The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1911-12-28
WHO IS GUILTY?
Communication

'lOnS anu reCrlmlnatUnS, throw III
rid light upon civilization.
Theft, bribery, perjury, arson and
murder are every day events Prosti.
tuition and drunkenness sucked on
the drugs Of restitution and hunger,
Ill our streets-mfsery and fear of
want overhang the nation with a
cloud Of anguish.
There is war, fierce, cruel and re-
lentless between the owning class and
the suffering multitudes. Uproar and
discomfort driven by a force, with
which we must reckon, shake the ma
ton. We must face the conditions
as they are. We dare not blink the
facts.
Do you see Clarence barrow, vet
eran lawyer, always fighting for the
legal rights of labor, always battling
for the man who works? Do you see
him leaning against the prison walls,
pale, haggard, crushed by the weight
OF evidence the state presents
against these boys, these brothers,
these men of revolt. who, blinded by
a chimera, offered their lives to the
cause Of labor as they saw it? OAR
row knows that the state has the cyl
dence to convict-the power to i'm
prison, to hang.
Do you see sitting in the basement
kitchen, in yonder CITY, the little gray
haired mother of James and john
believing in her boys, protesting in
wild accents against the bitterness
OF the world-suddenly the words,
they have confessed; your boys are
guilty." are carried to her, and her
mother heart breaks.
! Do you see the workingmen and
women of the nation, the people from
whose toll flows all our weath-dumb-
founded at what has happenedo They
| believed in these accused men; they
hoped in some blind way, that their
innocence proved and proclaimed
would tighten their burden of labor
would feed and clothe the children
OF want. Vain, foolish hope Of mis-
| led tgnOrance-the cause of misery
lies deeper.
DO YOU see States ,,to1nev Fred
ericks, keen, alert, determined to con-
Wet these men? He represents law
and order. He speaks for state
that is greatly concerned about prop
erty, and property rights, and but
little for human rights and human
lives.
Do you see Burns. the detective,
and back Of him a vast number of
men framed, like bloodhounds, to
hunt their fellows: Those men, hired
Ey the owning class to protect prop
| er'y, are ever ready to bring TO pris-
or gallows all who infringe upon
the privileges of the rich. Back of
these are the soldiers; hired fed,
housed, clothed and trained to kill
their fellow man by order of their
| masters; and BEYOND again, are the
baiiffs and constables. the sheriffs
and judges, the prisons and the gal
,ows-tangible tokens of social
| chaos.
hi I,1., f1-
from this war of the classes, and that
fact is that both sides are guilty of
every crime in Gods calendar.
An eye for an eye; tooth for !.
tooth: life for life, is the econor,-
ic law of society. individuals are
subject to its sinister influence. and
are overcome Dy its baleful miasna.
All! murder has a wider range than
ynamiting a printing-hOuse. or blow
ing UP an iron shop,
Who killed the men who Derished
in the Cherry mines? Who murders
inc thousands that annually die in
he performance Of their hired tasks
| Oh railroads and mines and Factories?
Who are the Hercds who DESTROY the
children in Our critics, and torture
me mothers with hunger fatigue and
that terrible haunting fear of dread
want, when the mother love can not
find sufficient food for her babies
Who should be called to account
for the shabby novels in which ,ue
poor exist down there in the slums-
and the palatial residences where the
rich indulge in never-ending felsls?
Lift the curtain a little higher. and
one may see some of them revel in
vices Of the belly and lasts of the
casts.
Who is to blame? Who is the Grim
inal? Is it Otis? Is it McNam-
ara? IS it the union labor leaders who
now vociferously abandon the Nc