Kate Crane Gartz

by The Parlor Provocateur or From Salon to Soap-Box

  An order just came in and I must go and get an assis, not badly wounded.

  Lots of love to Mother mine.

  C. G.

  This place is on a high hill with a beautiful view of the lines.

  Friday, June 23, 1916.

  I feel awfully lonesome somehow. Just came in from a trip with six men, victims of gas. They suffer terribly. We carried 543 wounded in the last 24 hours. I was in a gas attack last night and was obliged to wear my mask.

  Some of the young soldiers only twenty years old are wonderfully courageous. They certainly bear their pain like men. I took our lieutenant up to see the “Medicin Chef” last night and while waiting for him I watched some men unload a wagon about twenty-five yards away, and suddenly a shell exploded among them and instantly killed one and wounded several others and the rest rushed up and put the dead man at my feet. The lieutenant said, “You are a fine little man.” I think if we get through alive nearly all of us will get the “Croix de Guerre,” because this really is a big job. The fort we got blessés at has been completely demolished by 380 centimetre shells, so we go to a new “post de secours” very near there.

  Nearly all, much more than half of our division, is gone, so we leave here in three or four days to reorganize. It is weird to see the “comrades” of a few days ago dead and wounded by the hundreds.

  CRANEY.

  Whenever I see a map of Verdun, it brings back wonderful and horrible memories to me. How well I remember my first trip to Verdun and Fort de Tavannes. The Colonels and Commandants I took up to the lines from Haudaunville and waited until my first shell fire for six hours in the cold until two came back wounded. How well I remember the Canal, the river Meuse, the casernes where the dead horses and men lay in the road. Every turn in the road remains in. my memory. I can recall shell holes I have dodged and others I saw made within a few feet of me. Just to realize that all that Hell has been going on ever since, and that thousands of men have died, and thousands of other men have suffered the most horrible pains the world has ever known. How bravely some of them have died, how dead some of them are that I saw die, and how useless it all is!

  I must study a bit before nine o’clock and prepare myself for War.

  A wire from you all came last night. Lots and lots of love, as ever

  CRANEY.

  How hopeless and terrible this war is beginning to be. Where is the end? What a slaughter house the Western front has become. Three thousand human beings sacrificed each day and thousands more suffering agonies that only they who have suffered them can know. Countless millions going through Hell. What power prevents revolt? Why are some of the most brilliant minds in favor of this destruction? Are we not all men?

  In the last Post, the first article on the “Business of War” might interest you.

  It is hard for me to see the “reason” of it all, and to know what is my duty. I hope I have chosen right.

  Lots of love, as ever.

  CRANEY.

  When the train went around the corner and you were out of sight, I nearly cried, for God knows how much time shall pass before I shall see you again.

  Please forgive everything I have done that I should not, for I am sorry and love you more than all the world.

  I hope you will think I have done the best thing, Mother, and make it easy for me. Please do not worry about what might happen, for if you do, it will be harder for me and I will not be able to do my work as well. I will probably be with the dirigibles and they are as safe, if not safer than motoring, and surely must be great fun. The end of the war may come soon and then I shall not have to kill, but will have had the training, and I know that will please you.

  Lots of love, Goodnight

  CRANEY.

  Dearest Mother: Your wire in protest to my flight over N. Y. just came and I have answered it. Sorry I worried you. Thought you might be interested as it was the first time an airship has ever been over the city. Please realize that War is, and necessarily must be dangerous. I have chosen the least dangerous of active service in war duties.

  My duties are also humane. I shall protect the innocent. My work will not be in offensives, but will be to repel enemy submarines and raiders. You surely are glad of this. You do not want me to give up such a fine and important work. I am saving rather than destroying. Submarines are menaces and their crews are brutes who must be stopped, and they must therefore be slain. You would surely kill a mad dog.

  I only thank God that I need not slay the non-belligerents. I am also glad I need not mow men down with artillery or machine guns, men who know not what they do, but do it, because it is more dangerous to resist. The submarine is a brutal weapon, it attacks in such a cowardly manner the unprotected. You must be glad that my efforts are against them. I am fortunate to have such an easy and also important job. Of course I would be glad if it were all over. It is a shame that the men in power cannot see the end.

  Unless we are willing to give up some of the selfish ambitions that have developed in the last eight months, the war will only end through complete exhaustion and on a basis no better than we can obtain now. Our enemies are strong and determined. They also want fair play. Not long ago they wanted too much, now they are willing to give what we demanded on the sixth of April and for some time after. We have changed, I wonder why? It is a big important question, let us hope that it is settled by real and honest thought.

  The longer the war lasts the better will be the chances of humanitarian settlement. Better and more noble men will be in power. A revolution against capital may come. It might mean more blood, but a decent world will be born. At least I hope this will not have been all in vain.

  I love you so, and hope I need never leave you, but I know I must some day and it would be easier now. Be good, and happy; you will realize how the world is made, so have courage. You have been wonderful and well loved.

  CRANEY.

