The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-11-03


said it would publish communication
bearing on the controversy, ana Will
do SO, but Will not pay attentlon %
letters or those which do
not hold directly to the case.-Ed.
To the Editor of the Newark Star:
Sir-May l have space in your col
umns for the facts about Ferrer as they
are vouched for by America, a New
York weekly?
At 8 o'clock on the morning oil
Wednesday, october Is, in the fortress
of Monjuich, which looks down upon
Barcelona, Francisco Ferrer y Guardia,
known in Spain for the last thirty
years, paid the penalty for his COM
plicity in the murder, arson n pillase
of last July. Complete details. of the
trial now permit us to supplement or
correct he cabled reports, which were
fragmentary, one-sided and misleading.
After twenty years of prominence,
during which he had several brushes
with the police, Ferrer withdrew from
all outward activity in politics and
gave himself up to the establishment
of so-called Lay Schools" heir pros
pectus was such that it is hard to un-
derstand how any government could
tolerate them. The nature of the in
struction impaired may be gathered
from the folio wing: THE flag, d rag
of different colors, stuck at the end of
a stick, is the symbol of tyranny and
misery. Soldiers should use their
weapons to kin those who armed them.
When war is declared, every soldier
should declare a strike. Every evil,
every suffering, every injustice is due
fn that StnniI and h1,,toJ thing ao11ad
native land" In his Valencia school,,
an emblematic picture represented an
archy with a blazing torch, standing
near the uin of a throne amid broken
military weapons, a soldiers cap
pierced by a dagger, a torn copy OF
the laws, and fragments of a cross.
BY thus instilling humane and pa
triotic sentiments into the impression
able minds of boys Ferrer was paving
the way for the full anarchistic pro-
gram found when the fugitive's house
was searched by the authorities. This
program, typewriter out corrected, ac-
cording to the testimony of experts
given at the trial, in Ferrer's own hand,
included the abolition of the bench, the
army and the navy, the seizure of the
banks and the property of public
L az BoSl VI pltStiiL dflu iiiipIlSOIl-
ment for these until they should prove
their innocence or should suffer death.
discriminating correspondence with no.
torious European anarchists and a
cipher-key were discovered at the same
time. Several recent visits to Paris
and London, where he hobnobbed with
well-known revolutionists and anar-
chists, ended so as to leave him in
Ea raalnna chnrtlxy hafora tho apfhraalx
1t is well to zeal in mind that the
rioting began when Catalina was
almost destitute of troops and that a
small force of the regular army suf-
feed for the speedy restoration of order.
Shortly after the arrival of the troops
Ferrer, seeing that the movement was
a failure, dropped out of sight. He
was arrested on a country road by a
squad of the town guard, who halted
him without being aware of his iden-
tity, for he had shaved off his beard.
Carrying a kodak n an umbrella, he
told them that he vas a member of the
Esperanto Congress soon to meet in
Barcelona. But they took him into GUS
tody n his identity was soon estab-
lished. He consistently refused to re-
veal where he had been harbored.
On Saturday morning, October 8, the
military court, consisting of Lieutenant
Colonel Don Eduardo de Aguirre La
Gale and six captains, convened in the
presence of two hundred reporters and
about w hundred and fifty of the gem
eral public, as many as could crowd in
to h main hall of the Barcelona city
prison. The competency of the court
having been duly established and de-
clared, the president summoned Ferrer.
He entered, walking briskly, not hand
cuffed, and seated himself at a table.
hen followed the reading of the sum-
mary of the case, that is, ar account of
the steps taken by the authorities in
imprisoning the accused and in search
ing his house, of the dispositions of wit
nesses n the answers of the accused
to their testimony, n his statements
when confronted by the same witnesses.
During the period of t~wenty-eight days
allowed by the military code for pre-
senting testimony in favor of the ac-
cused, nobody had offered him any help.
A captain of engineers, however, Don
Francisco Galveran, was appointed his