THE LEAGUE AND THE WAR 



were sent out from St. Paul and Minneapolis 

 in advance to stage some of these riots, and 

 little question that the enginery of the state 

 was in some instances, as in Minnesota, de- 

 liberately employed on the same side. One 

 speaker was mobbed for reading to an audi- 

 ence extracts from President Wilson's The 

 New Freedom; others were mobbed for read- 

 ing the Bible. Wherever it was known that 

 the League was almost ready to establish a 

 branch the efforts were redoubled to cause 

 some outbreak or breach of the peace that 

 could be used to the advantage of the milling 

 and elevator Interests. 



One of these incidents had a national aspect 

 and perfectly illustrates the power of the in- 

 fluences at work to misinform the public as to 

 the League's intentions. Groups of pacifists 

 in New York, perhaps misled or misinformed, 

 but certainly assistant to adroit pro-German 

 and anti-American influences, joined in the 

 organizing of what was called the People's 

 Council for Democracy and War, the true 

 object of which was to set workers against the 

 government and thus hamstring its efforts. 

 A meeting of the Council's supporters was 

 held in Madison Square Garden, New York 

 City, and it was then decided to hold in the 

 West a national convention, so called, for the 

 purpose of spreading the gospel of pacifism, 

 which meant in this case opposition to the 



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