Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-02-19
PUBLIC OPINION

Editor Evening News:
Now that the men higher VI" In
the dynamiting outrage have beer
arrested and their names made pub
lie, it Is perhaps safe for me to
write on this subject without In
curing the displeasure OF "Detec-
tive" Burns and his army of sleuths-
Shortly after the McNamaras
we're sentenced to prison, you pub
lished an editorial in which you said
THAT because organized labor raised
a defense fund for the McNamaras
The unions now find themselves IN
an embarrassing position, that we
have only ourselves to blame,
that the law Is for the rich and poor
alike. These are high sounding
phrases; they may appeal to h un-
thinking, but they won't hold water
and are easily refuted.
When the McNamaras were ar
rested for dynamiting outrages, the
mind of the average union man went
back a few year to the time when
Mover, Haywood and Petttbone OF
the Western Federation OF Miners
we're taken into custody on very
similar charges and removed from
lColorado to Idaho in much the same
manner as the McNamaras We're
taken from Indiana ito California.
The trial of Meyer and Haywood
proved beyond the shadow OF a
| doubt that the whole proceedings
against them was nothing more nor
less than q frame up" between a
detective" agency and q confessed
murderer. Organized labor furn-
Iished the funds to defend the ac-
cused miners and they were ac-
quilted.
When the McNamaras were ar
rested the unions sought TO engage
the same attorney who defended the
western miners to look after the in
~terests of the McNomaras. After
several weeks OF investigation he re-
ported to the American Federation
of Labor that the arrests were an
outrage, that 1t was another frame
up; he accepted the case and broad
ly proclaimed that the brothers would
be acquitted. Organized labor be-
lieved him and began the raising of
a defense fund.
Now what are the facts In the
case7 At the time the American
Federation OF Labor appealed for
funds to depend the McNamaras
| (early in JULY, the attorneys for
the defense had secured a confess
sion from one of the accused men,
and were negotiating with the dis
trict attorney to have their clients
plead guilty; they knew the prison
ers were guilty; they knew that the
case would never be tried; they
knew that the men would confess
their guilt in open court. Yet these
men of the legal profession, who are
supposed to be made of q little bet
ter clay than the working men who
betrayed organized labor. While
secretly arranging with the prosecu-
ltion for a plea of guilty on the part
of the prisoners, they were openly
assuring the union men Of the coun-
try that the charges against the Nc
Namaras were entirely false; they
told us they would Expose a gigan-
tic "frame-upn against organized la
Dor in general, and that the accused
men would be triumphantly ac-
quilted.
You are severe In your arraign~
ment of labor leaders who are en-
ltirely innocent OF wrong intent or
lpuTQOSSt Dut tucfG II no SOndemua-
stion for the leaders of the legal pro-
~fession who have SO openly and
lcruelly betrayed their trust and
! placed labor in 8 false light. Why
Sam Gompers Ia aa high above these
men as the sun that shines in Gods
glorious heavens Is above the filth
that flows In the cutters.
I am willing to conceds that asgen-
leral proposition the law is MEANT for
workingnaen as we'll as anyone else.
but / am not willing to acknowledge
that 1t Is administered that way.
IL the death ship General Slocum
had been owned by the Sailors I'm
ion instead OF the Steamboat Trust,
don't you think someone would have
been punished for the death OF the
! eleven hundred women and children
who lost their lives when that ILL
fated boat burned?
Had the the Irouuois theatre in
lChicago been owned ny the Actors
Union instead OF the Theatre Trust,
do you imagine the investigation
OF the killing OF several hundred
have wound up in a general white
zw -