Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-09-17
CLOTHED in DISGUISE,
Armed with Winchester Rifles, Murders
Unarmed Citizens who had Violated
No Law.
LABORERS SHOT DOWN LIKE DOGS. AND
PLUTOCRACY REVELS IN HUMAN BLOOD.

ever was-anarchists who, under the guise OF
law, are crushing human liberty and making
slaves of men who, it was once thought, were
free The land to-day is filled with murder,
robbery and other awful crimes. They are OF
hourly occurrence, and are the Legitimate har-
vest of the degradation, starvation, hunger and
restitution brought about by the constituencies
greed and heartless tyranny of the grasping mo-
nopolists and trusts who own and control our
government to-day.
We hear a great deal about tie Spanish
"Butcher Weyler" and the Armenian outrages,
while at the same time, in our own country,
men are burned at the stake, and their eyes
punched out with red-hot irons, and the perpe-
traitors of these outrages 20 free!
Law, as administered to-day, is inockery.
1t is SO in Kansas 1t is so throughout the coun-
try. 1t is used to shield plutocratic plunderers
and Cypress the poor.
A railroad corporation can steal whole train
loads of coal, and go scot free, but If poor,
hungry laborer takes loaf Of bread to ward off
starvation, he is sent to Jail as common thief
One of the most startling and cruel exhibit
tons of brutality that has ever occurred in this
country was the shooting down, like dogs, OF
poor, gaunt, defenseless, unarined miners, OH
public highway, near Hazle.an, Pa, on last
Friday There was not shadow of all excuse
for this outrage on humad liberty.
The following Associated Press dispatch tells
the story briefly as set forth in resolutions OF
the friends of the murdered men, and express
sions of the public generally:
"For years we have been oppressed by C.Par-
dee & Co. by the payment of starvation wages.
They have deprived us of our liberty by COM
polling us to deal in their company store They
have forced us to purchase powder at hive times
its actual value, and have otherwise tyrannzed
us in ways too numerous to mention, so that we
are no longer free men, but slaves. We as SEMI
bled together peacefully and to seek redress for
our grievances. Not one man among lis was
armed. Our mission was not to take human
life, nor to destroy property, but to 60 and meet
our fellow employees of the same company at
Latilner who were in sympathy with u.s. We
were opposed on the public highway, and, with
out provocation, were shot down like dogs.
"Resolved, That we deplore such resistance
to the right to assemble and march, that we
look upon such shooting as unprovoked and un-
called LOT, ana tHdl IL SUCH SlduSHtSl 10 AOt
murder in law, it surely must be before high
heaven; that we denounce such action by the
sheriff and his deputies as cruel and wilful and
cowardly murder
eve place ourselves before the bar of public
opinion and appeal to the good citizens of this
state and county and ask them if there was just
iication or warrant in such assassination"
"The third meeting was the most largely at
tended. 1t began at Hazel Park, about five
O'Clock this afternoon, and adjourned to Done
gal Hill, an open place at one end of the city,
where it was in progress tonight
"To-night there fully $500 soldiers camping
in the town. The first to arrive was the Ninth
regiment under Colonel Daugherty, from Wilk-
esbarre Then came the Thirteenth, under
Lieutenant Colonel Mates; the Fourth under
Colonel Casey; the Sixth, from Lebanon; the
Twelfth, from Willamsport Battery B, from
Phonixville; the Governor Troop, from Har-
risburg, and the City Troop of Philadelphia.
"The two latter bodies did not reach here I'M
til tonight.
General Goblin, commander of the Third
brigade, arrived early in the morning and es-
tablished headquarters.
SHOT IN THE BACK.
"Oficial MURDER is the phrase on almost
every tongue, and for substantiation OF the
charge attention is directed to the fact that the
deputies carried Winchester rifles, each man
having IL rounds of ammunition, each revolver
and a box of cartridges, while the striking
marchers were defenseless, having unanimously
surrendered what weapons they may have had
before the march was begun. Moreover. the
fact remains that many of the victims were
shot through the back.
"The fist volley from the deputies unexpect-
ed assault created such conste rnation that the
men stampeded and fed, and it is not questioned
that while they were thus in headlong flight the
deputies poured volley after voley into the ter