Berkman describes his coast-to-coast tour in support of class war prisoners, the Caplan-Schmidt Defense League. Charged with conspiracy in the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, for which the McNamaras were found guilty, Matthew Schmidt and Dave Caplan eluded police for several years. Schmidt was arrested in September, 1914 and sentenced to life for providing the explosives, ‘Schmidtie’ was released after a long campaign in August, 1939 after twenty-five years at San Quentin. Caplan was arrested the following year and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Sentenced to ten years, he was released in 1923.

‘On the Road’ by Alexander Berkman from Mother Earth. Vol. 19 No. 7. September, 1915.

I DON’T believe that good writing has ever been done in haste. Necessity for expression, the reaction upon unsatisfying environment, have produced literature.

But it was always the result of leisure, even if of hungry leisure.

I have been too rushed in the last two months to give adequate expression to the many new impressions one receives when traveling about, and coming in contact with new scenes and different conditions and people. These have given rise to many observations that must be postponed for a day of more leisure.

For the present, a matter-of-fact report will suffice.

I have found sympathetic interest in the Caplan-Schmidt case everywhere—among revolutionists, radical groups, Workmen’s Circle branches, and A.F. of L. unions. Even among the most conservative locals of craft organizations I meet, in the rank and file, a growing understanding of the necessity of militant methods in the labor warfare. In spite of reactionary leaders and politicians, there is much to encourage the revolutionary propagandist. I am confident that a very considerable percentage of the organized labor element of this country could be revolutionized in thought and deed, if we had at least a dozen men of the right kind to do this work.

My first stop after Los Angeles was in Denver. And surely the comrades of Denver are most faithful and generous givers. I could remain in the city only two days, but in that short time we succeeded in organizing a branch of the Defense League and raising considerable funds. Gertrude Nafe is the secretary of the League, with Frank Monroe as treasurer. They, together with John Spies, Helena Monroe, Mary Levin, M. Spanier, A. Rudolph and other active comrades, are pushing the work of the League and trying to interest wider elements in Denver to secure greater moral and financial assistance.

After Denver I visited Kansas City, Mo., where we succeeded in organizing a very efficient branch of the Defense League. We are fortunate in having in Kansas City a number of red-blooded and brainy revolutionists and militant labor men and women, and it is these that are putting up a gallant fight in the labor organizations of that city and radicalizing the sentiment of the more progressive elements. Their first step of popularizing the Defense League was to organize a very large and successful mass meeting that acquainted the large audience with the true character of the labor struggle, as reflected by the cases of Caplan and Schmidt, John Lawson, etc.

In Kansas City, as well as in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the local branches of the Workmen’s Circle at once responded to our call. The members of this organization, mostly progressive and revolutionary, can always be relied upon to aid in every labor struggle. In every city I visited the W.C. branches lost no time in offering their support to Caplan and Schmidt.

In Chicago I remained about three weeks, during which time a number of unions were visited and a strong Defense League formed, with delegates from the United Hebrew Trades, the Workmen’s Circle (42 branches), and various other labor organizations. The League organized a mass meeting that created considerable excitement and served to stir up the city. The meeting was to take place at the Hebrew Institute, but when the audience began to gather we found all the gates locked against us, with the police on hand threatening trouble. It appears that the president of the Institute (his name is too insignificant to be mentioned in. MOTHER EARTH), ordered the Acting Superintendent, I.A. Margolis, to recall the meeting at the last moment. As the Institute hall had been properly rented and an agreement made, Mr. Margolis refused to break the contract. Moreover, Mr. Margolis took the courageous stand that he saw no reason whatever why the meeting should not take place, as arranged and advertised. The president, who masquerades as a “liberal,” and who, by the way, had no jurisdiction in the matter, still insisted that Mr. Margolis refuse us the hall. The latter stood by his guns, whereupon he was dismissed on the spot, the president sending in a call for the police to “protect” the Institute.

Thousands collected in front of the locked gates, and for a moment trouble was threatened. Fortunately we were able to secure another hall in the vicinity, the West Side Auditorium. The place was packed to the doors by a tremendous audience that came to express its solidarity with Caplan and Schmidt, and that vociferously applauded the speakers in their unstituted condemnation of the Institute for its suppression of free speech.

Jake Margolis, our energetic and brilliant comrade of Pittsburgh (brother of I.A. Margolis), Honoré Jaxson, Samuel Agursky and myself addressed the meeting, one of the most enthusiastic and inspiring affairs I had ever witnessed. The meeting opened the ears of Chicago to the Caplan-Schmidt case and incidentally declared a boycott against the Institute, which has since been put into successful operation by the various radical and labor organizations of Chicago, who formerly patronized that institution.

As the fates would have it, I arrived in Chicago just a day before the great Eastland disaster. In every home, in every gathering of labor men in shop and union, I felt the terrible calamity that cost the lives of more than a thousand human beings. It was very difficult to center the attention of the workers, practically the sole sufferers in this catastrophe, upon any other subject. But the humble slave patience was maddening. Almost everyone realized that greed and graft alone were responsible for the terrible sacrifice of life. It was no “accident.” The boat had repeatedly been condemned as unsafe. Yet the government officials, local and Federal, absolutely ignored the menace of the Eastland, and the Western Electric Co. actually forced its employees to buy tickets for the excursion, the company getting a rake-off on the proceeds from the managers of the Eastland.

And the people of Chicago were patiently waiting for the government inspectors to “investigate” their own corruption, and—mourning their dead!

The devil tried in the court of his mother-in-law. How many more Eastlands shall we suffer ere the people awaken?

***

Report of activities in Detroit and Pittsburgh, in the next issue. I am on my way to New York, via Buffalo and Philadelphia, where mass meetings have been arranged for me.

Individuals and groups who want to aid in organizing Defense Leagues and mass meetings or lectures in the Caplan-Schmidt case, please communicate with me in care of MOTHER EARTH.

P.S. Just arrived in New York, where I expect to remain only a few weeks.

An International Mass Meeting in the matter of Caplan and Schmidt will take place in New York, Thursday, September 16th, 8 P. M., at the Harlem Casino, 116th Street and Lenox Avenue. The message of our two comrades in the Los Angeles jail will be given to the people of New York on that occasion by a number of speakers, among them Emma Goldman and myself.

Individuals interested in the Caplan-Schmidt case, and organizations who want me to appear before them in this matter, please communicate with me at once. Mail address. 20 East 125th Street. Residence, 547 West 123d Street, Apt. 19. (Tel. 5280 Morningside.)

Mother Earth was an anarchist magazine begin in 1906 and first edited by Emma Goldman in New York City. Alexander Berkman, became editor in 1907 after his release from prison until 1915.The journal has a history in the Free Society publication which had moved from San Francisco to New York City. Goldman was again editor in 1915 as the magazine was opposed to US entry into World War One and was closed down as a violator of the Espionage Act in 1917 with Goldman and Berkman, who had begun editing The Blast, being deported in 1919.

PDF of full issue: https://archive.org/download/mother-earth/Mother%20Earth%20v10n07%20%281915-09%29%20%28c2c%20Harvard%29.pdf