Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-12-19
MURDER Is MURDER.
Strong Article by Former President
Roosevelt in the Outlook.

Roosevelt IN the Outlook.
Theodore Roosevelt has an edi-
torial article in the current issue Of
The Outlook relating to the McNa-
mara case, entitled Murder is MUIR
der" The article says:
mot only laboring men, but busi-
ness men, capitalists, have at times
shown the worst form Of class con-
sciousness-that Of sinister and brutal
class selfishness in standing by crimi-
mails simply because they were Of their
own class. This has been done by
capitalists in the case Of capitalists
who have been guilty Of brazen cor
ruption, and by laborers in the case
OF labor leaders who have been guilty
Of murderous violence. The two Of
fenses stand on par from the stand
point of damage to the community.
In San Francisco, in one municipal
contest the capitalists who desired to
be free from all check on corruption
and the labor leaders who desired to
be free from all check on lawless vio-
lence struck hands and elected their
ticket; and this proved in the end to
be lasting misfortune to San Fran
cisco, to the cause Of honest business,
and to the cause Of honest labor.
Since the startling outcome of the
Mcnamara trial certain apologists OF
these men have made themselves con-
spicuous by asserting that these de-
praved criminals who have on their
scared souls the murder of so many
innocent persons-all of them labor
ing people, by the way-are victims
or at worst fanatics who should re-
ceive sympathy because they were
acting In what they regarded as a
war on behalf Of their class! The
q IN 10 al ox,l tkc
wickedness. It Is precisely the kind
Of plea sometimes advanced on behalf
Of a crooked man of great wealth
caught bribing a legislature that he
has to do 1t to protect his business.
We are not here dealing with any OF
the kinds Of offenses incidental to
the sudden and sweeping changes
brough about by modern Industrial
conditions into which the capitalists or
labor men are sometimes drawn with
out any great conscious moral turpi-
tude on their part. We are dealing
with crimes as old as the law-giving
from Sinai, with crimes-murder and
theft-that have been prohibited ever.
since the decalogue was formulated.
The murders committed by men like.
the McNamaras, although nominally.
In the interest Of organized labor, diff,
fer not one whit in moral culpability-
from those committed by the Black
Hand or by band Of mere cut-throats:
and are fraught with an infinitely
heavier menace to society. Yet, great
though the menace is to the COM.
munity, the menace to the cause Of
honest organized labor is still greater,
and no duty Is more imperatively laid
on the leaders Of labor than the duty
Of affirmatively freeing themselves
1l (n1l ed ~
responsibility for such criminals and
such crimes. The labor leaders who
by their loud championship Of the
McNamaras-as previously of Meyer
and Haywood-have succeeded in
Identifying them with the cause OF
labor in the eyes Of the public have
rendered an evil service to that cause.
Mr.. Debs and the extremists Of his
type among the so-called political
Socialists say so-called because
Debs and his followers Of the Emma
Goldman kind are not Socialists at
all In any true sense Of the word, but
mere meters to murder and preach
ers Of applied anarchy--and the labor
leaders affiliated with them, have al
ways boasted In the part they played
in the trial Of Meyer and Haywood;
and in this case they repeated their
familiar tactics, and held mass meet
ings, and scattered broadcast papers
and addresses in which they furiously
denounced the effort to bring wrong
doers to justice. and sought to arouse
every evil class instinct against all
who upheld the cause Of law or
sought to put stop to assassination
and murderous violence. 1t Is worth
noting that since Mcnamara con-
fessed his guilt Mr.. Meyer, the head
Of what purports to be labor organ
ization, Is reported In the press as
commenting upon 1t, not by denounc-
ing Mcnamara for having committed
the murder, but by denouncing MIN
for having confessed It! Such denun-
citation Is significant.
Murder Is murder. and the foolish
sentimentalists or sinister wrong-do-
ers who try to apologize for 1t as an
incident of labor warfare IRE not
only morally culpable but are enc
mics Of the American people, and,
above all, are enemies of American
wage workers. In honorable con-
trast to these men stand the various;
labor leaders who have never asked
for more than a fair trial for the
McNamaras, whose purpose has only
been to get justice, and who now
sternly demand that murder shall be
nominal interest Of labor precisely as
under any other circumstances.
believe with all my heart in the
American workingman; believe with
all my heart in organized labor, for
labor must be organized in order
to protect and secure its rights, and
therefore, with all my strength, 1
urge my fellow-citizens, the American
men and women who earn their live
lihood as wage-workers, to see that
their leaders stand for honesty and
obedience to the law, and to set their
faces like flint against any effort to
identify the cause Of organized labor
directly or indirectly. with any move
ment which in any shape or way ben
efits by the commission Of crimes OF
lawless and murderous violence"
- Laurens, December 16: John II.
Price. a young white man, committed