Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-12-30
pERs AND THE M'NAMARAs.

Eugene VI. Debs, leader Of the so
cialists In this country, has an article
in the last Socialist Review in which
he defends the McNamaras and de-
nounces the labor leaders who de-
serted the two criminals when they
confessed their guilt, declares that
the dynamiting outrages We're "1nstl-
gated by the capitalists themselves,
and hints that the Times disaster Will
not be the last. In contrast to the
attitude of the labor leaders who de-
manded that proper punishment be
melted out to. the McNamaras when
their guilt was found, Debs points to
the noble spirit" of the McNamaras.
or this he says:
As between this blind and cruel ex.
treme and the opposite extreme OF
abject and cowardly surrender, the
former Is Infinitely preferable; for at
least the spirit of resistance to op-
preston, and the poverty and misery
which spring from oppression, keep
the hope alive that the horrors Of
slavery shall not endure forever. But
for that spirit the sun Of labor, If 1t
ever had one, had long since set in
everlasting gloom.
The confessions OF the two Nc
Namaras, which brought one of them
life imprisonment in the penitentiary
and the other a long sentence did not
convince b1r. Debs of their guilt. He
had made up his mind that these were
''capitalistic" crimes and the truth,
evidently, could not shake his opin-
ion. He says:
have not changed my mind about
the theory that the dynamiting of the
Los Angeles Times was instigated by
the capitalists themselves. l am con-
WINGED all those dynamiting crimes
had their inspiration in capitalist
sources and their genesis in capital
list camps. II have many reasons for
this (which time and space will not
now permit me to fully set forth. 4 =
Certain it is that Otis, and his Mer-
chants and Manufacturers association
who had sworn to wipe organized Ia
Dor from tho Pacific coast, had every
thing to gain and nothing to lose by
the blowing sup of the Los Angeles
Times, while organized labor had
everything to lose and nothing to gain
from this and similar outrages.
In another paragraph Debs says the
Times explosion, in which twenty-one
horrible death. was an answer to the
attacks on union labor, and not the
last answer. He says:
The Times explosion was one Of the
echoes OF Obs declaration Of war OF
determination, one of the answers,
sharp and fatal, to his tyrannical pro-
nunciamento against union labor. It
was also an answer, and not the last,
to government by injunction, anti
picketing ordinances and other cap
italist devices to stay the march OF
organized labor and keep the workers
In bondage. It was likewise an an
swer to federal court decisions legal
izing the kidnapping and blacklisting
of workingmen at the command of
their capitalist masters. -, ..
It Is this class Of writing by fan
atics Of the Debs type that prompt
such tragedies as the assassination of
presidents and the blowing up Of in
nocent souls with dynamite. 1t is one
Of the dangerous abuses of free
press and free speech.
Any man who expresses sentiments
as these Of Debs on the heels of
terrorist campaign that cost so many
lives and imperiled so many more
should be ostracised by his fellows.
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