The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-04
MURDER ISMURDER
This Is the Title of a Signed
Magazine Article
Written by Former President
Theodore Roosevelt.
DYNAMITE OUTRAGE
And Arrest of the McNamaras
Are Discussed.
Criticises Organized Labor for
Its Present Position.

New York, May 4.-Ex-President
Roosevelt will have a signed article en-
titled Murder is Murder in the Out
look this week dealing with the dyna-
miting of the Los Angeles Times and
the arrests recently made by objective
Burns. Mr.. Roosevelt says:
There is one feature of the develop
ments as regards the arrest of certain
alleged labor men in connection with
the dynamite outrage perpetrated
against the Los Angeles Times to
which especial attention should be call
ed. If the explosion was not an ac-
cident, but the deliberate act of any
man or men, it was an outrage of das-
tardly iniquity. for it was one of those
crimes in which the murderer in order
to crafty lis spite against an individ
ual not merely wrecked that individ-
uafS property but with callous indiffer
ence took the lives of scores of innocent
people as an incident to the achieve
ment of his sinister and criminal pur
pose. The men responsible for dyna
hitting the Los Angeles Times build
wreck of the newspaper Office but for
the loss of many lives.
'"The arrest was made in consequence
of testimony secured by Mr.. Burns, who
has been Mr.. Heney's right hand man
in bringing to justice grafters who vio-
lated the law of the United States in
Oregon and grafters who violated the
laws of California in San Francisco.
He has proceeded with impartial Sc
verify against the most influential poll
ticians and the richest business men.
1t happens that the men whom he has
now arrested are members of a labor
organizations; just as men whom he
formerly arrested were members of the
| Republican or Democratic parties or OF
| great and wealthy corporations.
"It would have been wicked thing
| in the former cases with which Mr..
| Burns had to do for leading Republi-
| cans or Democrats to combine to break
| him down and support the accused
merely because the accused belonged t.
| their political parties, and it woulc
| have been a wicked thing for big capi-
| taIists and big business men to max;
common cause with the capitalists.
Parallel Cases.
Wherever any politician cf either
party or any capitalist did actually
take this position, whether in the case
| of the men prosecuted by Mr.. Burns
or in any other case, the Outlook un-
| hesitatingly and severely denounced
them. In exactly the same spirit
state the convictions of the Outlook in
expressing it's hearty reprobation OF
the conduct of those labor leaders who
without waiting to know anything OF
the fact of the case, have at once
flown publicly to the defense of the
has now arrested, and who talk about
the arrest as being part of a conspiracy
against labor unions.
mo worse service can be rendered
by la Dor union leaders to the cause OF
unionism than that which they render
| when they seek to identify the cause
of unionism with the cause of any mar
guilty of a murderous attack of this
nature. 1 have no idea whether the
men arrested on Mr.. BurnSs state
ments are or are not guilty; the labor
| leaders in question have no idea
whether or not they are.
"They are entitled to an absolutely
fair trial. If they have no money tc
provide counsel for themselves, then il
would be entirely proper for any body
of men to furnish them the requisite
funds simply as an incident in secur-
ing them fair trial. But it is grossly
improper to try to create a public
opinion in favor of the arrested mer
simply because the crime OF which
| they are accused is committed against
! a capitalist or a corporation and be-