Page:The Agitator Volume 2 Issue 01.djvu/2

 THE AGITATOR THE AGITATOR Issued twice a month, on the first and fifteenth, by Thk A<"»j'i".TOR Publishing- Association from its printing c like i;i Home, Wash. Entered at the postoffice at Lakt bay, Wash. ,as Second Class Matter Subscription, One Dollar a Year. Two copies to one address $1 50. Address all communications and make all money orders payable to The Agitator, Lakebay, Wash. Articles for publication should be written legibly on one side of the paper only. The Agitator does not bear the union stamp because it is not printed for profit. But it is union, every letter of it. It is printed and published by unionists and their friends for the economic and political education of themsehes and their fellow toilers. Much of the labor is given free. On the whole it is a work of love— the • ove of the idea, of a world fit for the free. raised his hand, calling attention to the fact that it was perfectly steady, and with his usual smile repeated these lines: "This hand is as steady As when in the old days It plucked the already Ripe fruit from Life's tree— The apples that weighted the boughs in the gold days When blazed the great sun of promise for me. "Yes, perfectly steady, With no trace of trembling, Though all is now ready, This dainty glass here: Pray, observe, there is nothing remotely resembling The outward expression of commonplace fear." The hour approached. Let us skip the de- tails as related by the crowd of reporters who were eagerly watching for a symptom of weak- ness as the hawk does for its prey. Not a mus- • cle quivered as the death warrant was read. Not a cheek blanched as the mummery of dress- ing them in white shrouds was performed. Spies smiled disdainfully. Fischer looked scornfully around. Engel stood as a soldier at "attention," and during the reading '"his firm- ly set mouth became mobile, and a slight smile flitted over his face." Parson's hand "played carelessly with his short, black mustache." "Yes, we are ready to go before a higher tribunal, ' ' said Spies, in clear unflinching tones. Their faces wene lit up as by inspiration. As they moved out from their cells Parsons turned to the Jenkins of the press, who were carefully scrutinizing every action, and said, sarcastical- ly: "Won't you come inside V A minute later they stood upon the scaffold. Permission had been refuse! to speak. The nocses were quickly adjusted, the caps pulled down, and "an unusually hasty movement made for the traps." Then from behind the hoods came these words: Spies: "There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!" Engel: "Hurrah for Anarchy!" Fischer: "Hurrah for Anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life!" Parsons: "Will I be allowed to speak, 0 men of America? Let me speak, Sheriff Mat- son ! Let the voice of the people be heard ! O 99 But the signal had been given, and the officers of the state performed their mis- sion by strangling both speakers and speech. "Here endeth the first lesson!" — The Alarm, November 19, 1887, edited by Parsons. THE TRIAL A FARCE On June 20, 1886, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, Adolph Fischer, Samuel Fielden, George Engel, Louis Lingg and August Spies were arraigned in the Cook county court, charged with the murder of one Mathias J. Deagan, in the Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, as per indictment of said grand Jury, above quoted. In the afternoon of the same day (June 20) Albert R. Parsons surrendered himself to be tried with his comrades. On August 21, the jury brought in a ver- dict of death for seven, and a sentence of Neebe to State's prison for 15 years. Gov. Ogelsby commuted the sentences of Schwab and Fielden to prison for life, and Gov. Aitgeld released them all three six years later. So that It is of our five comrades who sleep in the silent mound in this State we will speak. What of the judge and jury who tried them and sent them to their untimely graves? Let the record of the court answer. The constitution of the United States, and of the State of Illinois, both declare that any person charged with crime is entitled to be tried by an impartial jury. Now what of the jury which tried our comrades? Here is a sample: "James H. Walker said that he had formed an opinion on the question of the guilt or innocence of the defendants of the murder of Deagan, which opinion he still en- tertained and had expressed it to others. Asked as to whether this opinion would influence his verdict, ho replied: 'Weli, I am willing to adimt that my opinion would handicap my judgment, possibly. I feel that I could be governed by the testimony.' " 'Then you believe now that you could listen to the testimony and any other proof that might be introduced, and the charge of the court, and decide upon that alone, uninfluenced, unprejudiced and un- biase by the opinion you now have?' " 'No, I don't say that' " That is. what I asked you.' 44 1 said I would be handicapecl.' "He also said he had prejudices against Socialists, Anarchists and Communists. The court, interrupting, 'but do you believe that you can fairly and impar- tially render a verdict in accordance with the law and the evidence in the case?' " 'I shall try to do it, sir.' "The court, interrupting: 'But do you believe that you can fairly and impartially make up your mind from the evidence, whether that evidence shows that they are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or not?' " 1 think I could, but I should feel nevertheless that I was handicaped in my judgment, sir.' "The court: 'Well, that is a sufficient qualification for a juror in the case. Of course, the more a man feels that he is handicaped, the more he will be guarded against it' " — Court Record, pp. 361. How could any other verdict have been rendered under