The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-26
WHO ARE THE DYNAMITERs ?

Michael Davitt proposes to attract atten-
ton TO his new paper, the Labor World, by
asserting ana proving that the dynamite
plot of 1888, which aimed at the destruction
of the Houses of Parliament with the men,
beers assembled, the Underground Railway
of London with its trains full of people and
other public buildings in the heart IF thickiy
settled localities, was cODcocted by police
in the employ of the British Government,
and that the moneys expended by the con-
SpiratOrS were furnished by the British
Treasury. MI Gladstone was Prime MIN
lister at the time We advise Mr.. Dayitt TO
try something easier. There have been in
stances in history in which unScrupuleus
statesmen. bred i'll the school of Macclla-
vell, set traps for their opponents and lured
them on to the commission of crimes for
which they could be arrested and punished.
Stories IF such devices may be read in llal-
ian and Spanish history. Napoleon the
Great, who was at heart an Italian of the
Macchiavelli type, was not above hiring
"sheep of the prisons to lead on his enc
mics to villainieS which proved their undo
ing. But 1t would require very powerful
evidence indeed TO convince any one that
President Carnot, or Senior Sagasta, or
Signor Crispi, or Mr.. Gladstone engaged i'll
such work in our day.
Davitt's story bears on its face such utter
improbability that, if legal proceedings were
Instituted IN its basis, no Judge in the world
would require the defense to offer evidence
or argument. Ii assumes that persons high
in office in the service of the British Govern
ment were guilty of the most heinouS form
of high treason and the most diabolical at
Ias 10 An for vbot
Merely to wreak vengeance on a political
adversary. We can make every allowance
for partisan big0try and party zeal, but
surely at the present day nobody In his
senses plots crimes which would cost him
his life, if they were detected, simply to
spite political rival. 1t is said that there
is a law in China under which the man who
is found nearest to a corpse is executed fol-
the supposed murder, if he cannot find the
real culprit, and that Chinaman who has a
grudge against his neighbor sometimes gets
even by leaving a dead body at his door
Mr.. Dav!tt desires US TO believe that Mr.
Gladstone took IL hint from the Chinese anC
tried to blow up Parliament IN order tina
Parnell should be accused of the deed.
1t is not by trash of this kind that tn
Labor World will win the position which
T.. ) OCtupy
The field before ii is wide and glorious. 1t il
in MI Davitt'S power to render no little ser
vice TO the cause of lbor by eliminating
from the present demands of its apostles the
theories which are unsound and impractica
bic from the claims which are just and within
reach He may make himself a power in
his country lower which the Government
may come to fear and the people to obey
The labor campaign in Great Britain ha:
reached the second stage of the war; thu
Stage in which employers organize for thu
protection of the interests of capital agains
the unions. That stage will obviously terml
nate in a new compromise of interests. Blu
before it ends there is reason to fear tina
much injustice will be done and many wrong
committed. the capitalists have on thei
side the leading newspapers of England
with the best intellect of the country to coun
sci and warn them. Labor has no authori
tative exponent of its views. There ar,
| some socialist and proetaran prints whicl
| espouse the cause OF the workingman, no
| because they care for honest industry, bu
| because they hate existing institutions an
unequal distribution of wealth. But there i
| no newspaper in England with a 1.-THE of tn
ability of the London Times which under
takes to set fairly and squarely before tn
| public the right of the workman to his shar
of the benefits of taxation.
That vacuum Mr.. Dayi,t is qualified to I'll
He can present the rights of the common
man so clearly and so forcibly as to commsn
conviction among employers and the peopl
at large; he can enforce his views upon Pal
lament and compel action. But to do thi
his views must be reasonable. and he mus
not accuse Mr.. Gladstone of being dyna
| inter