The record-union., 1894-08-06
SYMPATHY WITH MURDER.


The San Francisco Call of August ID
prints an editorial article, in which its
sympathy for the murderers of Sam
Clark and the four United States troops
at Trestle No. 2 is very thinly disguised
1t suggests for public contemplation the
probability that since the derailmept of
the train would be unpopular would
horrify people-there is at least remote
probability that some one did it in the
interest of the railroad. It says:
One fact stands out in bold relief The de-
railment of Train lost the Union the strike.
Public opinion became in a day as sharp
against the strikers as it had been Tor them.
Here is presentation for a motive on
the part of the railroad company to throw
its own train off the track, kill its own
engineer, and kill the United States
troops who were defending its property.
1t presents as a fact standing out in bold
relief that that species of murder would
lose the strikers the sympathy Of the
public, and it admits by this means that
the sympathy of the public was indis-
pensable to the success of the strike
The strike then was carried on by public
sympathy and could not survive its loss.
The Call continues:
No one viii in innate that the diabolicaI
deed was sanctioned or even Known at the
railroad headquarters, but there may be q
doubt If these high officials are cognizant of
all that is done in their service.
If this means anything its mean
ing is unmistakable-it is that there is a
probability that some one loved the rail-
road well enough to blow up Trestle No.
2 and hurl the train into ditch regard
less of the lives of the engineer, the fire.
man, the soldiers and any possible pas
sengers who might be on board, in order
10 make point against the strikers and
divorce their cause from public sympathy.
While the Call is charitable enough to
declare that no one will intimate that it
was sanctioned or even known by the
General Manager, the General Superin-
fendent, the President. the Yice-Presi-
dent, or the Board of Directors of the
railroad, still it says. in effect, this is not
evidence that the train wrecking was not
done by somebody in the service of the
railroad, because. to use its own language,
''there may be doubt if these high Off
cials are cognizant of all that is done in
their service"
The humane character of these officials,
then, is not evidence that somebody in
the interest of the railroad did not wreck
the train, and that somebody was kind
enough to incur the liability of the gall
lows to serve it and yet conceal from the
high officials his actions. What reward
could possibly come to man by service
to a railroad corporation when that serv-
ice would be concealed from the only peo-
pie who could or would reward him
What self-sacrifcing devotion man
must have who, with murder in his heart.
will plunge a trainload of people off a
high trestle that the railroad may be sue
cessfuf in the strike and conceal forever
his devotion to their cause.
To be capable of derailing train
man must have the blackest heart that
ever beat in the human breast. He is
murderer by hereditary aptitude and in
human instinct. and yet here is a daily
paper claiming responsibility imbecile
enough to suggest for public acceptance
the theory that the man who hired the
carriage and drove to Trestle No. in
open daylight in company with boy not
interested in the cause he was trying to
serve, and was so unconscious of the ne
cessity for concealment that he left dyna-
mite and fuse in the livery carriage he
had used, is not guilty; and in his defense
and as declaration IN his favor the daily
Morning Call, publicly. in the City of
San Francisco. suggests the probability
that some ardent lover of the cause of the
railroad committed that murder without
hope of reward other than the conscious
ness of seeing the right cause triumph.
"A murderer moved by such noble i'm
pulses would be spectacle for gods and
men.
If the editorial under criticism is not
sxplainable on the ground of imbecility
of the CuH editor. its motive must have
been to create diversion in favor of the
srain-wreckers on trial at Woodland. If