United labor bulletin., 1910-11-24
THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES
is FILLED WITH DEVILS.
CONTINUED from Page ~


Sam" signed it and it became law.
A few days later we went to Long
Beach where the ordinance was to be
presented. l said to the city council,
you are about to pass an ordinance. By
this you are about to make criminals
These very men to whom the ordinance
applies have paved the street but they
have gone without pavements in their
own vicinity They have woven your
broadcloth, they wear overalls; they
have built your palaces, they live IN
novels; they dug the diamonds that be-
deck the bosoms Of your wives. while
they have no decoration whatever; they
feed you on porterhouse, while they live
on bacon and onions. You men will pass
an ordinance to prevent them from feed
ing their children better, from clothing
their wives better. They are caught in
the great economic vice and held there.
They must fight. Your ordinance will
not give clothing, it will not provide
food, it will not relieve their necessity.
They must fight tomorrow as well as to-
day. Pass your ordinance. Do you think
they will be criminals? No, not one OF
them. You will make martyrs, not Grim
inals. They passed the ordinance unani-
mously in Long Beach.
The next day 60 men were arrested
and thrown into jail. We tried one and
the jury hung; we tried another and
the jury let him loose; then they turned
the whole 60 out and they are picketing
today in Long Beach and being fed by
the money that was sent from San Fran
cisco and other parts of the state. In
Los Angeles the jurors were hard to get.
We have tried for days at a time to get
jury. AS high as lao men have been
examined, and as many as so out OF 76
have said they could not give trades
union man a fair and impartial trial. We
got a Jury and some radical man was
on it and he hung the jury. They have
convicted three men and we have hung
all the other juries.
| l was in San Francisco at a meeting
of the Labor Council when they were
having a strike of the BARRIERS. One OF
the BARRIERS rushed out and attacked
barber who was picketing. When they
got to court the other fellow had more
witnesses than the barber. AS a result
the court could not convict him and dis
missed the case. The barber went on
picketings When he made his complaint
before the Central Labor Council the
( news was carried to the Judge. The
Judge wrote a letter which was read at
the next meeting of the council. That
letter would have created as much ex-
citemen in Los Angeles as flaming
sword in the streets, but they took 1t as
a matter of course in San Francisco.
The Judge said he had always believed
/ in trades unionism, and had always held
that men had right to picket. He cited
| decisions he had rendered. Five hum
dred miles south of there we were weak
| and would have been crushed but for the
| money sent from San Francisco. Those
1 cities are in the same state, under the
| same statute, under the same state deci-
sions, but the judges in the south were
holding that picketing was unlawful per
i Sc peaceable or otherwise, while In the
| north directly the opposite conclusion
was being reached. Why? Because the
trades union movement there Is in power
and the construction put upon the law
is determined by the power behind the
court.
i Since that ordinance was passed the
| energies of the trades unionists in Los
Angeles have been spent fighting the
L courts. Men were arrested everywhere.
They had their blooming old jails so full
they could not go any further, the boys
l could not put up the bail so they turned
them out upon their own recognizance,
and every man without exception, al
though without bail, has gone back on
the day of his trial to stand the test.
These men feel they are right, and there
are 800 strikers in Los Angeles all OF
that material.
They could not convict, they were
failing. the injunction had failed, their
ordinance had failed. About that time
the bankers of the country, representing
billions of dollars they had stolen from
the very muscles Of the working people,
were meeting there to contrive means
by which they might still reap larger
barvests A convention of the mine own
ers was there, representing millions oil
western capital. That night we had ar
ranged for a parade Of 10000 men and
had arranged for great audience OIL
over 10000 people. While these momen-
tous things were pending an explosion
took place one night and the Times
building was burned to the ground. Inc
narade was called off. Within three
hours the Times printed its paper IN its
own subsidiary plant. The hrst paper
charged the labor unions with piowlne
ND the Times building and numbering
the 20-odd men, crime heinous In the
extreme. a crime the merchants anu
manufacturers had subscribed million
dollars to fasten upon the trades union
movement of the coast. A grand Jury
is now in session; they are gathering
the men at the head of the movement
and it is aimed to hang the best men on
the Pacific slope.
am telling you men that you have
fight there, a fight to save the only
movement that stands between the sor-
did. Unsuitable greed Of the capitallst
class and the working class of the Pa
ci6c slope. The attorney employed by