Since the papers were issued before the arrest, it is not at all
unlikely that the death sentence has already been decided upon.
Optimists in the labor movement maintain that a repetition of the legal
murder of 1887, that has caused shame and horror even in the ranks of
the upper ten thousand, is impossible--that the authorities would shrink
from such an outrage, such an awful crime. That which has happened in
Colorado and Idaho warrants no such hope.
The evidence against the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners
consists largely of one individual, who is supposed to have known and
witnessed everything. The gentleman seems to fairly long for the moment
when he can take the witness stand and furnish the material that the
District Attorney needs to prove the guilt of the accused. An expert
perjurer, it seems.
The Governor of Idaho, Mr. Gooding, has already given him a good
character. The man acknowledged his firm belief in the existence of a
Supreme Being, which touched the governor's heart deeply. Does he not
know that it has ever been the mission of the Supreme Being to serve as
Impresario to Falsehood and Wretchedness?
The accusation against the three prisoners is the best affidavit of the
miner magnates of the courageous stand of the Western Federation of
Miners during the reign of terror of the money powers. For years
everything was done to disrupt them, but without results. The latest
outrage is a renewed and desperate attack on that labor organization.
Are the working people of America going to look on coolly at a
repetition of the Black Friday in Chicago? Perhaps there will also be a
labor leader, a la Powderly, who will be willing to carry faggots to the
stake? Or are they going to awaken from their lethargy, ere America
becomes thoroughly Russified?
INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
+A painting+ from the "good old times" represents two peasants wrangling
about a cow. One holds on to the horns of the animal, the other tightly
clutches its tail, a third figure is in a crouched position underneath.
It is the lawyer milking the cow, while the other two are quarreling.
Here we have the beauty of the representative system. While groups are
bargaining about their rights, their official advisers and lawmakers are
skimming the cream off the milk. Not justice, but social injustice is
the incentive of these worthy gentlemen.
Human justice, and legal representation thereof, are two different
things. One who seeks for a representation places his rights in the
hands of another. He does not struggle for them himself, he must wait
for a decision thereupon from such quarters as are never inspired by
love for justice, but by personal gain and profit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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