New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-08-11
CRIMES IN THE NAME OF LIBERTY.

1.
\ great deal of eloquence is being devoted
just now to the exposition of the rights of
labor. Mr. Bryan is indignant because a fed
eral judge in West Virginia enjoined the right
Of free speech far as that speech was be-
ing used to intimidate men who persisted in
exercising their legal right to work in the coal
mines. Others are equally exercised because
troops are protecting "scabs" in Pennsylvania
and not allowing the strikers the enjoyment of
their inalienable right of cutting off the ears of
persons who work contrary TO their mandate.
All Of these defenders of liberty whose hearts
beat so truly for the common people WILL we
doubt not, read with sympathetic interest the
letter which General Goblin received from a
poor woman at Turkey Run. Penn. 1t is so
striking an Illustration of the sort of human
rights which are being frequently ignored in
this country that print the letter in full.
She wrote:
now take the opportunity of writing you
these few lines to let you know my life stands
in danger and also the life of my husband. We
stand in as much danger as any one can. The
polanders threatens to blow up my house with
dynamite and they are firing shots around my
house every night. am afraid OF my life to
lay down TO sleep. l call on you for life pro-
lection My bedroom windows battered in
with stones and my baby was In bed it 2
o'clock in the night and she was within an inch
of her life of being killed. One of the stones
child is sick. and I nearly being confined.
They doing all sorts of planning and plot
ting in the night time, they are up and down the
street all hours Of the night. Not only that they
hung a black and white Grape on my door when
got up in the morning, seen it there.
Kind sir please give some kind of answer
for I afraid of my life. 1t would be bless
ing if the troops were here for they are needed
here bad. The reason the foreigner polanders
are down on US so much my husband started to
work. he had TO for had no means of liv-
ing. We buried little girl in March and we
had avai mi vet
this strike took place. l was going down to the
clubhouse last night and shot was fred at me
by Polander.
Here was poor man with wife and a sick
child, and another child expected, who had
nothing with which to support them. He went
to work TO keep them from starving, without
the consent of John Mitchell. but in the exer-
else Of a right guaranteed him by the laws of
the United States and of Pennsylvania. The
despots who held sway in that region, not con-
tent with threatening his life, attack his wife
and sick baby. and it is necessary for General
Goblin TO send out a platoon of cavalry and
rescue and lodge in a hospital this woman
whose only offence is that her husband did not
leave her to starye to please a band of rufdans.
Yet this is the sort of thing which we are told
should not be enjoned and dealt with by sum
mary process Lawbreakers should not be
forbidden to skulk about this womans house
and brighten her and her child. They should
be left free 10 persuade" her to starve and
only arrested after their stones have crushed
the chds head or their bullets killed the
mother. II is "miltarism" to call out troops
and prevent free men from abusing this fam
lily. The troops are not needed. John Mitchell
and his advice to his strikers to be law abiding
are quite sufficient to keep the Polanders from
taking pot shots at women and children. The
1f nj ,uuht n no
troops and accept the assurance Of the strikers
that they themselves will preserve order.
The common people" of this country are be-
ing reduced TO slavery and are allowed TO make
a living only at the pleasure of their tyrants.
are they7 Indeed, il looks So But just who are
the tyrants: Subject to whose will are the
most fundamental human rights in Pennsyl-
vana? Who Is committing crime in the name
of liberty?