The June 1 issue was next stopped. It contained the address of Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press, before the St. Louis Commercial Club, in which he denied the truth of the stories of Belgian atrocities after a personal investigation of numerous cases in France and Belgium. The June 8 issue also was stopped. The offensive material obviously consisted of extracts from a pamphlet issued by the National Civil Liberties Bureau, “The Truth About the I. W. W.” It presented a compilation of extracts from the works of industrial investigators and noted economists, and was printed as a matter of news with no idea of propagandizing the cause of the I. W. W.
The paper was rapidly losing its footing under this heroic treatment of the Post Office censorship, although no notoriety was attached to the course. On June 22 the first issue of “The American Liberal” appeared, in which an attempt was made to avoid anything that could give excuse for interference, the chief desire being to protect the stockholders and creditors. But after the fourth issue a peremptory order canceling the second-class mailing privilege put an effectual stop to further efforts to continue the uneven struggle.
Immediately after, the affairs of the paper became a subject of serious concern in various secret service branches of the government. A raid was made on a prominent citizen in the town of Reading and letters were found showing that he had at one time aided the paper in the sum of $100. This was heralded as evidence of some sinister conspiracy to destroy the government. A raid was made on the office of the paper and every letter on file was seized to discover proof of fraud and bad faith on the part of certain employes of the office, and to establish some connection with German plotters. Investigations were instituted; the daily papers were supplied with information that contained one part fact and nine parts suggestion, innuendoes and insinuations. Lawyers who examined the reports said they were vicious, but just within the law--that action for libel would probably not stick. And that was obviously the purpose of the raids. The prominent citizen of Reading was allowed to go the even tenor of his ways, and the seized documents in the office of the paper were returned in due season and pronounced harmless. The public had been lashed into a feverish state of indignation against some imaginary plotters, a legitimate enterprise had been ruined, all the employes of the paper had been turned into the street, some filth had been flung at the head of the editor, and the country was saved!