Tuesday May 30, 1916
St. Louis, Missouri - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks on Preparedness

From the New York Call of August 8, 1915
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From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of May 24, 1916:

JEANNE D'ARC OF I. W. W.
DENOUNCES DEFENSE MOVES
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Elizabeth Flynn in Talk Here
Says Capitalists Foster Preparedness.
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WALL STREET AND MEXICO
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Speaker Intimates Rich Exporters
Are Behind Raids on Border.
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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of New York City, known as the Joanne d'Arc of the Industrial Workers of the World, last night in Druid's Hall, Ninth and Market streets, denounced in vivid terms the preparedness movement, which she declared was largely fostered by the capitalist class.

An audience of about 200 persons, including educated radicals and uneducated laborers, loudly applauded her as she attacked the munitions makers and men of large fortunes.

Mrs. Margaret Sanger, advocate of birth control, listened to her for a few minutes, and Robert Minor, cartoonist, who became a radical and is here to lecture on his impressions of the war, was one of her auditors.

Trenches and Benches.

[Miss Flynn said:]

We've got good times now-that is plenty of work, but not much money...but after the men abroad come out of the trenches, watch our men go back to the park benches. They-the capitalists-are making fortunes out of the war, and after it is over they will need to collect their bills from the foreign Governments. And a big army and navy is a pretty good collector. And it's you, the workers, who will give your lives in collecting, if need be.

"The glory of war! Hah!" she said with outstretched hands and cynical smile.

Money and religion have caused all the wars. While England defends little Belgium, she puts her heel on Ireland's face.

I've sympathy for the Belgian workers, but none for the ruling class. King Albert threw his little forces in Germany's maw that his allies might have time to prepare. And Albert has his eyes on the disused throne of France. And the cloak of civilization has been thrown about it all-the glory of war!

War Marriages Denounced.

She then denounced the encouragement of marriages in Europe by soldiers going to war.

[She said with dramatic emphasis:]

Religion sanctifies and the Governments legitimizes such breeding...Why, do you know there are many men in America who couldn't get a woman to look at them if they didn't wear the uniform. When women get intelligent enough to boycott men who wear the uniform of the country, maybe there'll be no more wars.

[She further declared:]

They're villifying Villa-the capitalist class, but there's something mighty suspicious in those border raids which start with motion picture precision...Let me tell you that a few hundred dollars spent by Wall street can cause plenty of border riots, and Mexico, my friends, is rich in silver, gold and oil.

"Defend your country;" she remarked with quiet sarcasm. "What ground do you own not even enough to stand on, perhaps, much less enough to bury yourself in."

"Your right!" an unshaven man in overalls called back.

[The speaker continued:]

Defend your country!...I've just come from the Joplin lead belt. There they herd the workers in houses of one room, and that made of tar paper. The workers even have got buy their water at 10 cents a barrel. They live in squalor, poverty and misery. Only five mines out of 300 have genuine safety devices. The workers' lives average five years. Last week near a town called Prosperity seven men were killed.

Over in Europe the Kaiser sees himself as a second Frederick the Great, the Italian King wants to be another Julius Caesar, and Teddy Roosevelt right here has his own ambitions.

Then you workers are asked to join the national guard. Remember this: Ludlow, Colo., where women and children died, is the militiamen's greatest monument.

For the first time in our history militiamen are being used on the border to prevent invasion, but for years and years they have been used against your brother workers. And yet they ask you to defend your country!

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[Photograph and emphasis added.]

The Patriot, July 4, 1915:

Breed Mother Breed, Aug 8, 1915:

Gossips Plot Mexican Conquest, Aug 15, 1915:

SOURCE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(St Louis, Missouri)
-Evening Paper
-May 24, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/138326312/

IMAGES
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, New Castle (PA) Herald, Dec 2, 1915
https://www.newspapers.com/image/76763716/
Robert Minor, New York Call, July & Aug 1915
-Robert Minor, The Patriot, NY Call cover, July 4, 1915
-Robert Minor, Breed Mother Breed, NY Call cover, Aug 8, 1915
-Robert Minor, Gossips re Mexico, NY Call cover, Aug 15, 1915
http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2013/06/robert-minor-in-new-york-call.html

See also:

"Robert Minor in the New York Call"
-from Yesterday's Papers
http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2013/06/robert-minor-in-new-york-call.html

New York Call
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Call

Roosevelt's Race Suicide Letter
-to Marie Van Horst, Oct 18, 1902
http://progressingamerica.blogspot.com/2013/06/theodore-roosevelts-1902-...

Roosevelt's Race Suicide Speech
"On American Motherhood"
By T. Roosevelt, March 13, 1905
http://www.nationalcenter.org/TRooseveltMotherhood.html