The opening fight here was to force Labor, against its will, into a “preparedness” parade. Every organized man refused to move, and the parade for military piracy was cut down to a handful of the unorganized who were bulldozed into line. Organized Labor, victorious, was satisfied and completely through with the affair before the day of march. But some individuals, fired by the wild propaganda for military violence, sent hundreds of warnings through the mails, saying that they would blow up the parade with a bomb. Employers and newspapers tried to keep this quiet, but Organized Labor men discovered it and requested their followers to avoid any chance for such a thing to be laid at their door, by abstaining from all activity and treating the parade with silent contempt. This was done. The ranks of the unorganized marched down Market street behind their employers and society women, unaware of the warnings. A bomb exploded which killed six people outright, three more dying later. A prominent Chamber of Commerce man was heard to remark: “This is a fine chance for the open shop.” Immediately the Chamber of Commerce, through its tools in public office, swooped down on its most hated enemies in Organized Labor ranks. They took the leader of the recent attempted street car strike, Thomas J. Mooney (as well as his wife, an inoffensive music teacher), ignored his complete alibi and charged him with heading a “conspiracy.” The chief of pickets of the recent Machinists’ strike, Edward D. Nolan, was taken for vengeance’s sake, without evidence, and they announce, in the papers that they “have the hemp stretched around the necks of all.” Israel Weinberg, prominent in the Jitney Bus Operators’ Union, which is troubling the United Railways, was jailed and accused of murder. Warren K. Billings, past president of the Shoe Workers, was charged with the actual dynamiting, and an eye-witness who saw an altogether different man place the supposed suit-case bomb, was assaulted in the office of the prosecutor. Five conspicuous enemies of the employers were thus caught and apparently doomed. The warnings in advance that had been received through the mails, were thereafter ignored. Direct evidence of eye-witnesses was ignored. The Chamber of Commerce had the men it wanted.