The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-07-07
ANARCHIST PARSONS,
OF CHICAGO, VENTILATING HIS
GRIEVANCES.
The Relations Between the Anar.
chists and Knights OF Labor
A Libel on the Latter.

CHICAGO, Ill, July 6.-Anarchist
Parsons has addressed lett.r, dated
Cook County Bastille, Cell No. 106,"
10 the editor OF the Daily News, in re q.
gard TO the action taken by District
Assembly No. "a, Knights OF Labor,
Of Chicago, denounciug him and 9TH
ers as advocates Of riot and murder
because they are anarchists, and COM
manding that Parsons be expelled
from the Knights OF Labor, in COM
pany with every other workingman
who follows the red flag and upholds
the doctrine of socialism"
Parsons claims that the objects and
aims OF the Knights of Labor and an
aIchist5 and socialism are precisely
identical. In support OF this state
ment he quotes from the principles
adopted by the recent convention,
and says: Gin addition to the above,
the order also proclaims that among
the higher duties that should be
taught in every local assembly are
mans inalienable inheritance and
right to a share, for use, Of the soil,
aud that the right to life car
ries with it the means Of living;
and that all statutes (laws) that OBJ
siruct or deny these rights are wrong,
unjust, aud must give way" After
reading the above Itubmit to candid
and intellig mt public TO decide
ii these ara not the precise objects
aud aims which socialists have pre-
claimed for the pas thirty years, and
advocated by socialists and anarch-
lists all over the world2 Such being
the case, the Knights OF Labor is elm
ply another name for socialists, fact
which intelligent persons understand
fully. AS to the red flag, the wage
workers who march to the music Of
labor's economic emancipation, what
ever Their nationality or creed, are
repudiated and outlawed by every flag
save the red one. AS to riot and MUIR
der, what are the facts? Let the rec
ord OF the INTERNATIONAL" which is
anarchist organization, answer for It.
self. The hay market meeting was
protest against the murders which
had been committed at McCormick's
the day before. If this looks like
murder and riot, then put us down
as such. Through the grated bars
of my prison cell there comes from
the streets the noise and din of the
Fourth of July; that day which ITO
years ago was made memorable by the
proclamation OF the immortal declara-
ton of the inslienable rights OF man.
My ances ors helped frame the declar-
alton, and sacrificed and fought to
maintain it, They held that resist.
ance TO tyrants was obedience TO God"
II they lived today they would be on
trial for "riot and MURDER" and the
ecsffold would be thrust in their faces
for disloyalty toward established
wrongs. The District Assembly i'm
putes to the anarchists the RESPONSE
bility for the hay market tragedy OF
May a. They do not seem to compre-
bend that that affair, like those of
East st. Louis, McCormick's factory,
Bayview, Milwaukee and elsewhere,
we're the natural outgrowth Of the class
struggle Of the wege system. So like
wise the spread OF anarchism and the
growth of the Knights OF Labor result
from the inevitable collisions between
the privileged class and the oppressed
pToletarlat.