Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1912-03-07
N - 81 ~ -
tBy J. o. Bentall.)

lH00V0NNNNH0N0N0G
It was on Friday when they did it.
CHASTITY headlines and horrible de-
tails in the hideous Capitalist news.
papers shFieked forth that five men
were being hung. One was 4 negro.
flour were white. as5
Had these four men committed a
crin1e? Had they been brutal? Had
iitheyi wantonly murdered an innocent
farmer? Had they chopped his body
land crushed his bones? Had they
been deaf to his pleadfngs and dead
to his cries for his wife and baby?
Certainly. All that.
ls Can no excuse be offered for their
lIunspeakable inhumanity? Was there
no circumstance that might bear wit
mess in their favor? =
None.
Agreed then that the crime COM
mitted by the four slayers can in no
way be excused, what further can be
said2
Simply this: These young men
and boys. have been brought up in an
environment that made them brutes.
They had seen and heard all that il
vile and vulgar.
Society, organized, civilized, chris
tanned society. had thrust among
them the robber who holds up the
worker at the pay window and loots
his pay envelopes. Who drives the
victim with the lash Of necessity till
his body is bent, his bones broken,
his life crushed out. The robber
then pounces upon the little girl and
the little boy and hurls them into the
mill that grinds them into dollars.
i The robber who has no scruples, no
fears, no conscience. The robber that
is protected by law, by government.
by society. sis+'" --e
This robber, the greatest Of all
robbers, who steals the sweat and
blood of the toilers. who brutalizes
and dehumanizes every soul upon
whom his breath falls was thrust by
society, organized, civilized, chris
TANNED society, among four little
lbabies whose mothers loved them be-
cause Of their sweet, soft bodies,
| their bright, sparkling eyes and their
gentle baby cooings. e'' ~
And this great Robber began to
breathe upon these babies. He
breathed the breath of the dram shop,
| and the breath of the brothel and
the breath of the gambling den, and
the breath Of the corrupt politician,
and the breath of religious hypocrisy,
I and the breath of poisonous ignor-
anee and the breath Of the yellow
press. .l 49,
/ The babies grew and became
| young men. They had breathed the
atmosphere that Society, environ
ment had supplied them with. They
took on the forms Of that Robber
!. that Society had thrust among them.
I'The Robber that organized, civilized,
christianized society had hurled upon
them. The Robber that city govern
ment, that state government, that
Irrational government supports, pro-
tects, encourages. r 81 = - =
So these babies when they became
men became brutalized, dehumanized,
criminalized, just like the big Robber
that robs the toiler at, the pay win
dow and picks his pocket with fin
gers Of the dram shop, the brothel,
| the; gambling den, the yellow press.
Then they killed a man. They killed
a goodS honest farmer. They did it
in brutal way, the same brutal way
THAT the big Rebber kills the man in
the mines, the women in the shops,
the boys in the mills, the girls in the
factory, with the permission and pro
lection, Of the mayor, the governor.
the president S III
Then the State, the protector Of
the big Robber who robs the toiler att
the pay window, took the four men
and hanged them by the neck till
they were dead. Ta 4
One Of them, mere boy, was not
heavy enough to break his neck by
the fall, SO one Of the States serv-
ants put his arm around the dangling
boy and pulled down so as to help
in the process of strangling.
It's a merry stage.
The State first criminalized these
men and then killed them.
That Is the. noble deed of the
State. The State expects, to expiate
its crime by killing It's own product
d;vfsinS,s ~, sF1no- II, d,,sfrfof Movnuonnf /