Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-03
LABOR AND ANARCHY.
A Reply to Mr.. Kennedy and . !
Tease of Altgel0.

Tense Of AItgeld.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
Permit me. through the columns Of your
valuable paper. to make reply to the art
icie headed Labor and Anarchy in last
Saturdays Star. from the pen Of J. L.
Kennedy
Mr.. Kennedy, unlike the logician. does
not verify his villifying characterizations
with reason. 1t is easy to term Gov. Alt
geld an anarchist and the three men par
doned by him as wild beasts" but no.
where In his article does MIR. Kennedy fur
nish conclusive argument to sustain his
charges. The wise man reasons; only the
| ignorant and cowardly blaspheme.
seems to take it for granted that all ofiicers
OF the law are absolutely infallible, not
outstanding the indisputable fact that
they are only human beings. He Is silent
upon the fact that the jury selected to
hear the evidence against the alleged an
eS Ss
every one of the indicted men hung" he
has not one word to say about the indi-
nished the evidence" upon which the al
legged murderers were convicted; he does
not inform the good people Of Washington
tains at the time Of the trial Of the So
called anarchists have since been removed
NOT no., s mention sne fact a sSas
during uq the Trial. never decided one in favor
the fact that a united and prejudiced press
of Chicago was clamoring for the lives of
the condemned men even before they were
Mr. Kennedy says that "mendacious
sympathy has been evoked for the Hay
market murdere en and :. THOUSANDS
to believe that they were not really bad
men," SC.
no false sentiment about it. but the thou
sands Of workingmen and others who have
been close students Of events during the
plorable fact that perjured evidence and
perverted turies have resulted in sending
innocent workingmen to prisons; Work
opinions. as will be seen from the following
quotation from speech Of Mr. David B.
york delivered Sefore e sse Hop rS Groves
Association at Rome. NY. on Saturday,
July %:
opinions Of some Of is judges. strainins
favor Of p corpora a pnw weT ana creating
legal flctions to cripple the efforts Of honest
labor s.ruggling against great odds to as
sert its dignity. than from all the arbitrary
demonstrations that were ever made by
Mr. Kennedy will certainly not include
Senator Hill in his coterie Of anarchists,
yet II the above words were uttered by
reformer in the labor movement he would
II.
"fierce-passioned and reckless man.
In his article Mr.. Kennedy quotes the
alleged utterances OF some of the men who
were executed. The incendiary language
was written by a space-writer on a Chicago
daily paper, and used as evidence at the
trial OF the condemned men. but the papers
in which the articles were alleged to have
appeared. were never produced in court.
although they were in possession Of Capt.
B1nhed and Prosecutor cut Grianen -.,o.s
quoted by Mr.. Kennedy, 1 desire to sub
NIT the following which appeared In the
Alarm in July, 1857. and was written by
Parsons:
STRIKES. strikes. strikes everywhere. The
social revolution is on. The toiler Is bat
what he produces 30 that he can make life
and home worth living for. 1t is a struggle
of the masses against the classes. 1t is
the struggle Of right and justice against
aggregated capital.
THE toilers want q more equal division
Of the wealth and the unemployed given
employment through shorter work day.
They have been listening to the cry Of
poverty long enough.
The wall Of women poisoned by the lep-
ton and shame by poverty and the want
Of bread: hearts breaking in agony. eyes
burning tears: the bleeding bodies of pros
trate innocents; gaunt poverty staring out
through the pinched features Of half-starv
ing in grim despair to their homes of
poverty. All these things the toilers have
made a study Of and are now demanding
The eight-hour day should come: come
without struggle on the part of the work
without violence In the slightest degree.
No police. no patrol wagons. no militia, no
Pinkertons nor Winchesters should be
The leaders in this great movement
are conservative. cool-headed men. and
their councils should be needed, and no
the country that this il an organized. in
teiiigent movement, for II this great army
Of men who are now rising up were not
result would be. Mobs are uncontrollable
but organized ranks are guided by wise
leaders whose commands are obeyed.
Let the eight-hour day come. let the
toilins millions have at least share suf.ic-
iently to live on comfortably Of what they
We want a better. a nobler. a grander
civilization: let US see II a shorter day for
the toilers. with all of them employed. will
Is there an anarchistic sentiment in the
above? If there is am not able to discover
it. The worst that can be said Of the arti-
Gle is that the word picture drawn therein
was true then. and is still too true today.
For months previous to that eventful
Haymarket affair the workingmen of Chi
eight-hour working day. Corporate power
demanded that the movement should cease
were not dubbed into submission by Pink
erton detectives and the police, and es-
pectally In the great stock yards and the
packing house districts Of Chicago.
The Haymarket meeting was held. The
present mayor of Chicago had been to that
meeting, and had gone home. There was
no necessity for police, but, notwithstand-
ing they were ordered to keep away from
the meeting. they went there and began
dispensing the crowd. The bomb was
thrown. But by whom? That remains
mystery unto 3is day.
Mr.. Kennedy characterizes the so-called
anarchists as labor fakirs." Then every
trade unionist who takes an active infer
est In the general labor movement Is
labor fakir'' (Atr. Kennedy, of course ex-
cepted), for Albert Parsons was a printer
Louis Ling, a carpenter, Adolph Fischer
printer; George f. Engle. painter; August
HELP IS WANTED
Ill by the women who