Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-05-05

Last evenings tragedy in Chicago marks a
turning-point in the progress of the labor trou-
bles In that city. As long as the crowds in the
streets were recognized as American working
men striking for shorter hours or higher pay. a
good many rash and imprudent acts of theirs
could be treated with n measure OF patience
and charged 10 the account of excitement and
. too quick temper. When, however, in re-
Spouse to command from the police 10 dis
perse, a mob suddenly hurts from the midst of
IL a volley of dynamite bombs the situation
takes on another aspect. Resistance to Off
Ger OF the law In the discharge of his duty is
not in the line of conduct of n respectable
American workingman, who has been educated
10 know that the courts are always open for the
redress of his grievances If he finds the police
power oppressive. The dynamite bomb is not
the weapon Of the American workingman.
either respectable or of the other sort. II Is
importation from abroad, as unweleome as I'M
called-or. It is a device of the foreign anarchist
who has no more rights in this country than an
Indian Thug.
No man in America will feel more hearty re-
greet for what has occurred In Chicago than the
honest. Intelligent wage-worker who, whether
wisely or unwisely, has quilted his late employ
ers service in the hope of lettering his condi-
ton. The glory of American citizenship, to
such man, resides in the fact that he is free to
60 and come, to combine with other wage
workers TOR purposes of mutual protection, to-
hold meetings, public or secret-to do anything
In short, which does not abridge his neighbours
right of life, liberty property. 1t has always
been the boast of our people that the safety of
the state lay in the liberty of the citizen, and
that that liberty was i'm no danger of abuse.
Other people have looked askance at our expert
ment, and some have predicted It's failure, but
we have kept right on, in hearty confidence
that we knew what was for our own well
fxra hot oil
know-n0thing movement, which originated I'm
a spirit OF excessive Americanism, was put
down by American votes as Il sign that ma
jority of our people were willing to trust the i'm
migrant to defend the freedom he has acquired
by making his home on our shores. When there
fore. the refugee from tyranny in.the Old World
takes advantage of his pri sleges here to aim a
blow at the government which offers him It's
euccor; when the bandit orator makes use of a
pretended labor demonstration to incite his
hearers to blondshed and plumber; and when
the Diost fcndish missile known to science is
employed to destroy tue official guardians of
the peace, every fOreign-born citizen and every
workingman in this broad land suffers an ire.
parable injury. The measure of il is not de-
termined by the immediate results which the
newspapers chronicle in their daily reports
Its worst effects are so subtle that they can be
traced only by the keenest observation but
they are inevitable. They may be summed up
In the word "distrust." Hundreds of thousands
OF citizens whose social and political influence
cannot be discounted become ilIed with an -de-
Unable fear. They mean to be just and to dis
crir:IInate fairly between the real work ingman
asserting what he believes TO be his rights and
tie sham woTkingman whose soul thirsts for
pillage. and whose blouse is worn merely to give
the color of responsibility To- his conspiracies.
they aim to distinguish between the foreign
victim of oppression, who comes under the
folds OF our flag because he loves liberty, and
the foreign adveniurer who waves aloft the
stars and stripes only till he can get a chance to
run up his red banner of license above them
But. try rs they may, they cannot make their
discrimination complete while such events as
the Chicago riot occasionally occur There
Turks somewhere within them the ghost of a
notion that. because q tongue speaks a foreign
language more fiuently than English, the law
had better put a bride on il. Little by little
this feeling will be reflected in legislative re-
strictious There will be reaction, slow and
scarcely perceptible in its degrees from the
liberty which has been steadily broadening
since the establishment. OF democratic govern
ment in America The precautions for public
safety will be marked with sharper lines The
bayonet will follow closer and quicker behind
the billy for the suppression of disorder The
springs of sympathy, which have been so
prompt TO flow in response to the appeal of the
overworaed and poorly-pad laborer, or to the
cry OF distress from the Old World revolution
ist, will be dried up There will cresp into the
mind OF every man who. By industry or inheri-
tance, has acquired little property which he
prizes. q suspicion that perhaps the conserva-
tive philosophers Of Europe are right, and we
have too much liberty over here.
In Chicago the duty of the authorities is
obvious. Every partaker in the bomb-throwing
exploit of last night Is either the prin-
cipal or the accessory to a murder
The law OF Illinois prescribes one punishment,
we believe, for principal and accessory. The
law must be enforced Every assassin who can
be convicted of his crime must be hanged, and
as promptly rs the necessary preIiminaries will
permit, and measures of sufficient severity TOR
the protection OF life and property should be
carried out with a firm hand. III it be true that
our free institutions are on trial. and that the
present test will decide whether they are a
success or a failure, let the test be made as
thorough on one side a. on the other. We must
show that the American people are as ready to
put down iawlessness to fight for liberty
The city and state which have been chosen by
the rufiian element tor their battle-ground mus.
be made the scene OF such "a triumph of order
over chaos as will strike terror to the heart of
every ineendiary demagosue in the United
States.