such rulings? Why, the more one felt that he was handicaped by prejudiced the more "impartial" he was» according to Gary's ruling. Of the 12 jurors who tried the case nine admitted that they were prejudiced; had formed and expressed opinions, but they had to be accepted by the de- fense, because the court ruled that that fact did not disqualify them! Is it any wonder that such a jury should reach a verdict in three hours, sending seven men to the gallows and one to prison for fifteen years? Justice simply abdicates at the demand of capital. This is the language of the bailiff who had charge of summoning talesmen: "I am managing this case and I know what I am about. Those fellows will hang, as certain as death. I am summoning such men as jurors that they will be compelled to chal- lenge peremptorily, and when they have exhausted their peremptory challenges, they will have to take such a jury as is satisfactory to the State." — Record* pp. 392. Here is a sample of the language, used "by the judge, in the impaneling of the jury, when the de- fense objected tp the method of examination adopted by the State. The court: "I know, or the court judicially, what are the objects of Communists, So- cialists and Anarchists. You must presume that I know because it has been decided for a man to say that he is prejudiced against horse thieves is no ground for. imputing to him any misconduct as a juror. Now you must assume that I know either that Anarchists, Socialists and Communists are worthy objects, or else I cannot say that a prejudice against them is wrong/'— pp. 400. Here was a suggestion by the court that he knew, judicially (of course he did not, but he so stated it), what were the objects of Anarchists, Socialists and Communists, and then by way of illustrating that he did know, he mentioned prejudice against horse thieves. The expression of the court was exactly equivalent to saying: I know the purpose of An- archists, Socialists and Communists— that they are as pernicious and unjustifiable as the vocation ot horse thieves; and therefore a juror's prejudice such that he could not render a fair verdict wnere one of them is involved, is not a disqualifying preju dice. But why dwell longer upon the records of this so-called trial? The whole 800 pages are black with the infamy of this conspiracy of capital, to silence those who dared expose its wrongs. The foul deed was done! Our comrades sleep the sleep which knows no awakening, but the grand cause for which they died is not asleep nor dead; it is the live, inspiring issue of every land and cjime where the ray of civilization has penetrated. It is the moving inspiration of our age, the only question worth struggling for, the question of how to lift humanity from poverty and despair. This question is the swelling tide of our age. It is useless for the ruling class to stnad on the shore of discontent and attempt to force this tide back to its depths of pov- erty, for it swells up from the hearts of the people. And though they should erect gallows along all the highways and byways, build prisons and increase armies, the tide will continue to rise until it over- whelms them in a world-wide revolution. This is the lesson of history. — Lucy E. Parsons. THE HEROES OF CHICAGO— 1887 "Shame on the costly mockery of piling stone on stone, To those who won our liberties, the heroes dead and gone; Whilst we look round and see, law-shielded ruffians slay The men who fain would win their own, the heroes of today." So wrote James Russell Lowell at a great crisis in American world-history. His burning intensity would have been equally apropos, and significant, if written with reference te the martyrdom of Parsons, Spies, Fischer, Engel and Lingg; not forgetting Fielding, Neebe and Schwab* on November 11th, 1887. Capitalism hanged four men. Men, good and true. We hurl at the hangers of then now: "You can hang, or shoot, a man — but you can't shoot a prin- ciple." Liberty lives; and as George D. Herron trench- antly puts it, "Until Labor comes to its own, nothing will be right, and nothing ought to be right." "Let the voice of the people be heard," spoke Par- sons — and his defiant, clarion challenge materialized into an immortal slogan for Liberty! Spies, the refined and cultured, with prophetic and Hebraic faith as of a modern Amos, or later Voltaire, declared: "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle todav." The old Liberty Bell, now sleeping in the old State House of Philadelphia, rang out in '76 the words: "Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof!" It rang, and died — these men's words ring on forever! And Swinburne and William Morris join in the choral of victory. Thus Swinburne. "The locks shall burst asunder, The hinges creaking spin, When Time, whose hand is thunder, Lays hands upon the pin, And shoots the bolts reluctant, bidding all men in. "Rise ere the dawn be risen; Come, and be all souls fed, From field, and street, and prison, Come, for the feast is spread, Live, for the truth is living— wake, for the Night is dead!" Sure! Listen! That mental and mechanical Her- cules, a veritable Titan, master of a hundred crafts, cunning workman, artist and poet, prophet and rebel, of whom Ruskin wrote, "He died when England could least spare him," William Morris, voiced the victory of MEN over MURDER: "It grows and grows — are we the same, The feeble band, the few? Or what are these with eyes aflame, And hands to deal and do? This is the host that bears the word, 'NO MASTER, HIGH OR LOW,' A lightning flame, a shearing sword, A storm to overthrow." So be it! All hail the memories and influence of the heroes of Chicago — not of war! Victims of the class-war. JACK WOOD. against this class, even though he admits that it is The Chicago Martyrs; The * famous Speeches., .30