to trace the descent of their party through the Federalist and Whig parties and to have inherited the dignified traditions of Washington, Hamilton, Webster and Clay...
...This Idleness to pain...
...Well, until X find something to chase my nanny out again into the street allow set ». remain, Joahtngty yours, so gentle and kind...
...is gone...
...Send your letters to George Gmlslane, Beesaaalan Minister, Week, D. C. Several thousand letters win bring to the Roumanian government in startling fashion the realisation that the news of their atrocity against Bujor is bscosaing known throughout the world, loyalty to Socialism for which Bujor Is giving so much would demand that us do at least this much to begin with...
...aad meanwhile, ss long as there is still time, for tbe alleviation of his barbarous SnjBtoogsnent But the entire working-class, the gotire pubttc opinion of the civilised world must be mobilised on behalf ef this victim of the Roumanian governing easts.' The helpless and oppreaied proletariat of Roumania knows well that the international working-olaas will Join in the cry: Save Bujor, whom an Inhuman government Is slowly but surely murdering...
...In xpectatkm of an early revolt In Rounania, Comrade Bujor became comnander of the revolutionary Roumanian lattalion which had been organised in Messa...
...We have a rather vivid recollection of the Hon...
...Her feet patter nke faBrng ram-drape...
...Some "Moral Issues" (CAPITALISM has a setting in the United States that is a paradise compared to its home in any other country...
...and actually he Is kept for seven years in solitude without the chance of exchanging a single word with bis fellows, and he is kept under a special treatment doomed to a slow death of torment...
...Hedley grins as he lays the figure in a cushion box and proceeds to rake in the nickels paid by the poor fish hanging to straps in his cattle cars...
...It is pathetic and discouraging...
...Most of the stuff he has sent out is garbage, but the Babbitt swine have gulped it- down with relish...
...Stunned and dumb, not questioning why, I dragged from door to door...
...Marvin's Merchandise Declines have occasionally expressed our enjoyment at Fred R. Marvin's success in selling his merchandise to a large crowd of dumbells...
...And Oods grant my work shall hasten the Dawn Of a different more noble, more gracious sun...
...Even the Senate committee is convinced that the private anarchy in production must be brought under some form of social control but John L. Lewis does not have any program...
...It warped me end wearied and wore...
...with special measures taken after every visit and every complaint—such is Bujor "a ipecial treatment...
...No roses for sae...
...When the Bolsheviks came to x>wer in Odessa, he was placed In charge if Imprisoning and watching the Rounanlan royalists who bad taken reuge in the Ukrainian city...
...Storm Dance O muted chords of liquid sybtuaaeel O roar of a twisted sea shell Play your symphony that tbe dense may beghU • Soft plucktngs of the five-stringed lyreLike a blown reed she is Deriding and swaying Moving before tbe Wind Gods tore— Golden hair nke reed-flowers, twisting sad frajdng...
...A strike is threatened if the victimized men are not reinstated and this provided another opportunity for Hedley to assemble his wooden figures like a ventriloquist on a crowded street corner...
...The Office Bey...
...Then one strange day, I heard him say, "There's nothing for you to do...
...Whatever he gave . . wee Just...
...The members were shocked...
...There has ippeared in "Sociallsmul", the organ of he Roumanian o~-t-M-» party, an aricle by The MJseovl, who recently visted Bujor in bis cell "I have seen Bujor again after a year ind a half,'' Mtseovkd writes: "During the seven and a half years hat Bujor, cut off from the whole world, is* been pining away in a solitary cell >f the Doftana prison, this is only the eoond time that we bare mans god to ret permission for a visit, so that be night receive bis comrades and friends...
...Jim Junior...
...Men, women and children starve...
...Nothing more terrible ever was known...
...They rare shocked, for they found the poweruUy built man of other years a decrepit •Id man...
...We remember the Hon...
...The report of the Brattenu govern - nent has been proven a He...
...The management must stand by its agreement with the great mass of loyal employes and discharge all others when requested by the Brotherhood and decline to reinstate disloyal employes who have been expelled by their Brotherhood...
...Before us stood a man bowed with torments, undermined by hunger, incapable of rejoicing at the reunion with his friends, resigned to everything that befalls him, Indifferent to everything...
...Of a miner, that's starving, a Bowery bum...
...Meantime the gang is involved in a quarrel over the question as to which of three men is mayor and the Koo Koo squads of Indiana Republicans, now a remnant of the former nightshirt army, are casting aside the shirt and mask...
...Having given to this ideal everything, his life and his strength, there remains nothing more than a slight sacrifice, which will soon enough ensue...
...And who can Judge for crime...
...His stuff is a hangover of the idiocy period of the war and he will probably find a market for it a little while longer...
...I knew I was bora to work...
...He has been held Ince his arrest in the Doftana prison, onflned in a tiny cell to solitude...
...The picture is not relieved by any statesmanship on the part of responsible union officials so far as organization of the industry is concerned...
...Sprang...
...And who oaa blame for blasphemy Tbe soul that's an empty sieve...
...The following poem by a ten year old bard of the Bronx, intrigues us with the thought that all is not so well with this dear world as long as youngsters hardly in their teens go about trumpeting such un-American thoughts as these — War...
...Some of them no doubt will feel that they have been duped by .» consummate faker and will tell Fred to migrate .to a hotter climate...
...Roumanian Socialism soon called Buor back to his native country, where ie was Immediately seised and imprisoned...
...A due appreciation of his position in this matter would have induced a man jealous of the reputation of his office to refuse to act in this case...