  August 20, 1917.

  Dearest Mother: Your letter written last Wednesday just came. I love you more than all the world and always shall. Why are you not looking for happiness anymore? I want you to be happy. I cannot be unless you are.

  CRANEY.

  September 21, 1917.

  I passed all the examinations, have been given credit for exceptional intelligence, but am capable of better work....All these militarists are one-minded. I do not believe in their autocratic business; a man that merges his life in the war business is worthless to the world. I hope I shall have better things to do. When it is over, I shall forget it all.

  Some believe that God had a hand in this war and wanted to punish some one—how ridiculous! As if He were even remotely interested in us. What are we, when we contemplate the immensity of the universe—the stars, twenty million light years away? That means 186,000 miles a second for all those years!—and then we still believe that the man nailed to the cross had something to do with the Force that rules it all. How conceited we are!

  March 12, 1918.

  Mother, my own: Two years ago yesterday I was on the S.S. Rotterdam, one day out from shore, and about this time I was writing to you. Are you not glad I went then? You will also be glad of the experience I am having now, when the war ends, and I return to you.

  Be happy, and I will, too.

  I am organizing my work now very rapidly, and soon we will have a fine station here, I have two airships at my disposal representing an investment of nearly a million dollars. Is that not fine? I like it a lot now. They are beautiful things.

  Lots of love to you and Gloria—

  Goodnight, as ever,

  CRANEY.

  On Board Ship, August 16, 1918.

  Dearest Mom: In going over my mail I found a letter that came from Marcia some time ago, telling me of her Catholic beliefs, etc. She thinks that you “have not arrived,” it seems. She also thinks that this war and all other public calamities were brought about because man disobeyed the laws of God or in some other way caused divine displeasure. For this her “merciful God” punis
hes “his children” in most ghastly ways. She says that you attribute her faith and belief to ignorance and fear.

  Experience, observation, investigation and reason are the only true bases of knowledge, and Marcia seems to be pathetically lacking in most of these definite requisites necessary to a full understanding of the truth, or else her mind and intellect are imprisoned by the church.

  Since the fifth century, when crude ignorant Catholicism overcame Greek philosophy, the world has been in a sorry state. Superstition, even today, detests investigation and reason, and is the relentless enemy of science, which has clearly proved that the World and Universe are governed and exist, in accordance with inexorable law, and not according to the whims and fancies of a cruel beastly God.

  Must the attention of “the faithful” be called to the very apparent fact that there are no special providences, no miracles and the like? Prayers have always been of no avail. They may help one from the inside, but the aid one gets is false. It is their own courage they call on, not the help of a benevolent God. The faith, devotion and prayer that the superstitious offer are bribes to a supposed power, asking it to protect their selfish souls.

  Have faith in the right, in reason and in justice. Be devoted to mankind. And pray, if you must pray, not to some supernatural power, but to yourself, in order that you may have greater strength, better courage, and a more determined will to bring Reason, Truth and Justice to the fore.

  Destiny is a question that noble unselfish minds ignore. Nature created us without a purpose and will obliterate us without regret. For some this truth is hard, perhaps for all. It is hard for me to realize that this short life is all I have of you, but I fear it, because I think it is true. I love you all the more, my mother, and we will face the facts.

  Be good.

  As ever,

  CRANEY.

  HELL IN WEST VIRGINIA

  (From the “Haldeman-Julius Weekly”)

  The miners of West Virginia have been living for many years in virtual slavery, denied all the rights of American citizens, and slugged and murdered whenever they venture to attempt to organize for their own protection or to protest against the brutalities of their masters. The American Civil Liberties Union has undertaken to help these miners in their light for their rights as citizens, and as part of its campaign Captain Crane Gartz went to West Virginia, accompanied by a lawyer, and defied the authorities of Logan County by holding a public meeting on behalf of civil liberties, on the steps of the courthouse. Here is a little glimpse of Captain Gartz, taken from the “Herald-Dispatch” of Huntington, West Virginia, of March 5. This item was in a box on the front page:

  “GARTZ LEADS FREE SPEECH EMISSARIES ON LOGAN INVASION

  “Logan, W. Va., March 4.

  “Crane Gartz, young millionaire enthusiast of New York and California, who was a member of the ‘invading’ group of Civil Liberties League emissaries at a ‘free speech’ gathering here today, is by far the most interesting member of the group. He is apparently not far from twenty-five years old, slender, dark and mild of speech, black clad even to his knit tie—but nevertheless apparently the mainspring of the outfit. The other members turned to Gartz throughout the preliminaries of their mass meeting. He it was who directed attempts to get into communication with Sheriff Chafin, whom Gartz declared he was unable to find to ask permission to hold the meeting. Later, Gartz said that he had received telephoned permission from Mayor J. A. Hogg, of Logan, to go ahead. This was about seven o’clock and the Civil Liberties party then gathered in the main dining-room of the Aracoma and encompassed a 75-cent dinner apiece, consuming the remainder of the time before the scheduled starting at 8:30 o’clock. Here again Gartz exhibited his leadership. He reached for all the checks, and got them.”

