The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-30
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
MIR. McCalloch and the Anarchists.
10 the Editor OF the Indi napoIis JournaI


To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journals
An item In this mornings Journal, headed
Sympathy for the Chicago Anarchists" calls
for a few words of explanation. have horror
Of all methods Of violence. I believe in obedi-
ence to law and IN enforcement of law. l have
no sympathy with the denunciations and meth
DDS employed by these men. / feel that free
dom of speech has its limits. believe that
these men should be punished for the conse-
queuces of their words. even il they we're not
directly concerned in throwing the bomb. But
nation is great by reason of its capacity to
forgive. In 1866 this country forgave those who
had caused the death of half million of her
dearest sons. Their graves were not yet green
when we forgave those who laid them there.
Such sight had not been seen since Jesus
not what they do" There are those who think
that this was a mistake, who feel that many
should have been hanged. Not l.
SO say OF these men, '"They know not what
they do" They are misguided men. They are
in the midst OF human sorrows and sufferings.
They see hundreds of men out of work. They
hear the cry of many thousand children who
work in the mills, factories and fouEdries OF
Chicago. They see young girls who work with
out wages sufficient for life. They see women
cry dispace men who then go about asking vain
" for work. They see all this and then denounce.
They denounce the rich without distn gushing
good from bad. They denouEee the factories
and mills. the system. the civilization.
They cry "Hang them! burn them" They can
not understand the law of political economy.
They see the great Board of Trade, which is
built by the gamblers gains, swept in from a
nation. They hear Of wheat deals which juggle
with bread, and pork deals which trifie with life.
They see a system which, like the car of jug
gernaut, rolls over the bodies of men and women.
They wish to throw it down by dynamite. To
hang such men would he inexpedient. 1t would
be bluEder It would crystalline q sentiment
into principle. The blood of martyrs is the
seed of the church. They become the martyrs
I know the sentiments of the
organized workingmen of this country
They are not Anarchists. They hate violence.
They love order and law They have a horror
of these revolutionary methods. But they feel
that these Anarchists have not had justice done
them. Already their papers protest Many
lodges of the Knights Of Labor have protested.
Twenty-Five thousand men voted against this
sentence at the recent election in Chicago
An intelligent workingman tells me, ''The
trades unions have no sympathy with the Anarch-
lists, but since the shooting down of an innocent
man by the Pinkerton men, and the refusal of
the grand jury to indict, they are doing a great
deal of talking" 1t will not do to make martyrs
OF these men. They become victims in the eyes
of many halo gathers about them. There
are thousands to-day who feel that they were
not legally tried; that they were too severely
sentenced. 1t is not by repression, by 'blood
and ron," that such things are stamped out, but
by renedying the causes. "Insurrection in
thought" says Wendell Phillips, ''precedes Ia
surrection In act" The cause of law and order
will not suffer by mitigating the punishment of
the Chicago Anarchists.
OSCAR G. McCULLocH