Mrs. Stokes was arrested by the Federal authorities and sentenced to ten years in jail. She tells me how this trial and sentence were reported, and points out the obvious motive of the falsifications:
Anything to frighten people away from Socialist meetings! If you
want to see this motive running through the capitalist press of the
entire country as a single thread, come and read the hundreds of
editorials on my ten-year sentence. Every state and every important
industrial community is represented. The wording is almost as if one
man, let alone one spirit, had dictated them all.
And here is Judson King, writing to members of Congress:
For your information permit me to state that at the meeting at
Poli's Theatre Sunday afternoon at which I presided there was no
advocacy of anarchy or violence, no attack upon the American form
of government, and no propaganda that Bolshevism be adopted in our
country. The well-nigh unanimous sentiment of audience and speakers
was that American troops be withdrawn and Russia be permitted to
settle her own fate in her own way.
The article in Monday's "Washington Post" headed, "Urge Red America," is an absurd perversion of the truth and a gross violation of journalistic ethics. Discussions in Congress regarding this meeting, based apparently upon this article, have proceeded under a misapprehension of facts. Whether any attempt was made to verify the truth of the article I do not know. No inquiry was made of me.
Mr. King goes on to state that the address of Albert Rhys
Williams at this meeting was read from a typewritten text,
and a carbon copy handed by him to a reporter of the "Washington
Post." The falsification of Williams' remarks by the
"Post" was therefore deliberate.
At this same time Max Eastman was touring the country, addressing enormous meetings. The meeting in Los Angeles was reported by the "Examiner" as follows:
RADICAL'S TALK BRINGS POLICE
Max Eastman Stops Address When Disgusted Auditors Leave and Officers Arrive
Cutting his lecture short, when many of his auditors left Trinity Auditorium in disgusted anger, probably saved Max Eastman, editor of a radical Socialist publication, from a police intervention last night.
Before the speaker had entered far upon his subject, "Hands Off Russia," his remarks were deemed so unpatriotic and his unwarranted attack upon the administration so vitriolic that scores left the auditorium and telephoned the Federal authorities and the police, denouncing Eastman and demanding his arrest.
Apparently scenting trouble, Eastman effected a sudden diminu-