  It sounds quite like a holiday picnic, you notice; but these young fellows went in there as they might have walked into a den of snarling wild beasts. There was one man in the town, a butcher, who had the courage to come forward and help them. This man had been thrown into jail a few months before, along with another young man who had dared to support the miners; a young rowdy of the town had walked into the jail and shot the other fellow with a revolver and dragged him out by his heels. And nothing about the murder had been published, and the murderer was still at large, driving a taxicab in the town! That is the way they treat union organizers and sympathizers in West Virginia, and that is what “law and order” means in the empire of the coal barons. It is only when you are a millionaire, and can afford to bring a lawyer with you, and have a host of newspaper reporters following you, and telegraphing to the outside world what you eat in a restaurant, and what you pay for it, that you can be safe from assassination in this modern industrial hell.

  I will give you a little glimpse of the working of the White Terror in the United States. As soon as it was learned that Captain Gartz was to take part in this campaign, the United States Secret Service Department got busy to find out about him. Telegrams were received by the authorities here in Los Angeles, asking for particulars about his life, and the same thing happened in Chicago. The American Legion was queried as to his war record. As it happened, Captain Gartz served as an aviator, actually flying in France throughout the entire war, and prior to that he furnished an ambulance for the French and drove it himself as a volunteer. So there was nothing to be had against his war record. But imagine the United States government lending itself to the support of these West Virginia murderers and thugs! Now read what the Honorable Leonard S. Echols of West Virginia had to say of Gartz and his party in the House of Representatives, February 9, 1923:

  “These bigots go so far as to even defy the courts, as shown by an interview recently appearing in the Washington ‘Times.’ In that interview, one Crane Gartz is quoted as saying in reference to a court order entered by the judge of the circuit court of Logan County, West Virginia:

  “‘This injunction is null and void if it is made to apply to us, who are attempting only to exercise our constitutional rights, and we shall ignore it.’

  “Gartz; a name not yet quite Americanized. Why not Fritz or Trotz(ky)? The interview also shows Gartz is from Chicago and California. Being from Chicago he is probably a friend of Big Bill Haywood, convicted of conspiracy against the government, a fugitive from justice now ‘serving time’ in Russia; and being from California he is probably a friend of the McNamara brothers who served a term in the penitentiary for bombing the Los Angeles ‘Times’ building and killing more than a score of innocent men, women and children.

  “It is further stated that ‘with young Gartz will be public officials, ministers, and attorneys.’ No mission into West Virginia headed by a man like Gartz would be complete without ‘public officials and ministers,’ who will probably need the ‘attorneys.’ Why the ‘officials’? Who are they, and whom do they represent? What authority will they have in West Virginia? Why the ‘ministers’ but to give a semblance of respectability to a disreputable gang?

  “Let the country take notice that West Virginia, defamed and maligned, is to again be afflicted with outside, self-appointed, front-page notoriety seekers coming into the state admittedly with the intention of violating an order of the judge of a circuit court of that state, duly elected by the people of his circuit, which, by the way, is composed of three counties, two of which are farming and not coal-producing counties.

  “Who are Gartz and his official, ministerial and legal mob-inciting accomplices that they are above the law of the state? Gartz says: ‘This injunction is null and void....and we shall ignore it.’ Who believes that this uninvited bunch of conspirators are going into West Virginia for the purpose of helping conditions in that state? They have no such purpose in mind. After their visit, in which they will accomplish nothing for good, they will broadcast a statement to the country to gain notoriety and to spread their insidious propaganda.

  “Gartz in 1921 was an assistant organizer of the amnesty committee of the American Civil Liberties Union and served as a picket at the Whi
te House in Washington. He has been a chief consultant with Eugene V. Debs, who served a term in the penitentiary for violating the laws of the land. He has been keeping in. close touch with one Roger N. Baldwin, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, and who also served a year in the Essex county jail for violating the draft law. He has been in the western Pennsylvania coal fields, and after his visit there he reported to an executive meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is an active opponent of the California criminal syndicalist law.

  “This is a brief sketch of the activities of the man who is going into West Virginia as head of a committee composed of ‘officials, ministers, and attorneys.’”

  Imagine a congressman of the United States spreading upon the Congressional Record the implication that Crane Gartz was an associate of men “convicted of conspiracy against the government” and for “bombing and killing more than a score of innocent men, women and children,” simply because he (Gartz) lived in the same big cities in which these men lived! Imagine this congressman doing this while suppressing every word concerning Gartz’ war record, and basing his attack upon the fact that Gartz happens to have a German name. (I might mention that Crane Gartz’ father is violently opposed to his son’s activities, and is a perfectly respectable American capitalist, who began his career as manager of the Crane Company in Chicago.) For your amusement I add that Crane Gartz has never met Haywood or the McNamaras; but he met a number of French wounded, whom he carried from the battlefields, and he also met several German submarines.