In the latter part of March, 1919, Martens shared offices with Santeri Nuorteva, also a great friend of the American Socialists. Nuorteva was head of the Bolshevist propaganda in this country and from his office mailed the "Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information on Soviet Russia." Nuorteva denied that these large sheets, which are about the same size as the propaganda sheets issued in the first months of the war by the German Information Service, constitute propaganda. Like the German Information Service sheets, each contains from six to ten articles. All paint conditions in Russia under Trotzky and Lenine as steadily improving and show those men and their aids as gentle, kind-hearted individuals whose only sin is the betterment of mankind.
Among labor unions Bolshevism has made great headway. The New Labor Party of Illinois in 1919 not only supported Soviet Russia but favored the Soviet system in our own country. Sensible workingmen in the American Federation of Labor and conservative members of the new Labor Party had good reason for being alarmed and for suspecting that American propagators of Bolshevism received Russian gold from some one, possibly from Martens.
The Socialist papers of the United States approve of Bolshevism, Spartacism and Communism, and would gladly welcome it to our country. "The Call," New York, March 31, 1919, on its editorial page says: "The red in the East is the dawning of a new day." On April 1, 1919, the same paper contained a long article on the first page, entitled, "Forces of Darkness Open Their Campaign to End Bolshevism." On April 11, 1919, in an editorial on the impending capture of Odessa by the Bolsheviki, it says:
"The evacuation of the Black Sea port of Odessa by foreign troops that have been holding it for many months is news of great significance....
"Like the German forces hurled against Soviet Russia by the mailed fist of the Kaiser, the French, Greek and Rumanian soldiers go out in a different mind and temper than they had going in. Wherever they go, they will spread the ideas of human liberty and co-operative development that they were sent to crush."
On April 13, 1919, "The Call" printed a poem on the assassinated Spartacan leader, Karl Liebknecht:
/P "Liebknecht
"Liebknecht, your lonely, bitter course is run! While we, with cautious feet, pursue the goal-- 'Tis not in pity's name that we make moan-- Nay! 'tis in envy of your martyrdom! The mirror of your flaming soul Has caught our poverty and gloom, In that fierce light our virtues shown Petty, distorted, wan! Then, hail! O martyr, in our day of doom! Hail, fiery heart, receive the victor's crown! Our heart a charnel house has grown For our vast dead! Yet we make room For freedom's slain. Shall not the tomb Yield heavy harvest where such seed is sown?" P/
"The Call," April 15, 1919, published the following endorsement of Hungarian Communism by the New York State Committee of the Socialist Party:
"Whereas, the working class of Hungary have seized political power and are using the same for the purpose of socializing industry and as an instrument for the complete emancipation of labor, therefore be it
"Resolved, that we, the State Committee of the Socialist Party of the State of New York, in meeting assembled congratulate the Socialist movement and the working class of Hungary on the success of the revolution and on the position that the Hungarian Socialist Republic has taken in defiance of the capitalist imperialists of all lands."
In the April 24, 1919, edition of "The Call" we read: