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our expectation, no obstacles were raised to prevent the socialist Congressmen
from taking their seats. Everything went smoothly, and I laughed at Ernest
when he looked upon the very smoothness as something ominous.
We found our socialist comrades confident, optimistic of their strength and
of the things they would accomplish. A few Grangers who had been elected to
Congress increased our strength, and an elaborate programme of what was to be
done was prepared by the united forces. In all of which Ernest joined loyally
and energetically, though he could not forbear, now and again, from saying,
apropos of nothing in particular, 'When it comes to powder, chemical mixtures
are better than mechanical mixtures, you take my word.'
The trouble arose first with the Grangers in the various states they had
captured at the last election. There were a dozen of these states, but the
Grangers who had been elected were not permitted to take office. The
incumbents refused to get out. It was very simple. They merely charged
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illegality in the elections and wrapped up the whole situation in the
interminable red tape of the law. The Grangers were powerless. The courts were
the last recourse, and the courts were in the hands of their enemies.
This was the moment of danger. If the cheated Grangers became violent, all
was lost. How we socialists worked to hold them back! There were days and
nights when Ernest never closed his eyes in sleep. The big leaders of the
Grangers saw the peril, and were with us to a man. But it was all of no avail.
The Oligarchy wanted violence, and it set its agents-provocateurs to work.
Without discussion, it was the agents-provocateurs who caused the Peasant
Revolt.
In a dozen states the revolt flared up. The expropriated farmers took
forcible possession of the state governments. Of course this was
unconstitutional, and of course the United States put its soldiers into the
field. Everywhere the agents-provocateurs urged the people on. These
emissaries of the Iron Heel disguised themselves as artisans, farmers, and
farm labourers. In Sacramento, the capital of California, the Grangers had
succeeded in maintaining order. Thousands of secret agents were rushed to the
devoted city. In mobs composed wholly of themselves, they fired and looted
buildings and factories. They worked the people up until they joined them in
the pillage. Liquor in large quantities was distributed among the slum classes
further to inflame their minds. And then, when all was ready, appeared upon
the scene the soldiers of the United States, who were, in reality, the
soldiers of the Iron Heel. Eleven thousand men, women, and children were shot
down on the streets of Sacramento or murdered in their houses. The national
government took possession of the state government, and all was over for
California.
And as with California, so elsewhere. Every Granger state was ravaged with
violence and washed in blood. First, disorder was precipitated by the secret
agents and the Black Hundreds, then the troops were called out. Rioting and
mobrule reigned throughout the rural districts. Day and night the smoke of
burning farms, warehouses, villages, and cities filled the sky. Dynamite
appeared. Railroad bridges and tunnels were blown up and trains were wrecked.
The poor farmers were shot and hanged in great numbers. Reprisals were bitter,
and many plutocrats and army officers were murdered. Blood and vengeance were
in men's hearts. The regular troops fought the farmers as savagely as had they
been Indians. And the regular troops had cause. Twenty-eight hundred of them
had been annihilated in a tremendous series of dynamite explosions in Oregon,
and in a similar manner, a number of train loads, at different times and
places, had been destroyed. So it was that the regular troops fought for their
lives as well as did the farmers.
As for the militia, the militia law of 1903 was put into effect, and the
workers of one state were compelled, under pain of death, to shoot down their
comrade-workers in other states. Of course, the militia law did not work
smoothly at first. Many militia officers were murdered, and many militiamen
were executed by drumhead court martial. Ernest's prophecy was strikingly
fulfilled in the cases of Mr Kowalt and Mr Asmunsen. Both were eligible for
the militia, and both were drafted to serve in the punitive expedition that
was dispatched from California against the farmers of Missouri. Mr Kowalt and
Mr Asmunsen refused to serve. They were given short shift. Drumhead court
martial was their portion, and military execution their end. They were shot
with their backs to the firing squad.
Many young men fled into the mountains to escape serving in the militia.
There they became outlaws, and it was not until more peaceful times that they
received their punishment. It was drastic. The government issued a
proclamation for all law-abiding citizens to come in from the mountains for a
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period of three months. When the proclaimed date arrived, half a million
soldiers were sent into the mountainous districts everywhere. There was no
investigation, no trial. Wherever a man was encountered, he was shot down on
the spot. The troops operated on the basis that no man not an outlaw remained
in the mountains. Some bands, in strong positions, fought gallantly, but in
the end every deserter from the militia met death.
A more immediate lesson, however, was impressed on the minds of the people by
the punishment meted out to the Kansas militia. The great Kansas Mutiny
occurred at the very beginning of military operations against the Grangers.
Six thousand of the militia mutinied. They had been for several weeks very
turbulent and sullen, and for that reason had been kept in camp. Their open
mutiny, however, was without doubt precipitated by the agents-provocateurs.
On the night of the 22nd of April they arose and murdered their officers,
only a small remnant of the latter escaping. This was beyond the scheme of the
Iron Heel, for the agents-provocateurs had done their work too well. But
everything was grist to the Iron Heel. It had prepared for the outbreak, and
the killing of so many officers gave it justification for what followed. As by
magic, forty thousand soldiers of the regular army surrounded the malcontents.
It was a trap. The wretched militiamen found that their machine-guns had been
tampered with, and that the cartridges from the captured magazines did not fit
their rifles. They hoisted the white flag of surrender, but it was ignored.
There were no survivors. The entire six thousand were annihilated. Common
shell and shrapnel were thrown in upon them from a distance, and when, in
their desperation, they charged the encircling lines, they were mowed down by
the machine-guns. I talked with an eye-witness, and he said that the nearest
any militiaman approached the machine-guns was a hundred and fifty yards. The
earth was carpeted with the slain, and a final charge of cavalry, with
trampling of horse's hoofs, revolvers, and sabres, crushed the wounded into
the ground.
Simultaneously with the destruction of the Grangers came the revolt of the
coal miners. It was the expiring effort of organised labour. Three-quarters of
a million of miners went out on strike. But they were too widely scattered
over the country to advantage from their own strength. They were segregated in
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