The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-07-06

I t1iDeS afDlCfafy, perhaps tyranlcal. Its III
fuence even, if now and again misdirected
(often by the operators to make it odcus),
! was on the whole good. 1t, by committees,
adjusted all differences between the men
and bosses, thus making impossible per-
sonal collisions between the men and ope-
rators, and thus removing all desire for
vengeance. During the existence of the
Workingmen's Benevolent Association
there were no murders on the part of the
men of operators or bosses. During the
existence of the Workingmen's Benevolent
Association the men were unit against
the encroachments of capital. The dis
ruption of the Workingmen's Benevolent
Association not only left them at the mercy
of their former enemies, but also caused
all odous division among the men them
selves, founded on nationality and religion.
! The operators and the bosses were for the
most part not only anti Irish and anti Cath
Olic, but were, moreover, members of secret
societies which, if not professedly, at least
practically, were opposed to givipgt the Irish
Catholic any alternative except to leave
the region or become newer OF wood and
drawer of water for others.
Here the sJ5mnounl jas became the SUM
ma injJyiG. a prescription was carried on
under the cover of law which stifled the
spirit of law without violating its letter
Everything against this class was done un-
2 -
lawful. The oppression in many places was
secret, systematic, but effective in other
! places there was no secret made of it
From this prescription there was no appeal:
! prejudice, wealth, and law were against its
victims. If passed over in order of promo
tion or discharged at one place ''the black
! list was sent to the place they next secured
! employment, and thus until they were
practically outlawed aud compelled to re-
turn to their starting place. "The world
is vide say some, ''why could they not
leave the coal region ?'' A miner cannot
carry The coal beds with him. he cannot
ply his trade without them labor under
the earth units him to stand exposure,
either to the summers heat or winter S
| cold to remove is not always possible
! They were told if they submitted more and
! more would be discharged, until not an
Irishman would be left in the coal region.
I Thus their fears and hopes we've by bad
men worked upon until, iii their rude way,
they devised what.they considered a RENE
| dy.
Experience teaches that men are prone
to magnify their wrongs and in cases of oc.
cult compensation to take more than what
is strictly due. Experience teaches that
men are inclined to seek remedy for their
ills, and proves, too, that unlawful redress
of wrongs is ''the remedy worse than the
disease - in this is verified She truth, ''all
injustice reacts upon the aggressOr." No
better example of the proneness of men who
have suffered for long time without re-
dress to take the administration of Justice
into their own hands, of their liability to
disgrace human nature by their cruellies
under such circumstances, can be given
than the conduct of those who feared ana
suffered from the Ancient Order of Hiber-
niaEs. The law failing to punish crime
these men banded together for the purpose
of wreaking vengeance on the MOllies.-
They combined not as individuals having
| personal wrongs to redress, but as a class
making the wrongs of others their own.
! There is a striking resemblance between
the murders, the perJuries, the alibis, &C..
of this secret league and the crimes of the
! Molies. With this difference. the Mollies
have never tried to fasten their crimes on
| the innocent; they are regarded as igno-
rant, without any training, moral or 9TH
erwise an opinion which an examination
of the criminals will bear out. Whereas,
! those banded against the Mollies were of
the better class, intelligent and professedy
law abiding citizens. The Miners Jour
| nal of December II, 1915, speaking of the
murder of Charles O'Donnell, whose cloth
ing was set on fire after his body had been
rddled by bullets of the murder Of his
sister, Mrs. McAllistee and her unborn
| babe, and of the attempted murder of old
| Mrs. o. Donuell, says:
''The reports that reached from St.
! Nicholas yesterday looked very much As if
| the often threatened Vigilance Committee
! has at last been organized and was getting
! in it's work. 1t seems incredible that such
a crime as this could have been com mitfed
! in a region thai claims to be civilized
| Granted that the house assaulted was "A fav-
! orife headquarters of the Mollie Maguires
| granted that its inmates were among the
worst characters in the region granted that
! the place was 4 nuisance which ought to
/ have been abolished long agO-for all of
! which we have only rumor as our authority
still there was shadow of excuse for
/ the crimes committed by men, who, if the
/ reports are true, pretend to be respectable
| citizens. There not room even for the
! plea of urgent necessity usually al vauced
| by The vigilance committees no crimes of
| startling magnitude had been committed by
the murdered people, or by any others in
| that region. There was not the usual form
of a trial and the few minutes by which Wig
iiance committees make show OF justice
It was the work of midnight asSassns who
richly deserve the terrible fate inflicted
upon their victims.
sfThe bodness and utter unscrupuousness
of the deed are its worst features. That q
body of men on n moonlight night could
break into q mans house in the midst Of a
community drag ln- out of bed, out of the
house and then murder him, with a reckless
prodiCaiitv of bullets and n degree of noise
of interruption that they should carry
their villaiuy so far as to murder n helpless
woman for no apparent cause whatever, aud
1naltreat the body of their victim after he
was past the point when they could inttict
further suffering him-all this and ali
the details of the horrible affair show
depth of wickedness and barbarism 10 which
even this bood-stained region is a stranger.
''The occurrence is foul blot on the fame
of Mahanoy Nalley-one from which she can
free herself only by promptly finding the
inurderers and delivering them TO justice.
The Miners Journal cannot be accused
of partiality to the Irish of friendship to
the Mollies. The above editorial shows il
to be the enemy Of all lawlessness-all law
lessness, no matter by whom perpetrated
retaliation begets retaliation ; all Injustice
land even all Justice thai is lawiessly ad-
ministered) must react. The journal edi-
torial clearly proves that the custom of
avenging injuries has not been in Schuyi-