The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-09-05

noon over 10000 men, women and chill
dren took part in the first Labor Day
picnic of the Central Labor Union.
1t was not until 1887 that the state
legislature passed an act making Labor
Day a legal holiday for workingmen.
IN the same year similar laws were
passed in Oregon, New Jersey, New
: Hampshire, Massachusetts and Colo
rado, and the observance of Labor
Day has since become general all over
the country
Clarence barrow,
Not the least important feature of
the Labor Day program in the me-
tropolis will be the address of Clar.
ence s. barrow, the brilliant Chicago
attorney, modern Robin Hood of the
legal profession, who accepts big fees
from corporations and gives his SER
vices free in defense of the downtrod-
den and oppressed.
Among the little band of Socialist
mtellectuals," which includes Jack
London, Joseph Medill Patterson. I'm
ton Sinclair and Robert Hunter Oar
row is easily the most commanding
ilgure. 1t is doubtful if even John
Mitchell, Samuel Gompers or Eugene
DeDs can compare in popularity among
the workingmen with this original
genius.
J.
barrow is now in his fifty-frst wear
and is native of Ohio. ALWAYS
friend of the labor organizations. the
great strike of the American Railway
Union, of which Eugene V. Debs was
the leader, gave him his opportunity.
during those troubled times. barrow
worked day and night to protect what
he considered the rights of the strikers.
With the anthracite coal strike came
another opportunity for displaying his
legal genius in the cause of the foil
ers, and next to Mitchell. barrow was
the most conspicuous figure in the in |
Vestigations of the arbitration board
Then came the alleged "kidnapnine"
OF Meyer, Haywood and Pettibone. |
leaders of the Western Federation of
Miners. All over the land the labor
unionists were reused to a white heat
IN defense of their imprisoned "com.
rades,' and again the call came for
barrow. His brilliant conduct of the
case resulting In the acuuittal of all
the accused men, is matter of recent
history with which all are acquainted.
VI all the influences which operated
to make barrow the peculiar genius
that he is, perhaps none was more
potent than his association with Gov.
ernor Altgeld of Illinois. After Alt
gelds retirement from the governor.
ship he formed legal partnership
with barrow, which continued until
the death of the former. Over the
BODY OF the man who had been cursed
and traduced while living, but wor.
SHIPPED when dead, Darrow delivered an
Grafton that has been justly com. I
pared to the one delivered by Robert
lngersoll over the grave of his brother.
Eccentricity, the usual accountant. {
ment of genius, is not absent in OAR !
row. He is no friend of the tailor the {
barber or the manicurist. His clothes
which are always of the ready-made
variety, appear to have been slept in.
the shoes he wears are sometimes in
the last stage of decrepitude. and his J
hat is far from new. Nor is this af '
fectation. To meet barrow is to {
know that he is real. He is merely /
too busy, too concerned about more i'm t
portant matters, to consider his per- {
sonal appearances. r
On the platform he is a genius Be- il
ginning his discourse in a low mono. d
tone, twirling his eyeglasses in his 2
thin, bony fingers, he soon warns up i
to his subject. Then comes the deluge t
OF words, a flow of perfect, f1awless i
pictures, filled with profound sympathy o
and sharpest sarcasm, at times rising h
from tear-inspiring entreaty to the n
heights of denunciation and moving Il
his hearers by turns to pity and scorn. "
Nor is he particular as to his audi Il
ence. One of his most remarkable ad- il
1resses was delivered before the pris- b
oners in the Chicago Jail, and has be- G
come a revolutionary classic. C,
barrow writes as well as he talks, il
and in his little book, Resist Not F
avil," he has summed up one of the
most remarkable philosophers of life
hat the human mind has ever con.
'elved. An agnostic as to the exist. nj
'nce of God and the Immortality of Of
he soul, Darrow is yet a profound M
BELIEVER in the non-resistance doc GU
rines of Jesus. His philosophy COM OF