...Prosecution by the military authorities olio wed and Bujor fled to Russia...
...I disbelieve...
...Fred of course, will not take "their advice as long as he can find enough simps * - to put up the cash to enable him to pocket a good mcome, but we surmise that the industry is now on the dech'ne...
...They are gentler in subject matter as becomes a lady, even In this most unladylike age...
...Newspapers and letters are refused him...
...Not so with' this bituminous judge...
...with special diet, specially prepared for him out of bad meat...
...and no one gets mad at you...
...About a year ago, two comrades flamy succeeded in seeing Bujor...
...the Bobjirylilrl...
...The lines are again facing trouble, as Hedley's serfs want a union that represents them and Hedley has a "union" that represents him and he is determined to keep it...
...In short he considers himself as having irrevocably fallen In the struggle for the ideal of a genuine civilisation...
...Buor is but 47 years old...
...from a worker's seed...
...A decent conservative like Borah merely serves as window dressing for the firm...
...This piece of intelligence declares that "Hon...
...You have qualified for , plasters and ointments and there are plenty of morons who will patronize the new goods...
...8oond of the wares Cm the sand, and a clean, clear wind Whipping the sand into dunes, .» • Rustling the march grass...
...What to left la flesh aad brain Cries out for something It must do...
...As a perfect patriot Marvin had to defend the oil looters so Freddie gets out a report declaring the precious trio—Fall, Sinclair and Doheny— are really patriots and that the prosecution of these gentlemen was a "red plot" hatched in Moscow...
...Then will the capitalist fall to the ground...
...He is :ept severely apart from all other prismers, and his ward is deaf and dumb...
...Civilized Murder In Roumania Socialist Leader Dying by Slow Torture By Edward Levinson TN THE salt mines of tbe blessed Queen Marie's Roumania there still langush peasants Imprisoned for their conlectlon with the uprising of 1*07, s rlsng against cruel oppression practiced tgainst the peasants by the owners of rreat estates...
...To the land of Nothing-to-do, I trudged with millions more...
...It appears that one piece of army propaganda had its origin in a bulletin of the 7th Corps area at Omaha and this abominable item declared that it was necessary to bring the "Christian religion ,»yith the point of the bayonet" to the "heathen Chinese...
...William Jennings Bryan as a warrior whose weapons were logical arguments, whose munition was always the way of reason and spirit of friendliness...
...It received a terrible blow as a result of the war when all its fine-spun theories were thrown into the stew at Paris and it spent its time trying to explain what had happened...
...Pirates hoisting the Jolly Roger before proceeding to loot could not be more impudent...
...William D. Upshaw, for eight years the recognized leader of the moral forces in the House of Representatives in the United States Congress," is one of the real chaps to lead the world "in the gestures towards peace" His "championship of moral issues" is paired with the "Hon...
...Today the party "fit to govern" is a shelter for the vulgarian and mercenary leaders in politics, the Falls and Denbys, the brokers like Longworth and the congressional rubber stamps, and the confirmed crooks like the gang that has ruled Indiana for years...
...came a time ef stress...
...Orders were meagre few...
...Hedley the Ventriloquist JJOW often have we not bubbled with admiration at the finesse of the street faker as he passed out his tinsel or marvelous herbs to gaping dupes who scrambled to hand him their money...
...Tbe working-class of Roumania will not weary in the struggle for his ultimate BVnjraUon...
...Just what effect these revelations will have on Marvin's Key Men W...
...do not know...
...All we want is to be left alone" and hints that if Hedley's "union" does not have its way it will strike...
...X hope I never get serious again...
...It was a great life while the pickings were good but the patent medicine field is still brisk...
...Jini Junior...
...The city of Indianapolis is so near being wrecked that a suit has been filed in the Marion County Superior Court asking that a receiver be appointed to take over the city...
...as the seders of the Roumanian workers...
...Spars from a shipwreck out ef Cathay And an old tomato can...
...Pleading for work, wheedling for work, Begging, no leas nor more...
...Hungered hearts la a time nae this . Beat furiously high, And hopeless men In tbe dark of death May kill before they die...
...Held true to ale weal and trust...
...The wooden manikins have been assembled by Hedley in his "company union" and are led by a figure labeled Patrick J. Connolly...
...Muttering echoes of three-stringed total The storm Is slowly passing...
...Certainly, "moral issues" assume strange forms at the hands of some of our "liberals...
...S.A.deW*V...
...Truly I gloried and sang at my bench And plied for my dally need...
...To the cries of the wounded he gives no heed...
...Meantime Marvin induces the dupes to send him cash for the stuff and large advertisements in the newspapers throw fits into those with larger wads who send Fred a share of their shekels...
...The work done by Bujor on be uUf of tbe Bolsheviks in Odessa occulted the chief attention of his prosecuors during the trial...
...The G. O. P. hoisted its banner and marched behind it to the slogan of "a party fit to govern...
...His specialty is the organization of half-wits into what he calls "Key Men" and sending them reports about the doings, of imps of sedition whom he alleges are seeking to seize the republic and disposing of it atauction in Moscow...
...You may not like the way he gets his living, but as an artist he is so adept in marketing his goods that his skill commands admiration...
...Beach Silence and darkness...
...What an interesting mixture of coal, railroads, courts and executive power we have in the "swine-pen" called Pennsylvania...
...Bujor is Indeed, as was stated, in receipt of a 'special treatment.' Alone in a separate section of the prison, quite divided from all the other sections...
...Waves Endlessly they roll, and fall, Break and back, and break again...
...The daaoe is done...
Vol. 7 • March 1928 • No. 11
