The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-29
son" goes up, and the mighty arm of the
law deftly chokes off your speech.

son goes up, ana Gno miRuey htu vi VIZ
law deftly chokes off your speech.
4 Our fore. fathers endeavored to pre-
serve the right to COMPLAIN, to petition
to state grievances, and even to chang
governments, to the American peopl
forever, but the oli-world superstition
sacredness attached to established insti
tutions, and carefully fostered BY the
classes in power, has been too much fol
even the brave Declaration of Inde
pendence" to contend against.
Speak so long as you do not tell wha
is hurting you; write SO long as you dc
not warn the people what to expect anc
how to prepare for it. Express yoursel
freely but do not dare criticise the
powers above you. that keep you in your
miserable conditions" This is the true
tenor of American freedom of speech
to day.
l have been behind the iron bars, KEPT
from communicating with my dearest
friends, debarred even from procuring
decent food unless I paid three prices
for it, for what? have written my
honest thoughts, given to the world the
best ideas could IN simple way gar
ner, and did what seemed to me the
best in my power for human freedom. /
have never seen or handled dynamite,
never possessed arms, and never have
been able to kill anything bigger than a
musquito in nv life. Yet am liable to
re-arrest anv daY.
But my short confinement is nothing
to what others as honest and innocent
are suffering. Every day men and
women are thrown into prison, torn
suddenly away from home and family
and work, for something they have said
or are suspected of having said.
The more prominent men arrested are
treated, not like men awaiting trial fol
what they may be innocent of, but like
dogs without rights and unworthy of
consideration. The capitalistic press
have not had such howl for vengeance
and blood, such hideous outcry Of abu-
Sive, malignant talk since the days
when those other freedom-lovers, the
abolltionists, called forth their ire.
am as certain as l live that our
speakers knew nothing Of what was to
occur on the evening of May 4. We
were attending meeting Of the Ameri-
can group in the Alarm Office. Both
Parsons and Fielden were present and
expresses, themselves as disinclined to
attend tie haymarket meeting; they
had not been personally notified or in
vited to speak and did not know who
had called the meeting. Later they
we're sent for, because large and inter.
ested crowd had gathered and more
speakers were needed; ever ready to re-
spond to such call, they went, some OF
the rest of us following and remaining
at the QUEER edge of the crowd. The
meeting was very quiet and orderly, nd
the speeches were of the same nature as
had been given hundreds of times with.
out calling forth the power of the law
The meeting was about to be dismissed
when suddenly, without warning, with
out even hint that the, m Getting was
obje ctionable or unlawful, 200 armed
police marched up and peremptorfly
ordered this peaceable crowd of Amerl'
can citizens assembled according to &C
knowledged rights, to disperse.
Tha brutality of Chicago police is no
torious. The deaths of many working
men, some innocent women, the Grip
pling fyr life of children and peacea BILE
men, lie at their doors. No one knows
how the battle began; perhaps some
single desperate individual goaded tt
frenzy by the memory of his wrongs anc
those of his fellows, believed the tint
had come for him to act. No one viii
ever know the exact truth, perhaps, bu
it is certain that had the police remained
away the meeting would have dispersed
quietly and peaceably.
1t is terrible that such things must oc
cur, in the evolution of the human race
vet it seem, commissions and revolution
do come about, and will until humanity
reaches that higher plane where reason
alone shall have sway. l shudder tt
think of bloodshed but I shudder owe
the deaths of fellow-workers in Mllwau
kee, at McCormlck's, at Lemont, 81
Louis and elsewhere, as well as over th'
deaths of few police.
A human being is no more sacred t.
me because he wears the insignia of tn
law, than a poor, homeless, hungr
laborer.
A bullet speeding from legal revoI
yer is no less "fendish" to me than
bullet frow some desperate. unorganize'
hungry workingman's gun.
My one hope is that the sensible, hu
m ne portion of the people will not taxi
their cue from the howl of the capital
istic press Only wait to pass judgmen
till more of the truth can be known.
Be not like hounds in full cry at tn
bid of a savage hunter, but reasonable
thinking, iustice-loving human beings
and reserve sentence for another day.
LIZZIE NJ. SwANK.