The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-15
LIZZIE NJ. SWANK.

Since the early days of tbs agitation
for the emancipation of the black man,
when Lovejo q printing Office was
thrown into the Mississippi river, there
has been no such outrage perpetrated
upon the American rights of free press
and free sneech as that which has taken
place in Chicago within the past ten
days. The law, all.sutfcient as 1t ap-
pears il should be to advance the aims
of the monopolists and thugs, has been
set aside. and a treacherous gang of rot
ten officials has taken into its own
hands the rights Of the people and
tranpled upon their constitutional lib
critics.
Papers, which were published openly
and above board, and which have never
received the slightest warning that their
course was unsatisfactory to the powers
that be, have been peremptorily sup.
pressed, their plants confscated or des-
troyed and the editors thrown into
prison. Prior to the pollcemen's riot OF
last week the public press of Chicago
had ridiculed papers like the Alarm and
Arbiter Zeitung, and pooh -poohed the
idea of their suppression. But after the
racket raj ed by the drunken, ldiotic
police, under the dlctation of treach-
erous city administration, raid was
made upon the Offices of these papers
and the publishers and editors handled
in the most merCiless manner.
Among those arrested is Lizzie M.
Swank, who is well-known to the read
ers of The ENQUIRER as an honest
woman and one who has done more for
the liberation of the wage slaves of the
United States than any other woman IN
the country. The charge against her is
that she has been a regular writer in the
Alarm, and for this heinous crime she is
cast into prison.
The real cause of the fight upon this
brave but defenseless woman Is that she
has been organizing the wrongel, over
worked and under paid girls and women
of Chicago; and on the day before the
riot in the haYmarket sh3 marshaled
procession Of organized women through
the streets of Chicago. The factory
owners of the CITY saw in this process
sion the neuclus of an intelligent force
which threatened to overtime their
power to rob and ruin the working
women of Chicago, and what could be
more natural thought to minds so base
as theirs than that the sacrifice of this
woman would lengthen their power to
oppress and steal from the helpless
women who drudge for them2
At last reports Lizzie Swank was still
a prisoner, and had not been granted a
preliminary examination but from pri-
vate letters received by the editor of
this per 1t seems to be the determina-
ton of the powers that be to find her
guilty (of what God only knows) and
send her to prison. If this plan is car,
ried out it will be the greatest outrage
ever perpetrated in this country, and it
should. it will arouse the people as they
have never been aroused before.
l withhold further opinion and all ad
vice until the case is settled in the
courts; but workingmen and working
women, l want to ask that you keep
this fact ever before you: Lizzie Sgauk,
the woman of the people, the brave aud
noble champion of the oppressed an !;
abused women of the world, is priso-
ner in the dungeons of the despots, and
for no crime other than that she spoke
out like true sister against wrong.