New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-03-23
THE LAWBREAKER LECTURES.

That Debs was an open and defiant law
breaker. that the blood Of innocent men was
shed through his lnstigaton because they
sought to exercise their right as free laborers,
or were honestly engaged in the public duty
of unfolding the law, would scarcely have
seemed to qualify him as an instructor In the
estimation Of the Nineteenth Century Club.
few sentences reported of his remarks suffice
10 indicate the sort Of instruction obtained:
We live under a system that makes the COM
mission of crime necessary to secure employ
ment.
The inhuman system has sunk the whole mass
Of labor to the dead level or INDUSTRIAL ser''-
tude.
It required five hundred years to travel from
the Inquisition TO the Injunction.
There are now twenty-five million persons in
the United States who have secured employ
ment and are receiving wages. Is there
civilized man who does not know that II has
not been necessary for these to commit crime
in order 10 secure employment? Further can
any civilized man pretend that single ono o.
these millions has found It necessary! DeDs
appears to have secured employment as lect-
urer by committing crime but the great army
OK law abiding and honest workers obtained
work and wages In an infinitely more honor
obIe wav. II is difficult to acqut n man Of de-
uberate falsehood who makes such an asser-
ton. unless on the plea that he is lunatlc.
These twenty-five million workers now en-
ployed II is asserted, have been sunk to the
dead level Of industrial eervtude' Not be-
cause they are suffering or starving for the
condition Of the working people here Is better
now than It ever has been before In this or IN
any other country. Not because their wages
are inadequate. for nowhere else can there he
found a vast army whose wages actually aver
age over $500 yearly. 1t Is lunacy or else raise
hood to speak Of that body having been sunk
10 such a condition, for not one year IN the
past history OF this country can be named IN
which the average wages Of labor were hlgher.
What Dcbs means, but did not quite dare 10
saw Is that labor has been reduced to sery1tude
where II cannot demand what wages 1t pieases
from any employer and shoot down any free
workingman who attempts to exercise MS right
by taking the job and doing the work.
That is the kernel Of Dehs's wrath at lnJunc-
lions. They stopped him and his mob OF law
breakers who had by violence and murder de-
privcd workngmcn Of their right to take the
nlace of strikers. No one denies the right OF
any man TO quit work If the wages do not suit
him The instant he quits the place "a open 10
al the world The employer Is absolutely free
TO hire anybody else, and every other worker
has an absolute right If he chooses to take the
Mace at the wages another has refused. Then
Debs comes in with mob and robs the iree
worker OF his freedom by threatening MS Nrc
o. by actual violence There would be nothing
but anarchy in any land where such a crime
against free labor was not stopped by in)unc-
tons backed by troops rs 1T was Mt Chicago
The law held Debs guilty of crime, and ne
now falsely pretends that he was trying TO get
employment. In fact, he was roboing free
worklngmeu, whose right to take employment
he defeated by instigating riot and hIoodshed'
IF the civilization Of NewYork knows these
things why does 1t want the stories OF the
lawbreaker? If 1t does not know them, Is II
civilized?