Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1886-10-14

tOuBuos "lnlh II the ufbt bulu ne, Il nave
ever stood before American cou T. and at
that find myself condemned to death. / am
brought to this by the same causes that COM
PEELED me TO leave the fatherland. have seen
with my own eyes that In this freest and richest
country In the world there are existing proleta-
rians who are cast out from every order of So
ciety. saw human beings who fished out their
food from the slop-barrels ON the streets In or
der 10 exist from day to day read of exam
pies in the daily papers, which prove to me tn at
In this glorious country here are people con-
demned to die from hunger. became sorry for
having left my own land, and asked myself
what are the reasons that could bring about
such q state OF things.
Il have lost my respect for American laws.
am convinced, aud this conviction no one can
tear out cf my heart. that the proletariat, by
means OF machinery, Will gain power to educate
to-day arrogate to themselves tho government
OF the workingmen.
Engel lifted his voice and flourished his right
hand over his head as he cried:
"In spite of ALL anarchy will exist II not in
public, lt will exist in private. If the States
Attorney thinks by sending seven men to the
gallows and another one to the penitentiary he
can break up snsrchy he is misssRsn ut6 Me Gs9 sB
movement Nothing can stop the workingmen
from making bombs, and they will be used. I
am convinced anarchsm cannot be rooted out. I"
Engel wound up with trade against the
capitalists and coal barons. He was followed
by Sam Fielden, who prefaced what he had TO
say by reciting poem from the German OF
Ferdinand Freilgrdth, entitled, Revolution
The first stanza was as follows;
And tho ye caught your noble prey within your
hangman's sordid thral,
And tho your captive WAS led forth beneath
your city's rampant wall,
And tho the grass lies DER her green, where, at
the mornings early red,
The peasant girl brings funeral wreaths tell
you still-she is not dead.
After eulogizing the poet Fielden declared he
himself was a revolutionist; that it was only a
crime to be a revolutionist when the man enter
tanning such ideas was poor man among In
tellectual people 1t was no crime He declared
he had been arrested and indicted for murder
but had been tried for anarchy
Fielden took up the Haym arket meeting and
discussed his speech at great length, claiming
that it was not incendary in any sense, and
that there was no excuse for the interference of
the police. In closing. he said:
Your Honor, with due respect to your years,
wish to say this, that it Is quite possible that
you can not understand, having lived in a diff
ferent atmosphere from what we have lived in
how men can hold such ridiculous ideas.
have no doubt that you have felt that way. Yet
it Is well known that persons who live to a very
ripe old age very seldom change their opinions.
But impute no wrong motiye in that. 1t is a
natural result But we do claim that our prin-
ciples will bear discussion, investigation, and
criticism.
If can say anything in the interests of hu-
manity, in the interests of liberty, equality and
fraternity. would say it now. Take heed take
heed Tho time, my friends, is not far off. The
swift process Of reduction of the masses into q
condition of depravity and degradation as is
evlnced by the numbers OF men out OF employ
cannot deny IL. No thinking man, no reason
ing man, no friend of his kind can ignore the
fact that we are going rapidly onto a precipice.
"Your Honor, / have worked ut hard labor
since l was eight years of age. went into a
cotton factory when was eight years old, and
have worked continually since, and there has
never been time in my history that could
have been bought or could have been paid to
say single thing by any man or for any, pur-
pose which did not believe to be true. To
contradict the lie that was published in con-
nection with the bill by the grand Jury charg-
ing us with murder, wish to say that have
never received one cent for agitating.
