The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-01-12

4
GREGORY BLISS g. 90.
Commander Mills, Duluth, MIMI
u All Grocers. ]
the daily press, but by the magazine
writer's who have been industriously
engaged for the last three or four
years with a,big swab and a pot of tar
in trying to cleanse the moral life OF
America.
Discovery for Grand Jury.
They found out that there was
provision by which men could be call
ed before this grand jury, and by
which they could be sweated. That
means to- say that if you have a dis
trict attorney, Or a. deputy who Is
persistent enough or malevolent enough
to be able to 'browbeat the nineteen
men that you. find in there, who are
usually nineteen weak, oh, very weak
sisters, and CAN brighten these wit
nesses Into perjury, and those wit
neses into contradictions, and terrify
third witness by threatening him
with indictment for false swearing,
that they will be able to scrape up a
case against any man against whom
they have a political or a personal
grievance.
Ladies and gentlemen, now say to
you again, that the use Of the grand
jury for political purposes, even
though 1t be on the face Of it for the
purpose Of cleansing the city, Is a
crime against the blood represented by
that American flag and shed in the
sacred cause of liberty.
Who is Guilty?
But tell us that nobody need
be afraid Of the grand jury unless he
is guilty. They tell us that we who
are lifting up our voices against this
anarchronisnl, are afraid that perhaps
tomorrow we will be hauled up I
don't doubt they would do it If they
dared. And I will admit that they will
not be afraid Of the grand jury unless
we are guilty. We are guilty. Guilty
Of what? What does guilty mean?
What does guilty mean in the mind of
a tyrant? It means that you dare to
call your soul your own. What does
guilty mean in the Star Chamber?
Guilty means that you think different
from man who holds the lash. What
did guilty mean in the old times when
kings took men and women and
stretched them upon the rack and tore
their poor bones asunder, and cast
| them into a grave with a winding
sheet Of quicklime. 1t meant that they
dared to value liberty.
WAS there ever tyrant sent a.
patriot to the scaffold that he did not
| first pronounce him guilty? Where
would your American patriots be,
where would Washington be, where
| would Adams be, where would Charles
Carroll Of Carrolton be, If the English
had had the power to get them before
their grand ssjury?"~ They would be
guilty And So ARE we. What is our
guilt in this town? Simply that we
| won't allow government by newspapers
! to substitute itself for government by
the people.
Newspaper Government.
What is government by the news
papers? Can you imagine anything
any more despicable than newspaper
government? Look at your newspa-
pers of San Francisco today, and tell
me where do they come from? Dig
down into the roots Of their big build
ings, and you will find no Serbonian
bog so black with graft. How dare
they whose hands are still dripping
with blood come before the people and
say, We will rule you How dare they
upon whose unashamed brow is the
scarlet mark Of shame, come before
you and say, We will give you a de-
| ifxy
imagine any city fallen so low that it
would be governed by De Young or
a Spreckels or a Hearst. Whether
there be a government in hell or not
I don't know. But this I know, that
hel's stomach would turn if it were
asked to take the Bulletin for mayor.
you may ask, and I ask now, why
is all this excitement about the Grand
Jury, about the graft in the city gov
eminent? Why was it necessary be-
fore it's term was out, to throw out one
grand jury and to, impanel another
right before election? Why was 1t
necessary for us to tell all the things
that were going to- happen, so that we
imagined that Mount Vesuvius was
transported up to the Technical School
and could hear nothing for days and
days but rumblings and grumblings
and groanings and presentiments OF
woe? And it all came down to twenty
eight dollars and sixteen lone cents
Big Politics in Plot.
Let me tell you that there is nc
small politics in this. Let me tell you
that this Grand Jury, though you may
think it was got together for the pur-
pose Of electing one man or defeating
the other, has quite other purposes
There are Depths calling unto depths
in this present agitation. This Grand
Jury is not got up to prevent Rue1
from giving out jobs, or to prevent
Schmitz from sitting In the mayors
chair. 1t is here for another and 6
more serious purpose. Ladies and
gentlemen, when you stand on one Of
the hills of San Francisco and look
down upon that great district that has
been swept by the fire, it will remind
you of some prehistoric beach upor