Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-11-17
The True Cause
CONTINUED from page .wc)

ress, as long as there is hope, as long
as the world has virtue, as long as
men love their wives and children and
wish we'll for their neighbors, human
beincs will organize into unions and
the GREAT humanitarian movement of
labor will 90 forward.
No union man blew up the Times.
There is no sane union man who
could not have predicted that the
dynamiting would be. used as an ex-
cuse for a general and indiscriminate
persecution of union men and women.
Union men generally are sorry for the
wreck of the Times, sorry as human
beings for the individuals who suffer
ed: sorry, as union men, that General
Otis has found another weapon with
which to assail them.
The "crirninal" Theory is Full of Thin
Spots.
If the Times was blown up by
man who wished to wreak vengeance
on Otis, why did he act when Otis was
out of the city-which he must have
known-and when Chandler, An
drews and all but minor employees
were out of the building? He could
hardly have designed to inflict a
mere property los upon Otis; he must
have known that the building and its
contents constituted only a small
fraction of Otis fortune.
If the dynamiters pictured by the
Times were so expert and so clever,
why did they make such tremendous
success in one case and such miser-
able failure in four? Why did they
plant one bomb so harmless that
when it exploded it did not injure an
ordinary alarm clock, and why did
thew leave attached to another Sin
fernal machine so palpable a clue as
the manufacturers tag?
What dynamiters with criminal in
tent would be so foolish as to pur-
chase 500 pounds of the explosives at
one time? Why would three of them,
instead of only one, expose themselves
to the scrutiny of the powder sales
men.
The purchasers of the 500 pounds Of
dynamite gave the names of Bryson
and Morris. Bryson and Morris have
been found and, according to the
Times, they correspond to the descrlp-
ton given of the dynamite buyers.
Why wer not Bryson and Morris ar
rested? Were they taken before the
parties who sold the dynamite and
rented the. launch Pastime for identi-
fication? Were they the men who
bought the dynamite to use in blow
ing up stumps? What story have they
to tell?. If the dynamite chase is not
a fake, if it is being carried on in
good faith, why is Their an evident at
tempt to hide these men and suppress
their story?
The description of the man Bryson.
is so distinctive that anyone could
pick him out in a crowd Of thousands.
If the police are really looking for
Bryson, is it not little strange that
they have not found him? And the
real Bryson," according to tie Times
is an actual. double" Of the fake Bry-
son! And yet the real Bryson" has
not come into the limelight. He is
known, but his story is suppressed!1
Note how many legitimate causes
for suspicion crop out as one goes
along.
Why Not Accuse Hiram Johnson,
Francis Heney, or Father Yorke?
That organized labor was his enemy
is the only ground which Otis can set
forth for his awful charge.
If this were sufficient ground for
which it is not, even were
the dynamite theory sound, how about
Otis other enemies? They are legion.
AS Otis has yilifed and misrepresent-
ed ORGANIZED labor, SO he has villfied
and misrepresented countless indiyi-
duaIs. To Otis every reformer is IN
the same class with the unionist, and
he is illuminated as such. Hiram
Johnson, Francis Heney, Pinchot,
John D. Works, Father Peter G.
Yorke, Mayor Alexander, are but a
few of the most prominent Americans
upon whom Otis has poured his walls
of vituperation> within the past few
months. <sss
And there are thousands of lesser
individuals who have grievance
against the Times for unjust attacks
made upon them at one time or an
other. If it were left to a question
of motive, all Of these persons would
stand in the same class with members
of labor unions. In fact, If, any such
wished to blow up the Times, he
would know that the unions would be
the first to be accused by Otis and
that he himself would escape suspi-
cion. Naturally, a person in such a
position would be much more likely
to contemplate crime than one who
knew that suspicion would be pointed
his way.
It is hardly necessary to state that
not for one minute do we believe that
Johnson Heney, Pinchot or any OF the
other victims of Otis capable OF the
crime for which he is so anxious to
impute to union men,
Who Porfits BY the Disaster More
than Harrison Gray otIs7
If the Times theory of motive"
were rigidly and impartially applied
to the situation, let us see in what
position it would place Mr.. Otis HIM
self:
If organized labor were inclined to
charge Otis with Intentionally blow
ing up his own building, it could
mol xo ont a far stronger case on mo