The Lithuanian Socialists of Chicago, as we have mentioned before, separated from the other Lithuanians and decided to have their own demonstration on Independence Day. This "demonstration" was a mass meeting which they held in the West Side Auditorium.

The most important part of the program was the speech of "Comrade" Pijus [Pius] Grigaitis, editor of the Naujienos. It was a repetition of his editorial which had appeared in Naujienos on Wednesday before Independence Day--only it was more elaborate, for the speaker spoke for more than two hours.

A broad red thread ran through all of his speech. It became monotonous to listen to the already threshed straw going through the thresher again and again. References to priests and the bourgeoisie sputtered from the speaker's lips like crusts of fried bacon on a frying pan.

The speaker attempted to prove that Lithuania's only salvation was to go along with the Russian revolution (even though that "revolution" cannot save itself any longer because it has become an anarchy).

Such speeches leave a strange impression. Though Grigaitis mentioned Lithuania's liberty, one felt immediately that Lithuania's liberty was not close to his heart. He lacked sincerity when he spoke about Lithuania. One felt that something else was nearer and dearer to him--that is, the Revolution, the Russian Revolution. One gathered from his speech that it would not pay for Lithuania to gain her freedom without a revolution. Lithuania, according to him, must go through the hell of a revolution in order to obtain freedom. The freedom of which he spoke was a strange sort of one. Lithuania must be "free" but united with Bolshevik Russia. An independent Lithuania? No! No! Freedom would be detrimental to Lithuania!

In all of my life I have never before heard such strange words as were spoken 3by this man. He said he was fighting for the greatest, most complete liberty for Lithuania. Yet he does not desire that liberty for his nation, if he is willing to leave her under the influence of a foreign nation--a nation of which it is doubtful if it can rise out of anarchy within twenty-five years. Such an attitude, whether it is considered from a moral or a practical viewpoint, cannot escape criticism. It can be supported only by sophisms.

The speaker admitted that only the Nationalists stand for the complete independence of Lithuania, but he held this to be a mistake.

The chairman of the meeting, K. Jurgelionis, who was formerly a "renegade," but is now a "comrade," spoke with his usual tact. He began by explaining that the real friends of Lithuania's liberty were gathered here, while in McKinley Park were the "German sympathizers." The long-legged Judas was fortunate that he did not bite off his tongue while speaking such foulness. Such piggish statements 4would never pass the lips of a decent man. They could only come from one who shifts from one faction to another, selling his stupidity according to the old proverb "bark where you lap".

Here is another interesting fact. This demonstration was arranged by the staff of the Naujienos, under the cloak of the American-Lithuanian Worker's Council. The Council is supposedly composed of eighty societies, yet the delegates of only three societies were present at this demonstration, while a hundred and one societies were represented at the McKinley Park gathering. Another unexpected occurence took place near the end of the program, when the delegates of the three societies were called up on the stage to say a few words. One of them urged all of the Lithuanians to preserve their unity and by united effort to regain an independent Lithuania, such as existed in the times of Gediminas and Vytautas.

That man probably did not even realize that he was spilling hot coals on the sponsors of the affair.

Though this was a gathering of Lithuanians, though they said that they were fighting for a free Lithuania, it was apparent that the Lithuanian anthem would not be heard in their kind of "free Lithuania"; but instead the Russian Bolsheviks' hymn would be sung. During the program the American anthem was sung. (It is dangerous to omit it these days.) They also sang the Bolshevik hymn. But these Lithuanians, "the fighters for the true freedom," did not have to sing the Lithuanian national anthem.

Altogether, there were about four hundred people present, but later we heard many people say: "They sang the Bolshevik hymn and honored it by rising, but they did not sing the Lithuanian anthem.....We must have gone to the wrong meeting: we wanted to gather with Lithuanians, but found ourselves with Bolsheviks."