The Daily Texarkanian., 1894-07-11
PRESIDENT DEBs INDICTED.
A Federal Grand Jury Returns a
True Bill Against the
A. r. U. Chief

Slowly, but steadily, calmly and
certainly before the supreme power
of great nation throughout all
that wide stretch of its domain,
where evil disposed persons are TAX
ing advantage of an exceptional in
dustrial condition to incite violence
and bloodshed, the Federal Govern
ment is moving to the accomplish
ment of that for which its powers
were delegated to it by the people
the preservation of order and the
safety of life and property"
Thus run the latest Geographic
specials from Chicago, which only
a few days since resembled a seat of
war, and whose fair dominions were
converted into a scene of riot and
bloodshed. Even there, however,
the government has, in conjunction
with the state and the municipality,
already brought peace out of the
condition of war which prevailed up
to the beginning of the present
week and which threatened to con-
tinue indefinitely, growing worse
with each passing day, until the
once fair city was converted into a
mass of charred and blackened
ruins.
At San Francisco, Sacramento,
Los Angeles and various points in
Colorado and Washington, where
the unruly are playing havoc, the
government has let loose its dogs
of war in token of its intention to
have peace, even if it has to fight
for 1t. In Chicago the militia arm
having accomplished its purpose,
the judicial arm has taken up the
orderly course of its duties which
include the fixing upon the guilty
parties the measure of their crime
and the fitting of the punishment
thereto. The first step in this pro-
cedure was the assembling of the
Federal grand jury.
The charge delivered to the jury
by Judge Grosscup was full and ex-
hausting, covering every phase of
the strike situation as it now exists
The court proved its intention of
getting at the very heart of the
evil, regardless of bubbles or legal
technicalities, by its manner of
forcing the Western Union Tele
graph Co. to produce all private
sent out over its wires by
President Debs as evidence before
the grand jury, to be considered by
that body in the same light as other
evidence adduced.
The court held that public safety
was paramount to private right,
and so ordered that the dispatches
be produced That it is the inten-
ton of the government not to be
too long about the work in hand
was shown from the fact that the
footsteps of the telegraph officials
who brought the dispatches had
scarcely ceased to echo along the
corridors leading to the grand jury
room, when a body filed into Judge
court and announced
that it had found a true bill of in
dictment against some certain per-
son or persons, unknown, and pre-
senting said indictment to the
court.
Pending the arrest of the person
thus put under the ban of the law,
his name remained locked in the
breast of the Lord High Executor
and the public was allowed to draw
its own conclusions from all the
premises and such preliminary data
as it had at hand. That President
Debs was the man no one doubted
and subsequent developments JUS
titled the surmise. Touching the
outlook for the future, outside OF
Chicago, it may be said that normal
conditions had already been restor-
ed or that they were rapidly APP
preaching the state and there seems
no reason at this writing to sup
pose that the progress toward re-
stored peace, quiet resumption
of normal conditions of trade and
traffic, will be again interrupted
-a<~ -------
IA