The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-03-03
SUSPEND JUDGMENT
HAYWOOD CASE
Trade Uniopists Asked to Not
Be Misled by Erroneous
Newspaper Reports.
Accused Western Labor Men
Are Undoubtedly Victims
of Great Conspiracy.

VI vi Cckt OVASp4A 0Vys
The average trade unionist, after
reading the late dispatches in the daily
press regarding the arrest, etc, of
Messrs Meyer, Haywood and Pettibone,
of the Western Federation Of Miners,
will be disposed to throw up his hands
in despair of these officials Of the West
ern Federation. A moments thought
will suffice however, to. show that a
suspension Of judgment is necessary,
and mature reflection will convince the
most skeptical that in this profound
puzzle picture a slight turning of the
matter into the white light Of truth
will disclose the proverbial nigger in
the woodpile, and in fact he is a black
one indeed.
No more damnable conspiracy of
concentrated wealth was ever Matched
than the last three years of desper-
ate determination on the part of mil
lionaire capitalists exploiters Of Colo
-ado to break up the Western FEEDER
alton Of Miners, and for what motive? ?
The answer is profit" William Hay
wood, the secretarytreasurer of the
Western Federation has>met them step
by step, and with all odds in their favor,
he has checkmated their every move.
They revi1e, they despise, they hate him
and yet they fear him. There is no step
no resort. too devilish or criminal they
would not take to get rid of him for
ever, and this, their latest move, is
| merely part of preconceived plan to
that end
Let us reason together. brother trade
unionist. You are a rational being
living under the aegis of flag of free
| dom. You give yourself credit for suf-
| fcient common sense to keep you from
committing a crime, the sure conse-
quence of which you know. Then dc
you think that Meyer or Haywood, men
who at the bitterest have never been
accused Of being imbeciles. would be
so bereft of the commonest of sense as
to mix in any wholesale plot Of assass-
! ination when they know, as you know
that murder will surely out, and the
| wages Of murder is death.
/ = a mine owner ais:a peculiar party
| Tho earth and u tho fuilness thereon he
sl ti1sl
sli tIon
stakes The history sof MI niHing n thia
fair country Is the history OF emerciless
extortion and zexploitation:; The truck
store, the short ton. the gambling hell
nSv,1
owner, or through his aid and abet-
tance were and are the means used to
get back all the miserable pittance Civ
en- the miner for his labor These are
facts undisputed and cannot be truth
| fully contradicted. When the mines OF
Cripple Creek were manned by mem
! bers of the Western Federation, that
federation through it's offcers-Moyer
and Haywood-initiated some acts of
such good, wholesome, moral and eco
n omic sense, as to make them ipso facto
| the enemy to the king-the mineowner
They taught by word and deed that
it were better for the miner to take his
| bi-weekly check home to wife and
children than to have it cashed by some
ton Of it on the faro table, which was
sure thing adjunct of every saloon in
thA>district The federation started and
continued successfully five co-opera-
tive stores with a. capital of $4,000.
They built labor temple. They vot-
ed their interests at the ballot box.
They insisted on the label on every
thing they bought. They were be-
coming powerful financially. decent
and well dressed. They were becom-
ing independent and prosperous. This
was their crime.
The mine owner felt corresponding g.
ly depressed. Financially interested
in the saloon, the brothel, the gambling
hell and the truck store, he saw his
profits go glimmering into the dream
of things that were. The. federation,
led by Meyer and Haywood, must be
exterminated, and people brought in
who could be exploited To think was
to act and the unparalleled spectacle
of this political panorama of capital
ism, determined and vicious, has kept
the world agape for the last three
years to the changing motion pictures
of high crime and misdemeanor, with
the hand Of that illegitimate political
puppet, "Governor' Mcdonald, turn
ing the film cranks.
Has it not seemed peculiar that it
was necessary to virtually kidnap
Meyer and Haywood in the night
that the governor should sign the re-
QUESTION papers and then silently de-
camp, that the train should steal along
in the night, stopping at by-way sta
tions to coal and water? = Is it the
American way to make an arrest
Does it appeal to your sense Of fair
play? Does It look like a square deal?
Or does 1t look like job, a. dirty
miserable, unfair, un-American, sneak
ing trick.
The man who assassinated steunen-
berg of Idaho was coward and de-
serves the extreme penalty for his das-
tardly deed; but we have nolmore right
to associate Meyer and Haywood with
the crime upon the evidence SO far
presented, than. we have to indict Car
dinal Gibbons for the Murder of Will
liam Mckinley because Czolgosh was at
one time Catholic. Let us suspend
Judgment and not be misled by biased