Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-19

| from day to day. The participants in the
! rank and file were wholly ignorant OF the
meaning of any movement they ever made,
| or of the connection of one demonstration
| with another,
"We were well aware that any violence
committed anywhere dn the country might
be charged to US. It was very clear that we
were stalking the lives of so many Others,
and this fact no doubt led us to say so little
| even to each other about the real issue.
''It is doubtful if any one but Spies, Par
sons and myself knew of the existence OF
the plot, and doubt if even to the day on
the gallows Parsons could have told what
the real plot was
The Influence of an Example.
1.-TWO or three of the schemes to convince
the public that organized labor was prepar-
ing for desperate onslaught were as fol-
lows: In the Alarm was published full ac-
count of how to make dynamite, gun-cotton
| caps and bombs, with a continual run of
| fiery editorials. At all our meetings our
speeches were equally fiery. 1t was only
necessary to set the example, and aspirants
not willing to be outdone would do them
selves proud with violent utterances.
'On one occasion a man came to one of our
| meetings from Hooking Valley to ask for
aid. He described the terrible suffering of
the miners families locked out oftheir homes
and starving In reply said: This man
wants us to give them some money so that
they can continue in their present condi-
tion, while the owners of the mines grow
fat and rich and laugh at their misery. No.
| If you want money to buy dynamite to blow
| their brains out, or blow up their property,
you have come to sympathetic quarters
''The papers published the gist of this
speech and the sentiment of it was in the
Hooking Valley within "a hours In few
days the country was startled by a series
of dynamite explosions in that valley, which
destroyed about 81, ,00O, 900 worth of prop
erty for the company. This may have been
wholly a coincidence and the explosions
planned months before, but it tended greatly
to convince the country that organized labor
was really as dangerous and desperate as
we said it was, and we knew whereof we
spoke.
The Black Flag Demonstration.
"The black flag demonstration on Thanks
giving Day, 1884, really capped the climax.
The red flag means the same as the red in
all flags, all of one blood. The black flag
means mourning and death, but to the on
lockers we tried to make the red mean
bloody onslaught and the black piracy.
For this occasion prepared a set of resolu-
tions that were unusually vicious. They
were so revolutionary that Spies objected to
their being read, but 1 persisted. These
were reported in full and were put in as
evidence at the trial of the Anarchists
''You can judge of the character of my re-
marks at this meeting by this extract which
L saved from the published report: DO
you see these five and eight-story buildings
all about you full of food and clothing they
-~11
money to buy it? Do you see the to lets in
the wages to hire? If we are men we
will unite, arm and take these things BY
force of arms, and dynamite all opposition.
"You can be sure I left them pretty we'll
warmed up Parsons took the stand next
and told them it was the system and not in
dividuals to blame for this condition. In
this way he cooled them down and then in
troduced Fielding, who entered into an ex-
PLANTATION of favorite plan for solving the
problem. But the reporters reported my
resolutions and speech and said not word
about Parsons and Fielding leaving the
public to understand that we all talked
alike.
The Whole Country Stirred Up.
''To say that Chicago and the whole coun-
try were stirred up when they read the
papers the next morning would be to put it
mildly. There were open threats of lynch
ing and several policemen personally threat
ened me, but 1 held my peace. felt that
we had reached the climax of our desires.
We at last had the ear of the public and
could unfold our real plans. 1t was now
time to begin to reason. But Spies had
gone farther than 1. 1t was here that we
began to drift apart believed the subject
should be kept reasonably warm, but he was
thoroughly welded to the 'red-hot" method.
A few weeks after this 1 went to Kansas
lecturing and then took a run home to
Maine to quiet the fears of my parents, and
especially my mother. who believed that I |
was being led astray by lot of unprincipled
ruffians.
81 was at home on the 4th of May when
the bomb was thrown. The States Attor-
ney opened the trial of the men who were
arraigned for the bomb-throwing by saying
they were no more guilty than thousands of
others, but he said he wanted the jury to
convict them as an example to the rest to
the end that they might all 'be driven into
their holes like rats. By reading to the
jury my black flag resolution and various
extracts from my speeches, and by proving
that Parsons was editor of the Alarm, and
that Fielding had made infammatory re-
marks, coupled with Ling's bomb-making,
he wove all the prisoners together as bomb
makers and instigators against human life.
The Men Selected to Suffer.
"These men suffer because the States At |
torney selected them to suffer- He could |
just as well have selected any one of the |
800 others to take their places in the dock |
There wasn't the least particle of evidence |
that the bomb was thrown as part of anv |
''The Anarchist plot was originated sole |
lv by me, to induce the press to publish and |
the masses to read our case. Furnishing the |
few for the sins of the many is martyrdom,
and the Chicago Anarchists have been and |
three of them still are being martyred for |
the many.
"This is ten years before I wanted to |
speak and publish these facts, but there |
seems no way to get these men out of prison |
until the public knows the real cause of |
their being there
Mr.. Griffin intends to keep at work now |
till he gets these men released. He is in en-
tire earnestness about it, and SAYS he will !
devote the rest of his life to the work. He |
feels himself to blame for the outcome He |
lighted a blaze which he thought he could |
control, but it got away from him and |
others suffered the penalty. |
j. c. EDGERLY.