Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-10-07

office handcuffed, were the three Flora |
men and myself, making four instead of
five, and instead OF us all being acquitted |
through the influence of Gen. Harrison,
as is alleged in campaign documents on
the authority of Mr.. Crawford, the three
Flora men entered pleas of guilty within
an hour after it was announced that Gen.
Harrison had volunteered to prosecute
us, while myself, knowing my inno-
cence, entered plea of 'Not Guilty"
Harrison's course during the trial which
followed showed that he was entirely de-
void OF any feeling of respect or sympa-
thy for the strikers. Surrounded as he
was by high officials OF wealthy cor
poration, at the bar of one of the high
est and most powerful courts of the land,
entirely at home because versed in the
laws and the rules and usages OF the
court, and standing as he did at the
very head of the bar. he displayed
lspirit of the greatest contempt for us
poor beings who sat before him; fresh
from our prison cells, three already con-
victed on their own plea of guilty, and
another unfortunately at his mercy. We
needed a friend at this particular time.
We needed strong and powerful friend.
We needed friend with influence
at the bar of the court and in high
place-in fact, we needed precisely the
kind of friend that Mr.. Crawford and
certain campaign documents claim Ben
, Harrison was to the strikers. But we
did not find that friend in Ben Harrison
on the contrary, this same Ben Harrison
was so bitter, vindictive, unjust and un-
{ fair in the fight he volunteered to make
, against me as we'll as the others, that
= notwithstanding the fact that there was
, not one word of testimony showing that
D | was guilty of any wrong, yet he secur,
ed my conviction and had me placed
: under bonds of 81 900 to keep the
o peace. This balderdash talk, therefore
about Harrison being friendly to the
q strikers of 1877 makes me very tired, az
i it would any man with my personal ex
v perience and certain knowledge OF hi'
q true position.
n Signedl JOHN REEVES.
It HARRISON WAS RELENTLESS.
n The recent claim that Gen. Harrison
II ever interceded for these men, whom, as
e we see, he had aided to put in prison
l. cells, is false The papers in the Unitet
J. States Court at Indianapolis, show that {
:, petition ior their release was gotten VI
n by Judge John I. Scott OF Terre Haute
W Ind; taken to the different prisons
II where they we're confined, signed
l. by them in his presence and with .
n letter asking for clemepcy from w. r
$, Mexican presented by him to the court
CT but nothing appears to show that Har
y rison ever for one moment changed hi
E. attitude toward these men from that day
'e to this-or for that matter toward labor
ing men in general. On the other hant
e the attitude, SO justly taken by the strik
n ers against Gen. Harrison at the close o
their troubles in 1877 will not be changed
until their last ballot shall have been de
posted against him in November next
On July 81, 1877, the trades unions G
indianapolis held meeting and passe'
al resolutions declaring that their sympa
Mt thies were with the railroad men. Con
e. demning the railroad corporations of tn
ct country and denonncing the shootin
I'd down OF men, women and children; an
le the meeting
at Resolved, That in the future we, a
r. voters, totally refuse to support in an
ng manner whatever, the men now engage
It in this city in putting down the striker
ne by armed force, and those who sid
at with the railroad companies in tn
nd struggle.
he This, though severe, was very just o
Benjamin Harrison, but the labor orgal
er. izations of Indiana have been resolvir
W. and voting against him ever since, an
ii. when his record is once known to the
I'D colaborers throughout the country the,
er too, will join the column, and one un
lite versal resolve, our wide country owe
will be made to vote against sending tn
persistent enemy of laboring men to th
White House.