New-York tribune., 1907-06-07
HARRY ORCHARD'S STORY.

If any human being could have committed the
crimes that Harry Orchard confessed to In Boise
en Wednesday and yesterday he would have told
about them precisely as Harry Orchard told his
story Cold, dull passOnless and even-voiced
the dispatches agree he was on the witness
stand he told his horrible tale without horror.
and, be it noted, without pride without the
vaunting of the familiar i'll balanced, pgoistic
wretch who boasts of enormous crimes he never
committed. Orchards attitude on the stand was
psychologlcally correct BY his own account he
had made trade Of murder and he retaiIed
assaSsinatlons in that matter Of fact way in
which a man speaks of his trade. There is no
glory in a trade and there is no shame in
a trade, and If a man be Of such Il nature
that he may make murder his trade there is
neither pride nor shame in il. II he had ex-
ulted should think he was lying If he had
recoiled from the telling Of his tale half as
much as the average man recOls from the read
ing Of II should doubt if he were not too
much like the rest of humanity to have gone
about numbering in such wholesale way. But
his brutal lack Of feeling on the witness stand
bespeaks u brutal character that could have
made murder a trade. There IS nothing in the
way it was told that makes the tale inherently
incredible.
Whatever difficulty there is about creditlng
the story lies in the story itself Men shrink
from believing that men would commit such
monstrous crimes. Humanity has not so poor
an opinion OF anything inhabiting the common
form Of mankind as to believe one mans story,
no matter with what versimilitude it is told of
how men were engaged in wholesale, passionIess,
impersonal murder murder for political effect
murder for its moral effect on federation dele
gates, to strengthen the hands of an assassina-
ton something to be pulled off before
the convention, something to show for the
money we had spent. If we are 10 believe
Orchards story, the control of the Western Fed
Grafton at convention time was simplifed if
some occurrence demonstrated activity against
"scabs"; If at the psychological moment some
falthful public officer endeavorng to do his dutv
and enforce law and order was blown to atoms
as an enemy The deadly blast they knew so
wen III the mines was propitious music in the
conventions ears If 1t echoed from some gov
ernors or some judges front door Merely oh
serving that Harry Orchard spoke "in cbarac-
ter, we suspend judgment; we await corroboro-
tlon OF his monstrous narrative
II is 10 De noted, however. that Orchard is ro+
describing Imaginary crimes. The men whom, bo
tells OF killing were killed, aud in the vav ho
oeplcts. They were 'scabs," such as the men
blown up at Independence Station. or mining
superhtendents who employed "scabs" or nuh
lie officials who sought an equal enforcement of
the law. The only person whose death was ,no,,
tloned IN orchards testimony and who did nor
belong to one Of these classes was man named
"ally, killed crossing a lot IN Denver. and he
died, according to Orchard. from the explosion
OF a bomb intended for Judge Gabbert of Col
orado, whose view of the law was not regarded
with favor in Western Federation circles. Thus
the crimes actually took place, and from their
nature it is easy TO see that the federation NAV
have had an interest in them. motive does
not need to be established. All that is needed