all over the country the red trains were moving eastward, loaded with “wobblies” and communists, pacifists and anarchists, and a hundred other varieties of bolsheviks. they got a shipload together and started them off for russia—the “red ark” it was called, and the red soap-boxers set tip a terrific uproar, and one red clergyman compared the “red ark” to the mayflower! also there was some red official in washington, who made a fuss and cancelled a whole block of deportation orders, including some of peter’s own cases. this, naturally, was exasperating to peter and his wife; and on top of it came another incident that was still more humiliating.
there was a “pink” mass meeting held in american city, to protest against the deportations. guffey said they would quite probably raid the meeting, and peter must go along, so as to point out the reds to the bulls. the work was in charge of a police detective by the name of garrity, head of what was called the “bomb squad”; but this man didn’t know very much, so he had the habit of coming to peter for advice. now he had the whole responsibility of this meeting, and he asked peter to come up on the platform with him, and peter went. here was a vast audience—all the red fury which had been pent up for many months, breaking loose in a whirlwind of excitement. here were orators, well dressed and apparently respectable men, not in any way to be distinguished from the born rulers of the country, coming forward on the platform and uttering the most treasonable sentences, denouncing the government, denouncing the blockade against russia, praising the bolshevik government of russia, declaring that the people who went away in the “soviet ark” were fortunate, because they were escaping from a land of tyranny into a land of freedom. at every few sentences the orator would be stopped by a storm of applause that broke from the audience.
and what was a poor irish catholic police detective to make of a proposition like that? here stood an orator declaring: “whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” and garrity turned to peter. “what do you think of that?” he said, his good-natured irish face blank with dismay.
peter thought it was the limit. peter knew that thousands of men all over america had been sent to prison for saying things less dangerous than that. peter had read many sets of instructions from the office of the attorney-general of the united states, and knew officially that that was precisely the thing you were never under any circumstances permitted to say, or to write, or even to think. so peter said to garrity: “that fellow’s gone far enough. you better arrest him.” garrity spoke to his men, and they sprang forward on the platform, and stopped the orator and placed him and all his fellow-orators under arrest, and ordered the audience out of the building. there were a couple of hundred policemen and detectives on hand to carry out garrity’s commands, and they formed a line with their clubs, and drove the crowd before them, and carted the speakers off in a patrol wagon. then peter went back to guffey’s office, and told what he had done—and got a reception that reminded him of the time guffey had confronted him with the letter from nell doolin! “who do you think that was you pinched?” cried guffey. “he’s the brother of a united states senator! and what do you think he was saying? that was a sentence from the declaration of independence!”
peter couldn’t “get it”; peter was utterly lost. could a man go ahead and break the law, just because he happened to be a brother of a united states senator? and what difference did it make whether a thing was in the declaration of independence, if it was seditious, if it wasn’t allowed to be said? this incident brought guffey and the police authorities of the city so much ridicule that guffey got all his men together and read them a lecture, explaining to them just what were the limits of the anti-red activities, just who it was they mustn’t arrest, and just what it was they couldn’t keep people from saying. for example, a man couldn’t be arrested for quoting the bible.
“but jesus christ, guffey,” broke in one of the men, “have all of us got to know the bible by heart?”
there was a laugh all round. “no,” guffey admitted, “but at least be careful, and don’t arrest anybody for saying anything that sounds as if it came from the bible.”
“but hell!” put in another of the men, who happened to be an ex-preacher. “that’ll tie us up tighter than a jail-sentence! look what’s in the bible!”
and he proceeded to quote some of the things, and peter knew that he had never heard any bolshevik talk more outrageous than that. it made one realize more than ever how complicated was this red problem; for guffey insisted, in spite of everything, that every word out of the bible was immune. “up in winnipeg,” said he, “they indicted a clergyman for quoting two passages from the prophet isaiah, but they couldn’t face it, they had to let the fellow go.” and the same thing was true of the declaration of independence; anybody might read it, no matter how seditious it was. and the same thing was true of the constitution, even tho the part called the bill of rights declared that everybody in america might do all the things that guffey’s office was sending them to jail for doing!
this seemed a plain crazy proposition; but guffey explained it as a matter of politics. if they went too far, these fellows would go out and capture the votes from them, and maybe take away the government from them, and where would they be then? peter had never paid any attention to politics before this, but both he and gladys realized after this lecture that they must broaden their view-point. it was not enough to put the reds in jail and crack their skulls, you had to keep public sympathy for what you were doing, you had to make the public understand that it was necessary, you had to carry on what was called “propaganda,” to keep the public aware of the odiousness of these cattle, and the desperate nature of their purposes.
the man who perceived that most clearly was the attorney-general of the country, and guffey in his lecture pointed out the double nature of his activities. not merely was the attorney-general breaking up the communist and the communist labor parties and sending their members to jail; he was using the funds of his office to send out an endless stream of propaganda, to keep the country frightened about these red plots. right now he had men in american city working over the data which guffey had collected, and every week or two he would make a speech somewhere, or would issue a statement to the newspapers, telling of new bomb plots and new conspiracies to overthrow the government. and how clever he was about it! he would get the pictures of the very worst-looking of the reds, pictures taken after they had been kept in jail for weeks without a shave, and with the third degree to spoil their tempers; and these pictures would be spread on a sheet with the caption: “men like these would rule you.” this would be sent to ten thousand country newspapers all over the nation, and ninety-nine hundred would publish it, and ninety-nine million americans would want to murder the reds next morning. so successful had this plan proven that the attorney-general was expecting to be nominated for president by means of it, and all the agencies of his department were working to that end.
the same thing was being done by all the other agencies of big business all over the country. the “improve america league” of american city was publishing full-page advertisements in the “times,” and the “home and fireside association” of eldorado was doing the same thing in the eldorado “times,” and the “patriot’s defense legion” was doing the same thing in the flagland “banner.” they were investigating the records of all political candidates, and if any of them showed the faintest tinge of pink, guffey’s office would set to work to rake up their records and get up scandals on them, and the business men would contribute a big campaign fund, and these candidates would be snowed under at the polls. that was the kind of work they were doing, and all guffey’s operatives must bear in mind the importance of it, and must never take any step that would hamper this political campaign, this propaganda on behalf of law and order.
