Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-09-16
JUDGE MEN BY POSITION.
''Was He On My Side?" Way to
Gauge McNamaras.

concerning man ana concerning MS
act, and that is Was he on my
side?"
Thus Clarence Darrow summed up
his opinion of the Mcnamara broth
ers and the deed of which they were
found guilty, in his speech upon In
dustrial Conspiracies, given at the
Helig Theatre, Portland, under the
auspices of the labor organizations OF
that city.
When Will H. DAILY of the Central
Labor Council was in the midst Of
his speech of introduction he was
drowned out and shouted down by
the steadily rising calls for Darrow
and by the increasing thunder of ap-
! plause.
From the moment Darrow rose to
| his feet and began speaking speak
ring in short, epigrammatic sentences
for the most part; speaking in a sort
of bitter irony; a savage contempt
of the existing systems of industry
and of government-his personality
was dominant over the crowd. APP
/ plause, tears, cries of anger and
contempt, he seemed to call forth at
will and quell at will.
He scoffed at the possibility of
setting the world. which he declared
woefully out of joint, Alright through
the ballot
Voting Called Toy of Poor.
Voting is a nice little toy to keep
the people satisfied, but that's all it
has done. Those who own the earl
are quite satisfied to let all men vote
while they still keep their prop
erty."
He declared that it is impossible to
pass a really important law in the
United States on account of the sys-
TEN Of government under which we
are obliged to act. He declared the
government of the United States to
be about the craziest thing that ever
originated in the mind of man."
We've built up a machine here
that destroys everyone who attempts
to do anything with it. Nothing short
of a political revolution as sweeping
as the deluge will ever remedy condi-
tions.
THE American workingman is
bound and can't escape. Voting
can't do it; the courts can't do it
All admit that things must change
but you can't change them by vote
We have tried voting and that's
hard. and we've tried direct action
and have found that hard, too.
Many condemn the McNamaras
many working people condemn them
1t is not for me to condemn one who
believes he must resort to force
From the time man first stood VI
on his hind legs and looked out upor
the world he has been fighting, fight
ing continually for everything he got
Il hate force. | might have coun
seled moderation-but don't let any
one ever think that the force ha
been all on our side. The force o
starvation and cold and want has al
ways been used by those who owl
the earth, to make the workingmaI
do their will. Here and there some
one like the McNamaras and other
reach out blindly and meet force
with force. Call it blind, call i
mistaken, call it what you will, bu
the men who did it never did it 10
their own mean, personal ends, bu
because of the love they had for thei
fellow-men and the desire they hat
for their betterment.
Change Is Predicted.
Some day the world will under
: stand that all of these acts were no
individual acts at all, but were par
of a great evolution. They were so
cial crimes, ground out of grea
machine, as others and yet other
will be ground out. until there come
change for equity and fairness.
"It is not for you to judge. Labo
must stand for it's own men; for it
: own crimes. There is only one thin
, to ask concerning man and his ac
was he on my side?
"No one man is responsible. TIL
. earth, the universe is working out
new order of things. The evolution
, cannot all be peaceful, but the sam
humanity that came onward and up
ward from the brute will be CROWN
- steadily wiser and better, and all vii
: combine in the end to make tn
world fairer and more just than
was before"
y The close of Darrow's speech wa
= followed by three cheers from his az
y herents in the audience before tn
) adjournment. An effort was mad
to inaugurate three cheers also 70
e Tvietmoe, the labor leader of Sa
: Francisco, indicted in connectio
u with the Mcnamara cases, but tn
q response was only scattering.