"To-day, as the beautiful autumn sun kisses
with balmy breeze the cheek of every FREQ man,
l stand here never to bathe my head in its raya
saa.-a trI6Kery, dishonesty
and Injustice The ninstssth sg h,s century com
VIII i've to repent Of It. But, as have said
before, II it will do any good freely give my
self up. / trust the time will come when there
will be better understanding, more intelli-
gence, and, above the mountains Of iniquity,
wrong, and corruption, l hope the sun Of right
eousness, and truth. and justice will come to
bathe in it's balmy light an emancipated world.
thank your Honor for your attention"
Albert r. Parsons followed Fielden. With a
flower in his buttOn-hole, water, lemon, red
handkerchief and a bundle of manuscript ON
he is vain and affected. He rolled his "r's" and
his eyes, said "me" for my, was gentle as q
nntn second and frCthed at the
down, stood on his toes, and crouched
to the floor. He aimed to be dramatic, and sue
ceeded only in being sensational and vehement.
Almost his first utterance showed the character
Of his address, with dramatic gesture and
intense tones he thundered forth: Il will tell
the truth though my tongue be torn from my
mouth, and my throat cut from ear to ear, so
help me Godi" Continuing, he said :"Your Honor,
/ stand here as one of the people, a common
man, workingman, one OF the millions, and
II oh unT1 oil xyh af II haT tn
You stand as a bulwark; you stand as a brake
between them and us. You stand here as the
representative OF justice, holding the poised
scales in your hands. You are expected to
look neither to the right nor to the left but to
do that by which justice and justice alone shall
be subserved. Now, the conviction of man,
your Honor, does not necessarily prove that he
is guilty. Your law books are filled with in
stances where men have been carried to the
scaffold and after their death it has been proven
that the murder was judicial; that it was q
judicial murder Now, what END be sub
served in hurrying this matter through in the
manner in which it has been done2 Where arc
the ends of justice subserved, and where is
truth found in sending seven human beings at
the ratio of express speed upon n fast train to
the scaffold and an ignominious death? Why,
IL your Honor please, the very method OF our
determination, the deep damnation of our TAX
ing off, appeals to your Honor's sense of justice
of rectitude, and of honor, judge may also
be an unjust man. Such Things have been
known.
snow hold that our execution, us the matter
stands just now, would bo Judicial murder, and
judicial murder is far worse than lynch law
far worse But, your Honor, bear in mind,
please, this trial was conducted by mob,
prosecuted by mob, by the shrieks and the
howls Of a mob, an organized powerful mob:
That trial Is over. Now, your Honor, YOU sit
here judicially calmly and quietly, and it is for
you now to look at this thing from the standpoint
OF reason and OF common sense. There is one pc
culiarity about the case, your Honor, that want
to call your attention TO- 1t was the manner and
the method Of its prosecution. On the one
side the attorneys for the prosecution con-
Quoted this case from the standpoint OF capi-
talists as against labor. On the other side, the
attorneys for the defense conducted this case
as defense for murderers, not for laborers,
and not against capitalists. The prosecution in
this case throughout has been n capitalistic
prosecution, inspired by the instinct OF capital
ism, and mean by that by class feelings, by a
dictatorial right to rule and q denial to COM
mon people the right to say anything or have
anything to say to these men, They conducted
this trial from that standpoint throughout.
aThe oapitalistic press has taken great pains
to say that socialists fight machinery; that we
fight property Why, sir, it is an absurdity, it
is ridiculous, it is preposterous. No man ever
heard one of us speak who ever heard an utter
ance from the mouth Of a socialist advising any
thing of the kind. They know to the contrary.
We don't fight machinery; we don't oppose
these things. It is only the manner and the
methods of it, your Honor, that we object to.
That is all 1t is the manipulation of these
things When we see little children huddling
around the factory gates, the poor little things
whose DOnes are uot yeb nhru, WHeH VIZ SEQ
them clutched from the hearthstone, taken
away from the family altar and carried to the
bastiles Of labor, and their little bones ground
up into gold dust to bedeck the form Of some
aristocratic Jezebel, then IL stirs the manhood
in me, and speak out. We plead for the little
ones we plead for the helpless; we plead for
the oppressed; we seek redress for those who
are wronged: we seek knowledge and intel
ligence for tho ignorant; we seek liberty for
the slave; we seek the welfare of every human
being"