There is a heavy storm raging in the great Workmen's Circle organization, which has over eighty thousand members. The trouble is due, as is usually the case, to the machinations of the Bintel boys. [Translator's note: Term of derision applied by Courier to the staff of the Jewish newspaper, Forward, and all persons controlled by it.]

They have done something which only they are capable of doing. As a result of their work, there is a storm brewing in all the branches of the Workmen's Circle, in all parts of the country. A protest conference, similar to the one called two years ago, is being called at the present time.

The story of what has happened can be told briefly. It is an acknowledged fact that the Bintel boys are gradually losing their hold upon the Jewish labor 2movement. They are being completely discredited. They have resolved, therefore, in their desperation, to rule by violence. All rulers who lose the confidence of the people act the same way. Those who have the confidence of the people do not have to adopt the method of violence. Those who have the majority on their side are not afraid of any criticism because they can overcome their opponents by democratic means. Leaders who do not have a majority and still desire to rule, have to adopt the method of violence and of swindle. This happens to all discredited despots.

This is what has happened to the Bintel boys. They have begun to expel people in all branches of the labor movement where they still have power. They did so before in the local Cloakmakers' Union, and now they have begun to do it in the Workmen's Circle. They have begun to manipulate elections and to expel [members]. This happened in Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities. In New York, they expelled a legally elected member of the city committee because he was an opponent of theirs. The general 3membership did not remain indifferent to this situation, but protested vigorously. The more the Bintel boys engaged in dirty work, the greater became the bitterness against them, the more they lost the confidence of the people.

They have done something now which has had the effect of a bomb. They have expelled those who headed the movement against them from the Workmen's Circle, the well-known leaders of the Workmen's Circle, A. Epstein and R. Siegel. Old Epstein is one of the founders of the Workmen's Circle. He was president of the Workmen's Circle for many years, and now he has been expelled. Mr. Siegel has been active in the Workmen's Circle for the past fifteen years and he is now one of the leaders of the opposition to the Bintel.

The Workmen's Circle, being an insurance order, is subject to state laws regarding fraternal organizations. The Bintel boys have, therefore, found it difficult to expel a member in the way they did it in the unions. They can, however, change the status of ordinary members to members-at-large. This has been the case with the two old leaders. They were made members-at-large, which means that they ceased to be members of a branch, thus depriving them of all the 4rights which a member has (they even lose the branch benefits for which they have been paying for a number of years).

Dissatisfaction had arisen in the Workmen's Circle over the expulsions and the election manipulations, but now a storm [of protest] has broken out in all branches all over the country. Branch after branch is protesting against this brutal act. In New York, a few days ago, there was a giant protest meeting of the Workmen's Circle members. Such protest meetings have taken place in many cities, among them Chicago. All branches are requested to send delegates to a protest conference.

It is an old story that people who, in desperation, stop at nothing in order to hold on to their power, are the ones who bite the hands that feed them. They undermine their own existence by their own acts. This is what happened to the great czars and despots, and it also happens to the peanut czars and despots.

A Workmen's Circle which expels members is as believable as fried snow or 5cold fire. The great virtue of the Workmen's Circle consisted in the fact that every opinion was tolerated there, that real democracy prevailed there, that nobody was discriminated against because of his beliefs. Everybody could speak, agitate, and fight for his beliefs, and remain a friend.

The charge against the expelled is that they have organized their own cliques within the Workmen's Circle. The charge is as ridiculous as it is shameless. Every movement must assume some organizational form. Ten years ago there was a struggle within the Workmen's Circle between the "old" and the "new". Both sides were well organized and yet nobody thought of expelling anybody. Furthermore, the Bintel boys themselves are organized into a clique, and into a secret clique at that. They are organized into a clan, which calls itself "the old man". This is the secret Bintel clan within the Workmen's Circle. This is permissible. The members of the secret "old man" are not expelled, but the members who openly oppose the Bintel are expelled. Only desperate creatures could delude themselves with the idea that the members of the Workmen's Circle will not understand the facts.

Chicago has its own complaint to make against the Bintel boys, besides being a party to the complaint already described. We reported in the Courier, two weeks ago, what happened to the local city central committee of the Workmen's Circle; how a number of the Chicago branches left the central committee as a protest against the local Bintel boys, who by their acts destroyed the nonpartisan character of the Workmen's Circle, and converted the city committee into a clique of their own.

The Bintel boys have issued a declaration in the Bintel newspaper concerning this affair. The declaration is long, full of sand, wind, and distorted facts. One should not blame them for issuing such a declaration; they had no other choice. If one were to examine the principles of the Workmen's Circle--which are the foundation upon which it rests--with a thousand microscopes, one would not be able to find any reason whatsoever why the central committee of the Workmen's Circle should become the agency of the party to which a few of its members belong, and should persecute the party to which other members belong; why one 7kind of member should be considered desirable and another kind undesirable; why it should become the bootlicker of one newspaper, while the Workmen's Circle has always indorsed all labor newspapers in which its members were interested, irrespective of their policy or inclination. This is the more inexplicable when one considers that the city committee wants to lick the dirty boots of a newspaper which is notorious for its obscene stories, but which ceased years ago to be a labor newspaper.